“You weren’t even tempted?” Julian asked with a chuckle.
Cass sobered. “If you could see him and Lucy together, you’d know in an instant they were destined for each other. Jane and I knew right away.”
Julian nodded. “I don’t doubt it. How is Her Grace doing these days?”
Cass lifted her chin. “I don’t know. I’m not speaking to Lucy.”
Another raised brow. “You’re not speaking to your closest friend?”
She glanced away. “She… she gave me some very bad advice.”
“Lucy was the one who said you were Patience.” His voice was solemn.
“Yes.”
“But you could have easily corrected her that day.”
“I know.”
“But still, you blame her?”
They came upon the small lake then. Julian stopped, dismounted, and tied his horse to a nearby tree. He made his way over to Cass’s horse and put his hands on Cass’s waist to help her down. The feel of his hands on her made her insides tingle.
He lifted her easily. Once she had a sure footing on the leaf-strewn ground, he let go of her waist. She glanced away. He cleared his throat. They walked together slowly down to the water’s edge.
Cass shook herself. What had they been speaking about before he touched her? Oh, yes. Lucy. “You have to know Lucy. This isn’t the first time she’s got me into trouble. Be bold, she always says. Look where being bold has got me.”
He cracked a smile. “On an outing with a useless second son.”
Cass stopped and looked up into his eyes. “Julian, please tell me you don’t really believe that, that you’re useless.”
He bent down and scooped up a stone. He drew back his arm and skipped the pebble over the water. “But I do.”
Cass pressed a hand to her throat. It ached. “You never told me that.”
He skipped another stone, still staring out ahead across the water. “I suppose it’s not something you write in a letter, even to a friend.”
She searched his profile. “What isn’t?”
His gaze searched the horizon. “That one day, when you were fourteen, your father told you that you were unnecessary.”
Cass sucked in her breath. “He did not!”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Cass touched his arm. He didn’t look at her. “It matters. Very much. To me,” she said. “Please tell me he didn’t say that.”
Julian hefted another stone in his hand. “He used that exact word actually,unnecessary. By the time I was fourteen, Donald had already come of age. He’d survived childhood. He was ready to take over one day. I was no longer needed.”
Cass pressed a hand against her thumping heart. “What sort of a monster would say that to a young boy?”
Julian turned to face her. “What sort of a monster would tell a young girl that she is only as good as the man who will marry her?”
“Mother said something like that to me once,” she murmured. “Specifically, she said, ‘It doesn’t matter what a man feels about you, Cassandra, it only matters whether he will marry you.’ And I set about becoming the perfect future wife, all in an effort to win my parents’ approval and love.” She sighed. “But my parents don’t love me. Not really. I’m nothing more than a prize possession to them.”
Julian’s voice was soft. “I know. You told me in one of your letters. I’m sorry, Cassie.”
“I told you?” She searched the ground for a stone, desperately thinking of a way to turn the subject from herself.
