Seducing the Ruthless Rogue (31 page)

“Are you certain you’re all right?”
 
Mack attempted to touch her arm.

“I’m fine,” she retorted, jerking free.

“Wonderful,” he growled before crossing the room and unlocking the door.
 
On the other side stood a very put out Mikala and a fuming Gabe.

“What was going on in here?” Hawkescliffe’s rich baritone filtered into the room.

“We were just talking,” Cassie said.
 

“You look pale,” Mikala stated.

“I’m fine,” Cassie waved her off.

“The both of you are needed in the ballroom.
 
Your father has an announcement to make.
 
I knew when Prinny put in an appearance it was a bad omen,” Mikala ranted to no one and everyone.
 
“Well, come on,” she beckoned Cassie from the other side of the room.
 
“There’s no reason to put off the inevitable.”

“I want to speak to my father.
 
Privately.”

“There’s no need.
 
He’s not going to change his mind,” Mack said.
 
“Besides, Prinny won’t let either of us out of this.”

“I don’t care what His Highness will and will not do.
 
I am not leaving this room until I speak to my father.”

***

“I’ll go get him,” Mikala offered and scurried away.
 
In minutes she was back with Sir Graham.

“What’s all this about?” he blustered.

“
Privately
,” she said and pointed at the door for Mack to leave the room.

“This is the last time you get to order me about, ken?”

Instead of replying, she stared at him, a mutinous look on her face and crossed her arms, waiting for him to leave the room and shut the door.
 
When she was alone with her father, she turned on the older man.
 
“How can you do this to me?
 
What do I have to do to convince you that nothing happened.”

Sir Graham strolled across the room to the settee and picked up a piece of lace that matched the color of her dress.
 
He walked back over to her and flicked the fichu at her.
 
“Nothing happened?”

“Nothing of consequence,” she jerked the piece of lace out of his hand.
 
“I have taken care of you since Mama has been gone.
 
Since before then, even.
 
On the first day of every week,
for a year
, I stalked McKenzie’s office asking about you.
 
I wondered if you were dead or alive.
 
For the first month of your disappearance, I was there every day.”

“You did no such thing.
 
You knew very well I was alive, Mack would have informed you otherwise.
 
You’re marrying him, Cassie.”

“I did do that, and if you doubt it, you can ask Mack or his secretary.”

“There was no need.”

“So that’s it?
 
One tiny indiscretion and life as I know it is over?
 
You’re just going to pawn me off on him as if I were no more than an unwanted trinket in your life?”

“Cassie, never think that.”
 
He moved towards her in an attempt to hug her, but she stepped out of his reach.
 

“Don’t,” she said.
 
Her body felt chilled, despite the warmth of the room and she crossed her arms, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms in an effort to warm herself.
 

“Cassie, regardless of what you think right now, I love you.
 
Fortune has stepped in and offered you this opportunity.”

“Opportunity?” she asked, outraged and incredulous all at the same time.

“Chang and I will not always be around to care for you.
 
You need someone to see to your safety.
 
Someone that will protect you from others, as well as from yourself.”

“What are you saying?”

“You are reckless.
 
I’ve read the articles you’ve been writing.
 
I read the note from Mr. Walter.
 
I will not let you keep endangering yourself.”

“I guess I should be flattered you left your inventions long enough to check on me.”
 
When he remained silent, she looked at him and saw the flush spread across his face.
 
“You didn’t, did you?
 
Chang pointed my articles out in the paper to you, didn’t you?
 
Chang showed you the letter.
 
I,
I
worried about you.
 
Your health.
 
I worried if they were feeding you properly.
 
If you were getting enough rest.
 
And now that my life has been threatened, that I have been
shot
, your answer is that fate has interceded and you shove me off on someone else for me to become their concern.
 
Tell me, did Chang have to force you to quit working on your gadgets to even read the articles and the letter?”
 
Silence greeted her.
 
“That’s what I thought.”

“Now, Cassie…”

“No, Papa, thank you for clarifying things for me.
 
Perhaps I should ask Chang to walk me down the aisle.”

“Cassie, that’s enough,” her betrothed said from the doorway.

“Oh, it’s not nearly enough.”

“She’s ready,” Sir Graham said, melancholy tinging his voice.
 
“Cassie, it was your mother’s fondest wish to see you married with a family of your own.
 
We never meant to become so wrapped up in our studies that we forgot about you, but somehow, over the years, it seems as if you became the adult and we became the children.
 
That is not how it should have been.
 
That is not how your mother wanted it to be.”
 
A pregnant pause filled the room while he walked to the door.
 
“In time, I hope you will both come to care for one another and understand the machinations of an old man.
 
Mack, I am entrusting her into your care.
 
If you should let anything happen to her…”

“I’ll protect her with my life, Sir Graham.”

“That’s all I can ask for.
 
And perhaps a grandchild or two.”
 
Silence.
 
“Yes, well.
 
I believe we are ready to face the firing squad, so to speak.”
 
He no longer had a smile on his face.

“I think I would rather face the hangman,” Cassie muttered.

“You might yet get your wish,” Mack countered before holding out his elbow to her.

“If we are speaking of wishes, then I can think of someone else I would rather see wearing the noose.”

“Ah, Cassie darlin’, is that any way to speak to your betrothed?” Mack gave her a lopsided smile that did not quite reach his eyes, but still made him appear devilishly handsome.
 
“Smile,” he whispered in her ear.
 
“We wouldn’t want anyone to think we were plotting each other’s deaths, now, would we?”

Cassie looked up at him, a beautiful smile spread across her luscious lips.
 
“I hate you,” the words were forced between her teeth.

“At least I know where I stand.”
 

They stood at the top of the stairs where she and her father had stood what seemed like ages ago, but was in fact only a few hours, perhaps less.
 
Funny, how one’s life could change so drastically in the blink of an eye.
 
Cassie held her chin up as she looked out over the crowd.
 
Mikala’s “small party” had somehow morphed into a large ball.
 
At least it was large by Cassie’s standards.
 
Her first foray into the
ton
, and she found herself ruined and betrothed, all in the same night.

Her face hurt from the smile she forced there.
 
The Duke and Duchess of Hawkescliffe stood behind her and Mack, while her father stood in front of them.
 
Cassie could spy the Prince Regent in her peripheral vision, but refused to look at the man who had a perpetual smile on his face.
 
The quartet that sat on the balcony above, providing music for the dancers, abruptly stopped playing.
 
Her father raised his arms to gather everyone’s attention.
 
When that did not completely work, the Prince Regent stepped in.

“Good evening, one and all.”
 
A hush descended over the room while women curtsied and men bowed.
 
“I believe Sir Graham has an announcement he would like for all to hear.
 
Sir Graham,” the man held out his hand indicating that Sir Graham should take over.

“Ah, yes.
 
Thank you, Your Highness,” Sir Graham bowed low to the Prince before turning and facing the crowd.
 
“It has been a great privilege for my daughter and me to be the guests of honor this evening at this wonderful ball given by the Duke and Duchess of Hawkescliffe.
 
It also serves as a wonderful time for me to announce the betrothal of my daughter, Cassiopeia, to Mr. Stuart McKenzie.”

The response was mixed.
 
There were both male and female gasps of shock.
 
Scattered clapping sounded until it grew more pronounced when the crowd noticed that Prinny and the Duke and Duchess of Hawkescliffe were all clapping and smiling.
 

“No!” a feminine voice wailed, long and drawn out from the back of the room.
 
Before anyone could stop them, they had fled out the terrace doors and disappeared into the night.
 

“Another omen of disaster to come?” Cassie asked, arching a brow at her betrothed, a smile still plastered on her face.

“Nay,” he said.
 
“Just some poor lass upset because the man of her dreams is now spoken for.”

Somehow Cassie kept the smile on her face, but rolled her eyes at his pompous attitude.
 
“Let’s just get the rest of this night over with, shall we?”

“Whatever your heart desires, Cassie darlin’.”

“Ugh!”

“I love it when I can please you,” he said, his voice sugary sweet.

“Go jump in front of a dray wagon.”

“Ach, now that hurts.”

“It’s supposed to do more than hurt.”

“Come, let us dance our first dance as a happily betrothed couple.”
 
He led her onto the dance floor, and the quartet started the strains of a waltz.
 
Everyone watched them in anticipation.
 

As he swung her around the dance floor, Cassie trod on his feet at every opportunity, almost causing him to fall on more than one occasion.
 
Each time he would just look at her and smile before tugging her close and leading her through the next series of turns.

When the music came to a halt, he bowed over her hand and dropped a kiss on it before saying, “You dance divinely, Cassie darlin’.”

“Quit calling me that, and you are a bothersome oaf.”

“We need to work on your vocabulary.
 
I believe you have already called me an oaf this evening.”

“The other is not appropriate to say in polite company.”

“And you will never, ever, call me that again,” he growled so only she could hear.
 
His grip tightened painfully on hers.

“Let me go.”
 
When he showed no sign of loosening his grip she looked at him again, a smile on her face.
 
“The Prince is waving for me to join him.
 
You don’t want to disappoint His Highness do you?”
 
He let go of her hand and took a step back.
 
“For the position you are in, you are much too trusting.”
 
She swished her skirts and walked across the ballroom floor before disappearing down a hallway, in the opposite direction of the Prince Regent.

Chapter 17

The rest of the ball was uneventful, unfortunately.
 
Cassie knew that only meant word would spread among the
beau monde
of her impending nuptials to Stuart McKenzie.
 
She would go from being a nobody to a somebody very quickly.
 
They remained silent during the ride home in the borrowed Hawkescliffe carriage.
 
Cassie refused to look at the two men who occupied the carriage with her.
 
The inside of the carriage was briefly illuminated and a loud thunderclap soon followed.
 
She jumped with the sound.

“It’s just a storm,” Mack said.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“She doesn’t care for storms,” her father said.
 
“Ever since…”

“Papa.”
 
She attempted to glare at him, but it lost its affect in the darkness of the interior.

“He’s going to be your husband.”

Another streak of lightning lit the sky followed shortly by a clap of thunder.
 
“That remains to be seen.”
 
The carriage came to a stop.
 
“Goodnight, Director McKenzie.”
 
Before he could react, she opened the carriage door and exited, leaving her father and Mack behind.