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She took a deep breath. “Yes, Cassius, and when it’s all said and done, I’m going to disappear.”

CHAPTER 3

SCARLETT

Scarlett awoke to a knock on her door. She looked at the delicate clock on her nightstand. Five in the morning. Who was knocking on her door at this godsforsaken hour?

“Miss Monrhoe?” a maid called.

“Yes?” Scarlett answered, barely awake.

“A message arrived for you from Captain Renwell.”

“And you felt the need to deliver it before sunrise?” Scarlett asked, the annoyance hard in her voice.

“I am sorry, Miss, but Captain Renwell delivered it himself and demanded I forward it immediately.”

Scarlett sat up at that. He had been here already this morning? Surely he did not expect to train her now? She grabbed a silk robe that had been draped over a chair and answered the door as she slid it on over her silk nightclothes. “Is he still here?” she demanded.

The maid nodded her head. “Yes, but only until I come back to tell him I have delivered the message, then he will depart with Lord Drake.”

“And the message is?” Scarlett asked, crossing her arms. The bastard was playing with her, trying to establish his dominance or some other masculine bullshit.

“He will meet you at nine this evening.”

Having delivered the message, the maid turned to take her leave, but Scarlett stopped her. “I will respond toRykermyself,” she seethed. Cassius had told her his first name yesterday after the Captain had left, when he had walked her back to the main house. She could play his games.

Scarlett walked down the hall and descended the stairs with grace, the maid calling after her about it not being proper to greet a man in nightclothes. Scarlett didn’t deign to care. She stopped a few steps from the bottom, her hands on her hips, as Ryker stood in the foyer of the manor. His golden eyes went wide as he took her in, wrapped in a robe that didn’t even come to her knees, her long hair over her shoulders, reaching nearly to her navel, and her bare feet.

“I have received your message,Captain Renwell,” she drawled. “I also must insist we meet at eight in the evening rather than nine.”

“This is most inappropriate,” was Ryker’s answer, looking her in the eyes, andonlyin her eyes.

Scarlett smirked, her hand going dramatically to her heart. “You’re right. It is most inappropriate to demand a message be delivered at such an abysmal hour in the morning. But here we are, so I thought I’d return the damn favor.”

Ryker glared at her, and she saw the violence that danced in his eyes. Scarlett also saw a promise of some brutal training in her future. Inwardly, she winced but let none of that show on her face as she glared right back. She heard footsteps coming from the kitchens down the hall, and Drake appeared from around the corner. He stopped short when he saw Scarlett and Ryker, looked back and forth between them, and then a wry grin spread across his face.

“Good morning, Scarlett,” he said. “You are up far earlier than usual.”

“Yes. Apparently we needed to discuss a schedule,” she said sweetly. “And I was informing Ryker that I needed to move the meeting time as his demanded time was too late for me.”

Understanding passed over Drake’s face, and he turned to Ryker. “It is true. Miss Scarlett has an ailment for which she takes a tonic every night at the same time.If she is telling you your requested time is too late, then for her health, it is.”

Ryker seemed a little taken aback at the truth of the matter. He gave her a slightly quizzical look to which she returned a small nod of her head. She didn’t like talking about her ailment. Even more so, she didn’t like that no one could figure out what it was. The most skilled healers in the kingdom didn’t know what ailed her, only what could keep the spells away. She’d been taking a tonic every evening before she went to sleep for as long as she could remember. Scarlett could still picture her mother as she mixed the herbs and liquids for her each night. When her mother had passed, Sybil, the successor high healer at the compound, had taken up the job and still delivered it every evening to the manor.

Another familiar voice came from the kitchens, and Scarlett leaned over the stair railing to see Cassius coming down the hall.

“Do I hear my Seastar up before the dawn? There must be something truly exciting happening in the city today,” he teased, handing an orange scone up to her as he came to stop by the railing.

Scarlett rested her chin in her hand and leaned on the railing, taking the scone from him. It was still warm, fresh from the ovens. She inhaled deeply before replying sweetly, “Not at all. I just heard my favorite person in the kingdom was still here and couldn’t resist seeing him twice in two days. I had no idea he’d serve me breakfast as well.”

Cassius chuckled, light filling his dark brown eyes. “Careful, Seastar,” he said. “Mikale is in the kitchens, and he may overhear you.”

Scarlett scowled, taking a bite of her scone. “Maybe I should speak a bit louder of my feelings forhimthen,” she said as she chewed.

Drake cleared his throat. “Scarlett, while we are certainly familiar with and no longer shocked by your lack of caring for propriety in most cases, my father is with him.”

Scarlett understood the warning. Lord Tyndell would not be happy to see her standing on the stairs in little more than a robe, conversing with several men. He was fairly patient with Scarlett’s distaste for the staunch demureness now demanded of her,was even amused by it, but she did not wish to deliberately displease him. Not when he could make her life a living hell if he wished.