“This morning. He’s still alive Lucy. He’s alive.” A shadow fell over her face. “At least for now.”
Lucy leaned forward to look at the letter. “What did he say?”
Cass’s voice was so soft Lucy could barely hear it. “He said good-bye to me.”
Lucy bit the back of her hand, tears welling in her eyes and running down her cheeks. “No, Cass.”
Cass swallowed hard. Lucy could tell she was fighting a losing battle to keep from sobbing. “But that wasn’t all,” she added.
Lucy grasped her friend’s hand. “What else?”
“He told me,” she swallowed, “he told me to marry Derek.”
Lucy’s heart clenched. She squeezed her eyes closed. “He… he did?”
Cass nodded. “Yes. He says Derek will be good to me and he’s a fine man. He said I could do no better.
“He asked me to promise him that I’ll marry Derek.”
Lucy pressed her hand to her belly to still the roiling there. She was going to vomit. She was certain of it. She took a deep breath. “What about the letter you wrote to him? Did Julian mention it?”
Cass glanced down and scraped at the coverlet with her fingernail. “No.”
Lucy furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand. He just ignored it?”
The tears started down Cass’s cheeks then. “Does it matter? He’s dying and he says he’s asked Derek to take care of me. Oh, Lucy, I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do.”
Lucy couldn’t breathe. She braced her hands against her knees and concentrated on moving air in and out of her lungs. “Julian is right. Derek will take excellent care of you. You must marry him.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
This time Lucy didn’t take a footman with her. It was wrong and she could ruin her reputation if she was found out but she didn’t care. She pulled on her bonnet and her gloves, but it was too warm for a pelisse. She nearly raced through the streets to Derek’s house. When she got there she stood waiting, holding her breath, all the interminable minutes it took for the butler to open the door. Haughty she called him secretly in her head. His actual name was Hughes.
Haughty Hughes escorted her into the blue drawing room and informed her that His Grace would join her momentarily. He’d already raised a brow when he’d realized she was alone but Lucy was beyond caring.
She paced the room, replaying over and over again in her mind exactly what she would say when Derek entered the room.
She did not have long to wait.
The door opened and Derek strolled in, looking as handsome as ever. He made her knees weak.
The moment he saw her, he frowned. “Lucy? What’s wrong?” Could he tell? Could he guess by the way she trembled a bit and her shoulders shook? She had to get this over with quickly.
She turned, standing with her back to him, tears filling her eyes. Tears she didn’t want him to see. “I’ve come to…”
She heard him step closer.
She squared her shoulders, forcing the words from her lips. “Cass received a letter from Julian this morning.”
“Julian? He’s still alive.” Derek expelled his breath. His voice was heavy with relief. “Any word on his condition?”
Lucy took another deep breath. The deep breaths were helping—or so she told herself. “I don’t think he’s improved. But that’s not what the letter was about.”
Derek stood to her right. She saw him from the corner of her eye. She smelled his wonderfully familiar scent, a mixture of soap and spice.
“What did it say?” he asked.
She swallowed and braced her hand against the mantelpiece in front of her. “Julian said good-bye to Cass in the letter. He said good-bye and he told Cass to marry you. He said you’d take care of her.”
