“Because you had assured me you would let me know where to meet you. Then, when a letter was delivered by my distraught servant, Stuart, I opened the missive and read that you wanted to meet me in an abandoned cottage.Yousigned your name.”
He shook his head. “But that cannot be right.”
She wiped away another stray tear. “When Lord Kentwood arrived in your place, he told me that you believed I wanted to trap you into marriage, which was the reason you sent him to the cottage instead of coming yourself.”
“What?” Collin’s voice lifted as he threaded his fingers through the hair not covered by the bandage. “My cousin told youthat?”
She trembled, but for different reasons this time. As she studied Collin’s shocked impression, dread tightened her chest. Had she been wrong this whole time?Impossible!
“Yes. I—I can’t remember everything your cousin said, but he let me know that you would not let me trap you into marriage. He said you had seen through my performance and were disgusted with me.”
His chest rose and fell quickly, and his nostrils flared. His mouth stretched into a straight line. If she didn’t know better, she would think Collin wanted to kill someone right now. Sadly, his cousin was already dead.
“Cassandra?Wereyou trying to trap me into marriage back then?”
Her throat constricted as the tears poured from her eyes again. “Y-yes.” She lowered her gaze to her lap. “I was falling in love with you, and I thought you felt the same.” She swallowed hard, wishing the knot in her throat would disappear. “While at the masked ball, Father told me to find a titled lord and do everything possible to make him ask for my hand.” She looked at him again. “I didn’t want any man. I wanted you, but I feared you would not want to marry me, so yes, I planned on trapping you at the cottage.” Her vision blurred. “I told my sister to inform my father where I would meet you so that he could catch us together in a compromising situation. I…knew you would be upset, but I hoped that you would eventually forgive me, and that we would be the happily married couple we had discussed that night at my home.”
Inhaling shakily, she wished the pain in her chest wouldn’t make it so hard to breathe. She stared at the carpet, ashamed of what she had done. “But I suppose the joke was on me, because Lord Kentwood was there instead. And…my father caught us and forced him to marry me.”
Several unsettling minutes passed as silence filled the room. When Collin’s heavy breathing broke the stillness between them, she hesitantly looked up at him. Disappointment was written over his face now. His jaw was clenched, and his lips werethinned. He knelt in front of her, locking his gaze with hers again.
“Tell me, please. Why have you blamed me all this time?”
Her heart twisted in agony. “Because your cousin told me that you had sent him to the cottage to stop me. Lloyd told me that you never wanted to see me again, even though your note—or what I thought was your note—proved otherwise. I blamed you because I thought you should have told me yourself that you didn’t want to spend time with me. You should have told me that you didn’t care for me.” She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “That’s why I was so upset. I blamed you for my miserable marriage, and yet…” She swallowed hard. “I now realize that it was all my fault for trying to trap you. I shouldn’t have done it, and I apologize. But I was afraid you would leave, and I would never get to see you again.”
Gradually, his face relaxed. “I’m being completely honest with you, Cassandra. I didn’t write that note. When my cousin told me that he would soon be marrying the baron’s daughter, it was as though my whole life crumbled before me. Kentwood tried to tell me that you were the one who lured him to the cottage, but it took me a few weeks to realize that you wouldn’t have done that. I knew you were falling in love with me.” He shrugged. “And I liked that you felt the same way as I did.”
She sniffed back another sob, but her head throbbed with guilt. How could she have jumped to conclusions? Yet she had believed Lloyd. She hadn’t known him well enough to think he would lie to her, especially since his cousin was involved with the ordeal.
She rubbed her forehead. All this time she had blamed Collin when it wasn’t even his fault. And she had embarrassed him at his brother’s wedding.
Humiliation washed over her in buckets. She would never be able to repair the damage that had been made fromhermisguided mistakes.
“Cassandra,” Collin said, stroking her cheek. “I want—”
“No,” she said, and jumped to her feet. She didn’t deserve his kindness. She didn’t deserve the tender way he touched her. She was an awful person, and that would never change. “I can’t be here like this.” Her voice broke as she rushed out of the room and down the corridor toward the stairs.
Her jumbled thoughts wouldn’t rest. She needed to figure a way out of this mess. But for now, this estate was no longer her home. It was the new Lord Kentwood’s. She couldn’t stay here any longer, which meant… She must return home to live with her family.
At the moment, that was the only choice she had.
Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, my lady.I fear you are making a hasty decision.” Dora fidgeted and wrung her hands. “You belong here.That mandoesn’t deserve to be in your company. He should be the one to leave.”
Cassandra had been crying for several hours, and it was time to stop. She couldn’t do this any longer. Being away from Collin was how she would heal her shattered heart.
“It might be hasty, but I cannot stay in the manor with him. We have shared too many memories, and I want to forget.”
She stared at the gowns she had previously thrown in her trunk. Breathing slower, she tried to temper the panic rising within her. She had just sent her mother some money, but now that she would be moving back into the family home, she needed more. Of course, in order to get the money she hid around the manor, she would have to leave her room, and doing that meant she would see Collin again.
“My lady.” Dora knelt by the trunk and folded the gowns correctly to prepare for packing. “I fear you are not thinking correctly. Nobody at the estate wants Lord Kentwood here, so we must formulate a plan to get him to leave. We would rather work under you than that horrible man.”
Cassandra found herself staring, so blinked and became aware of her surroundings again, and especially the conversation. “I appreciate your help, Dora. Lord knows you arethe only servant, besides Stuart, who cares about me. But you forget that this is Lord Kentwood’s property now. Not mine.”
“Why would he want this small estate when he has so many others that are larger?”
A chuckle bubbled up in Cassandra’s throat. “Believe me, I have thought that very thing as well, but it doesn’t matter. He can do whatever he wishes, and it appears his wish is to stay here.”
