Page 18 of Enchanted by the Lyon (The Lyon’s Den Connected World #93)
C assandra tried to look anywhere in the room except at Lucius.
Her attempts to remain cool and indifferent to him appeared on the surface to have worked but inside she was a complete mess.
How would she ever get through the ordeal of these meetings when she was still hopelessly in love with a man who only saw her as an object of desire?
She would never be good enough to marry in his eyes.
So why did she continue to harbor feelings that would never be reciprocated?
She had been foolish to even begin to fall in love with him while knowing nothing of the man himself.
His was a handsome face that had caught her attention while at the Lyon’s Den but she never really learned anything about what made Lucius the way he was.
Why was he so against marriage when even he knew he must one day pick a bride?
His standoffish demeanor should have pushed back any lady who had ideas of capturing this man’s heart.
Even her own friends had warned her against him.
She should have heeded their advice but once they had told Cassandra of their concerns, it had already been too late.
She was in love with him and her feelings couldn’t be turned off so quickly.
“Barlow basically tossed you out of your own house, leaving you nothing and with nowhere to go?” Lucius inquired, breaking her out of her thoughts.
Cassandra shivered in remembrance of standing on the front steps of her townhouse with only the small bag of clothes that Barlow had allowed her. She wasn’t even certain what had been inside, for he had had her things packed while they had been in the front parlor.
“What else could I do? As I stated previously, I was young and had no one to go to for advice,” she answered watching her hands shake as she attempted to reach for her teacup. “My parents were dead and I was an only child. Any distant relatives I may have had were never a part of my life.”
“So, the rogue left you to fend for yourself on the streets,” he fumed as he stood and began to pace the room. “No woman should suffer such an outcome. The man should be called out.”
“I… managed,” she finally declared. “I may not be proud of what I needed to do in order to survive, but hopefully I can redeem myself in the eyes of Society one day.”
“There was no reason you should have been redeeming yourself at all, Cassandra,” he fumed, running his fingers through his black hair. “You were a baron’s daughter and while he was not necessarily someone higher in rank, you were still considered nobility.”
“And a disowned daughter for marrying a man with no title,” she said wiping a tear from her eye. “I always regretted not being able to tell my mother and father how sorry I was before they were killed.”
Lucius stopped his pacing and returned to his seat. “They were killed?”
Cassandra nodded before heaving a sigh. “Yes, although I never talked about it with anyone. I supposed it was common knowledge in the ton. My father was a baron, after all. And no one ever asked, so… I just haven’t talked about it.”
She was right. If he was the type of man who paid attention to gossip and such things, he might have known this already, Lucius chided himself. Obviously, she still felt the loss keenly. He lowered his voice and asked, “How did they die?”
“A robbery gone wrong. Apparently they were on their way to our home in the country when a highwayman stopped their carriage,” she whispered. “All I was able to learn is that they were shot, along with their driver. No one survived.”
“Was this before or after your husband’s own death?”
She raised her eyes to stare at Lucius. “Before… by a few months. Rupert died shortly thereafter in a riding accident. He was racing with some of his friends and went to jump a hedge. His girth came unbuckled from his saddle and when he fell, his neck broke. There was nothing anyone could do for him.” She swallowed the knot in her throat and looked at him.
It was hard to recall those memories, and painful. “Why do you ask?”
He stood again and went to the sideboard to pour a small draught of sherry into a glass. Returning, he offered her the drink. “What if their deaths, along with your husband’s, are all connected?”
At his words, she almost choked on the sherry as it slipped down her throat. She spluttered, and said, “How could they be connected? My parents never took the time to even remotely get to know Rupert.”
“But you mentioned he died after a fall. What if his saddle had been tampered with? Was Barlow among those with whom Rupert was riding?”
Cassandra shrugged. “How am I to know this? This all happened a very long time ago.”
“And I have the gut instinct that afterwards, Barlow’s finances took a turn for the better.”
A frown formed on her brow as she tried to recall the past. “I suppose it was possible Barlow could have been there. He was the one who reported Rupert had died. But the brothers were never close and as I mentioned with our meeting with Mrs. Dove-Lyon, Rupert didn’t trust him.
I highly doubt he would have relied on him with his will if he had one at all. ”
“You have given me much to begin investigating the matter, Mrs. Vaughn,” Lucius replied, slipping back to the formality she had asked from him. “I will do my best to right the wrong I believe has been done to you.”
He stood again, leaving Cassandra to do the same. Her private time with Lucius was at an end. “Thank you for looking into the matter for me,” she said, as was only polite.
He gave her a bow. “I will report back to you soon on what I learn. In the meantime, I hope to see you again during the Season’s round of balls.”
She curtsied without answering, and after a moment he took his leave.
She sank back into her chair, reached for the remainder of her sherry, and finished the drink.
The liquor burned its way down to her stomach, leaving Cassandra with the memories of her past running rampant through her mind.
Good heavens! She’d never thought that her parents’ and her husband’s deaths as being connected.
The idea made her wonder what Lucius might uncover about her past and especially, to what lengths Barlow had gone to in order to financially secure his future?