Seducing the Ruthless Rogue (32 page)

“What was that about?” Mack asked.
 
“Besides the obvious, that is,” he clarified.
 
The two men watched her enter the house and slam the door.

“Cassie hates thunderstorms.”

“And why is that?”

“My wife was killed when she was struck by lightening.
 
Cassie was with her when it happened.
 
Ever since, Cassie has been jumpy and nervous during thunderstorms.
 
Chang usually gives her a special tea that helps her sleep if they roll in during the night.”

“I see.”

“McKenzie, she is going to test you every way imaginable.
 
She is headstrong and willful.
 
You’re going to have your hands full with her.”

“She will ken what she can and cannot do by the time I’m through with her.”

Sir Graham’s laughter was accentuated by another thunderclap.
 

“What do you find so hilarious?” Mack questioned.

“If you take that attitude with her, one of you will likely end up in a grave by the other’s hand,” her father predicted.

“Perhaps we will do away with each other at the same time.”

“There is always that.
 
Perhaps I did not think things through as well as I thought,” Sir Graham mused.

“Do you mean you somehow planned this?” Mack asked, incredulity and anger lacing his voice.

“Let’s just say that when an opportunity presented itself…” he let the comment drift off.

“I can’t believe you,” Mack growled just as a lightning strike lit the interior of the carriage.
 
The light and shadows played off his face, making him look like an angry monster.
 
“I hope you have not told your daughter this news.”

“I have.”

“No wonder she’s so angry.
 
I think you should go in there and beg Cassie for forgiveness.”

“You’ll still marry her?” Sir Graham asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

“It’s too late to do otherwise.
 
Goodnight, Sir Graham.”

“McKenzie.”

Mack watched the older man enter the house as the first fat drops of rain splattered followed by a lightning bolt and a clap of thunder.
 

“Take me home,” he instructed the driver.
 
“This is not a night for man or beast to be out.”

“Yes, sir,” the driver called and the coach began to move briskly through the streets.
 
When they arrived at Mack’s house a short while later, the heavens had truly unleashed their fury.
 
The rain poured, quickly filling holes with water and causing flooding.
 

When Mack stepped out of the carriage, the rain covered his shoe.
 
He bit back a curse.
 
“Would you like to come in?” he called up to the driver.

“No tellin’ when this storm’ll stop.
 
I best get the team back.”

“Be careful.”

“Aye, sir.”

Mack raced up to the door and beat on it, his shoulders hunched.
 
Bartlett opened the door, and Mack rushed inside.

“How was your evening?”

“Eventful.”

“Oh?
 
And how is that, sir?”

“Well, Bartlett, it seems this will no longer be a bachelor household.”

***

“What wrong with Missy Cassie?” Chang asked Sir Graham when he came into the house.

“Where do I begin?”

“I can tell you where you can begin,” a frosty feminine voice interrupted.
 

“Cassie,” he groaned.

“Chang, do you have my tea ready?”
 
Her words were punctuated by a crash of thunder.

“Yes, Missy Cassie.
 
Tray all ready for you.”

“I’ll get it,” she halted his progress when he made a move to the kitchen.
 
“I’ll let Papa tell you how he has single handedly ruined my life.”
 
She spun on her heel and left the men staring after her.
 

“She very angry.”

“That is an understatement, Chang.”

***

Cassie took the tray and went into her room.
 
She shut the door in an effort to shut out all that had happened to her this evening.
 
It had started out so perfectly, how had it all gone so wrong?
 
She poured the tea that Chang had fixed for her so it could cool some before she drank it.
 
Cassie didn’t know what all was in it, only that it soothed her nerves and helped her sleep on nights like this.

She stood in front of the mirror and studied herself one last time.
 
She had felt like a princess at a ball.
 
Now she didn’t know what she felt like.
 
Cassie began pulling the pins from her hair and allowed it to tumble to her waist.
 
A lightning strike lit up her room and she braced herself for the accompanying sound of thunder.
 
After it sounded, she walked across the room and pulled the drapes closed, blocking out the elements as much as she could.

Cassie began undoing the buttons up the back of her dress.
 
She reached the top few buttons and the bottom few, but regardless of what she did or how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach the middle buttons.
 
She was trapped in her dress.
 
She dropped heavily on her bed.
 
Goosebumps came to life on her skin after another flash of lightning and clap of thunder.
 
Flashes of the past came to her.
 

She and her mother were outside lying on the beach, watching the stars above.
 
A storm had been building off of the coast and looked far out to sea.
 
The longer they lay there, the closer the storm rolled in, but the sky above them remained clear.
 
Her mother stood up and that was when it had happened.
 
The air around them seemed charged.
 
The next thing Cassie knew, a blinding flash of light caused her to roll away from it.
 
The sound of distant thunder rumbled on the air.
 
When Cassie rolled back over she found her mother crumpled on the ground.

“Mama,” Cassie said, holding out her hand to her mother.
 
She just lay there, unresponsive.
 
Cassie crawled across the beach, the shells cutting into her palms and knees.
 
“Mama,” she tried again.
 
As she drew closer, she saw her mother’s dress was shredded.
 
There was a burn mark around her finger where her wedding ring was.
 
The air smelled of scorched hair.
 
When she rolled her over, blood trickled out of her ears and no air came from her mouth.
 
“Mama!” she screamed, pulling her mother into her arms.

Cassie shook herself free of her memories.
 
She stood, crossed the room, and quickly downed the cup of tea she had poured.
 
She poured another and drank it as well.
 
Cassie kicked off her shoes and paced the room.
 
She began to feel her muscles relax.
 

“Chang!” she called.
 
The door opened just as she was about to call for him again.

“Yes, Missy Cassie?”

“I need unbuttoning.”
 
She presented her back to the man.
 
“This is why I wear those serviceable dresses that Mack seems to complain about all the time.
 
I guess you know now, don’t you?
 
I am being married off.”

“Your papa love you.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”
 
She felt the dress gape open where it had been tight. “Thank you for your assistance, but your tea is going into affect.”

“Yes, Missy Cassie,” Chang said softly.
 

He shuffled out of the room, and Cassie shut the door behind him.
 
She let the dress slide down her body to the floor before stepping out of it.
 
Cassie picked up the beautiful red dress and gently laid it across the chair in her room.
 
She smoothed her hand over the material, enjoying the feel once more, before turning towards the bed.
 
The storm had developed into a ferocious one, but it no longer bothered Cassie.
 
She crawled beneath the covers and let the tea soothe her nerves.
 
Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 18

Cassie woke the next morning to the sun shining cheerily through the small slit in her drapes.
 
She stretched, feeling refreshed as she always did the morning after drinking Chang’s tea.
 
She pushed up to a sitting position and saw the red dress draped across the chair.
 
It had not been a dream after all, it had been a living nightmare.
 
She was betrothed to Stuart McKenzie.
 

The sound of heavy pounding could be heard at the front door.
 
Cassie rolled her eyes in irritation as she thought that it could only be one person.
 
She considered crawling back in bed when a light knock sounded on her bedroom door.
 
Cassie stared at the door as if by doing that alone could make whoever stood on the other side go away.
 
She did not want to talk to anyone, not Chang, her father, or her betrothed.
 
She still had faith that she could talk sense into Mack and make him see this proposed marriage was ludicrous.
 

The light knock sounded once again.
 
Deciding that she could not hide from whoever stood on the other side of that door forever, she stood up and crossed the room.
 
She took her robe and pulled it on over her chemise, cinching it tightly at her waist.
 
Cassie opened the door and was shocked to see Mikala standing on the other side, holding a dress and slippers.

“What are you doing here?” Cassie demanded.

“Is that any way to greet a friend?”

“Are we?”
 

“I had hoped so.
 
There was a time not so very long ago that I did not have many friends.
 
I find that I value the ones that I have all the more because of it.”
 
There was a pregnant pause as the two women silently studied each other.

“Come in,” Cassie held the door open and her arm out to indicate that she should enter the bedroom.
 
Once Mikala entered, she shut the door.
 

“Thank you,” Mikala said.

“What is that?” Cassie asked, nodding to the items in her hands.

“Your wedding dress.”

“I’m not marrying him.
 
I don’t care what was said or announced last night.
 
He doesn’t like me, and I don’t care for him.”

Mikala lay the dress on the bed and dropped the slippers to the floor.
 
Then she took a seat on the unmade bed and patted a spot beside her.
 
“Come and sit.”

“I’d rather not.”

“My, but you are a hard case.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you are much worse than I was.”
 
Mikala leaned back and braced herself with her hands behind her on the mattress.
 
“You do know that you must go through with this marriage.”

“I do not have to do anything.
 
In fact, I could dress and slip through that window, and no one would ever see me again.”

“You’re not being sensible.”

“Sensible?
 
I am being forced into a marriage because of some kissing.
 
How is that sensible?”

“I was forced into a marriage because Gabe was trying to protect my life.”

“That’s absurd.”

“But the truth.
 
Cassie, both Mack and your father are respected men.
 
If you do not follow through with this, their reputations will be forever tarnished.”

“And why should I care?”

“Because from what I have come to know of you in our short acquaintance, you are not cruel and heartless,” Kala’s raspy voice said softly.
 
“I know you are hurt and you feel betrayed, and probably in some sense you have every right.
 
But those two men out there, for all their faults, deep down are good men, and our country needs them.”

“Are you saying that if I do not go through with this sham of a marriage, Ma…Director McKenzie could lose his position?”

“Stranger things have been known to happen.”

“But they need Papa and his inventions.”

“There are other inventors,” Mikala shrugged negligently.

“I need time to think,” Cassie said, rubbing her now pounding temples as she paced the floor.