“I’mLadyKentwood to you!”
Collin grasped her arm, but she yanked it away and stepped back.
“I think,” he said calmly, “that we should take this conversation somewhere that is more private instead of airing our grievances in public.”
“Private?” she shrieked. “So that you can ruin my reputation even more?”
He gave her a stern look. “Lady Kentwood, I really must insist—”
“You can insist all you like, for the good it will do. But I will never willingly go into a private room with you ever again.”
Malice darkened Collin’s eyes. She never thought she would witness such anger in his expression, but it was worth every second. Victory was within reach. Revenge was such sweet medicine for her soul.
“Lady Kentwood,” he grumbled for her ears only, “you are making a spectacle of yourself. If I didn’t know you better, I would think that you have been drinking from your late husband’s liquor cabinet.”
She gave him an evil grin and shook her head. “No,” she said softly, “I have never touched the stuff, and I never will. This outrage you see is all me. It has been inside me since I was forced to marry Lord Talbot.”
Silence stretched between her and Collin, but moments later, two men joined them. One of the men resembled Collin, but his hair was a dark brown. Each man stood on opposite sides of her and firmly grasped an elbow. This was her cue to leave, which she would, since her work here was completed.
“I do not know who you are,” the man who looked like Collin said in a gruff voice, “but you were not invited to my wedding, and so my cousin and I are going to escort you back to your coach.”
Cassandra looked back at Collin, showing him through her glare just how much she loathed him. She didn’t take her eyes off him even as the two men led her away from the wedding guests.
Finally, when they reached her coach, she pulled away from them. She rested her attention on the bridegroom. “I beg your forgiveness for ruining your party, but it was your brother whom I wanted to embarrass, not you.”
The man lifted his chin. “Lady Kentwood, I thinkyouare the one who has been embarrassed the most here today.”
She shook her head, trying to keep her heart from breaking all over again. It was over now, so why didn’t she feel satisfied? “No, I set out to humiliate the new Marquess of Kentwood. Now that I have had the last laugh, I will leave and never return.”
With unshed tears stinging her eyes, she turned and climbed into her coach. When she sat on the seat, she sighed with relief as her body trembled. She had waited for a whole year to get that off her chest.
Why, then, did she feel like her world was crumbling around her all over again?
Chapter Two
Collin’s body andmind felt like they had shut down, and all he could do was stare in the direction his brother and cousin had taken Cassandra. Although he tried to absorb all she had said, the words were jumbled in his head and made no sense. Of course, her making an appearance after all this time was a shock in itself. The last time he laid eyes on Cass was at a country dance in Bath. She had looked so lovely that night.
He had found himself staring at her intoxicating beauty quite often during the evening, wanting to lose himself in her amazing blue eyes. He had listened for her musical laugh, and his heart skipped a beat during those precious moments.
When she had agreed to dance with him those few times, he felt like a king in her presence, since he was with the loveliest woman he had ever seen. And when she chatted with him afterward, his desire for the enchanting woman grew. Somehow, in one evening, she had crawled into his heart and mind.
During their stroll outside in the night’s shadows, he couldn’t contain himself and just had to kiss her. Although he knew she was innocent, she had responded the way he’d hoped, which made his heart melt.
But what had happened to the sweet, innocent woman he once knew? It was obvious the last year had been unkind to her. There was so much anger in her expression that it made the sparkle disappear entirely from her pretty blue eyes.
When she was shouting at him only a few minutes ago, his first response had been to take away her pain. However, when she had turned vengeful, that was when he realized something wasn’t right. Half of the accusations she threw at him were untrue. And yet she made such a commotion, she must believe they had happened. Cass wasn’t the kind of woman to have such harsh feelings just because she wanted to hurt someone. There must be some underlying reason to her apparent madness.
His heart had broken a little when she told him about Lord Talbot’s death, but Collin’s sympathy ended in the face of her tirade. The more her words echoed in his head, the greater his anger became. He couldn’t let her get away this time. Not without explaining a few things. Why did she blame him for ruining her life? Everything that happened in Bath had been her decision.
Without thinking about his actions, he broke into a run, moving in the direction his brother and cousin, Trey Worthington, had escorted her to her coach. As Collin rounded the bend, the vehicle was heading away from the manor. His brother and cousin stared at him with confused expressions. Trey appeared sorrowful, whereas Adrian looked downright angry by the disruption of his wedding.
“Collin,” Adrian began, touching Collin’s shoulder, “I’m truly sorry about—”
“I need to go after her,” Collin snapped as he hurried toward a nearby horse.
“Have you gone insane?” Adrian’s voice lifted as he chased after Collin. “She completely humiliated you in front of everyone. And you want to go after her?”
“You don’t understand.” Collin unhooked the reins from the post and effortlessly mounted. He pierced his younger brother with a scowl. “You don’t know what happened between us. And I need to make things right.”
