Willow smiled, passing a pair of leather gloves to Perry. “What? Because I am married, I am free to go? But also, thereasonI go is because I am married? Yes, perhaps. But if it is irony, I embrace it. I love the freedom, and I love—”
She stopped herself and made a little cough, turning back to gloves.
“What?” asked Tessa. “What else do you love?”
Willow considered this, surprised at what she’d nearly said. Eventually, she said, “I love being part of a family, even a family I’ve not formally met. The letters Cassin’s mother has written me have moved me to tears. And his sisters send pages of questions about my life in London and the work I’m doing in Belgravia. I am not accustomed to the attention from anyone beyond the two of you. I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it.”
“You mean youlove it,” corrected Tessa, watching her closely. “You said you love—”
“I love the idea that I might be able to help them,” Willow cut in. “How’s that?”
“Silly me,” sighed Tessa, “I thought you meant to say that you loved your husband.”
Willow refused to answer this, but she did roll the notion around in her head. It was useless to deny that she had begun to fall in love with Cassin. It came slowly, letter by letter; memory by memory. It came like the shadow of an approaching man on a sunny day. Step, by step, by step.
“And what do I know of love?” she heard herself ask. “Even if I fancy myself in love with Cassin, I might have misdiagnosed it. Or misconstrued it.”
Tessa laughed. “Good lord, Willow, it’s not a rash—it’s a rush of feeling.”
“Yes, and what if I believe it is love, but in reality, it is little more than my first taste of male attention?”
“You know what I believe?” said Sabine, stepping into the room. “I believe you allowed Cassin to be the first because you knew.” She raised an eyebrow. “You knew he was correct from the start.”
Tessa made a low whistling noise. Willow shook her head. “Love at first sight?” she said. “From you, of all people?”
“Obviously, he suited you,” said Sabine with a shrug. “Even I could see this. Do you believe for a second you would have married him if you did not see some potential?”
“Yes, of course I would have,” Willow said weakly. “That was the whole of the plan. ‘Any groom will do.’ ”
Sabine crossed her arms over her chest. “Believe that if it pleases you, but I know you, and I know that you would have never gone through with marriage to a man less perfect than Cassin. Less perfect for you, that is.”
“Because I loved him?” Willow laughed, pretending the notion was ridiculous.
“Because youcouldlove him,” her friend said.
“And now . . . ” Tessa added, gesturing to the elaborately staged trunk, “now, you do.”
***
By some miracle, Cassin managed to catch a steamboat bound for England just two days after he received Willow’s urgent letter. He had been in Bridgeport for their two-day supply run, and he departed Barbadoes without bothering to return to the island mine.
Neither did he take time to write Willow or his mother to inform them that he was on his way. The steamship would have him to England a week and a half before the mail packet would arrive. And besides, it was to his advantage to take his avaricious uncle by surprise.
Stoker, Joseph, and Cassin had been speculating for weeks about the best time for one of them to return to London. They needed to follow up with the buyers Joseph had managed to procure before he left England. Strictly speaking, account sales fell into Joseph Chance’s purview in their partnership, but Joseph had yet to establish more than an uncertain peace with his new wife in Belgravia. He changed his mind daily about the best timing for a return trip. When Willow’s letter arrived, Cassin made the decision for them all by boarding the London-bound steamboat and not looking back.
For four weeks, he paced the deck of the steamer as it pushed across the Atlantic, worrying about Caldera and dreaming about Willow.
If his suspicions were correct, his uncle had ignored his denial for more mining on Caldera land and gone ahead with the unsanctioned idea of excavating a new mine. Not alone perhaps, but if he involved numerous investors, a new mine would be more complicated to shut down, not to mention financed by money pooled among many men.
However, multiple investors meant the creation of a joint-stock company, and joint-stock companies, thank God, could be formed by only one means, a bloody act of Parliament.
If this had been Archibald’s plan, Cassin’s physical presence in London and official calls on members of Parliament should be enough to put an end to it.
After that, the situation would want only an explanation to Caldera tenants. He could only guess the promises his uncle had made them. Cassin could do little more than beg their patience and promise them a better, safer life.
When he wasn’t thinking about his physical presence in London and a better life, Cassin thought about his physical presence before his wife.
His wife.
