A Match Made in Bed (Spinster Heiresses #2)(73)

He loved her.

He’d spoken the words.

She held up the fist she’d kept hidden in her skirts to reveal the heavy gold jewelry. The bloodred stones caught the light. “I’ve kept these from you.”

“What are they?”

“These are my mother’s garnets. I’ve had them hidden from you.”

“Why? Did you think I would demand them?”

“Perhaps. Yes. I . . .” She paused. How to express her fear? “I wanted protection in case I might need money someday.”

“To leave me?”

The direction of his thoughts shocked her, and yet, was that not what she’d been hedging against? Too late, she remembered that Mary had left him. Cassandra had been so selfish and caught up in her own worries, she’d not even thought of how he might consider her motives.

She now sought to reassure him. “I’ve lost so much, Soren. Everything in my life was unraveling, but these gave me some reassurance.” She’d also checked their hiding space every chance she safely could, she realized. “But I’m not afraid any longer.”

“You never had anything to fear.”

“I knew that, but my life had been turned upside down. And then you gave me a book.”

“It was not such a big thing.”

“To me it was. It meant you accepted me. You understood.”

“Cass, you’ve had many books before. Especially from your father.”

“Hardly. Before we went to London, and I learned I could borrow from a lending library or visit a bookseller, the only books I read were the ones I borrowed from the Vicar Morwath. He’d let me read whatever his children were reading, and then later, when I surpassed them, he shared from his personal library.”

She pressed the necklace and bracelet toward him. “I want you to have these. Use them for Pentreath . . .” Her voice trailed off. The burn of tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back and forced herself to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I was confused. I—”

His arms came around her, shutting off anything else she would have said. She snuffled her face in his jacket and he gathered her close. “Cass, Cass, Cass.”

Yes, his Cass.

“The necklace is yours from your mother. Pass it on to our children or use it to do whatever you wish. Buy books if you want. We will be fine. You have already given enough.”

“You aren’t angry that I kept them from you? That I didn’t trust you?”

Her tilted her chin to look at him. “Have I acted angry?”

She shook her head.

“That is because I have received the best part of the bargain, Cassandra. You. I love you.”

“And I love you, Soren. Very much.”

No bells rang. No birds sang. But it seemed to her as if in that moment, everything was absolutely right in the world.

They kissed, and it was one of the deepest, most fulfilling ones they had ever shared because it was the pledging of a new troth between them.

Soren broke the kiss.

“Logan?” she said to him expectantly. He nodded.

She leaned around her husband. His son had climbed onto a chair and sat with his back to them as if shutting them out.

She knelt in front of him. “I love your father. I love everything about him. Do you understand what that means? It means I love you as well. You don’t have to love me in return, but let us be kind to each other. I want you to know that, like you, I lost my mother. I was sad and very angry. It seemed as if everyone wanted me to carry on. It was hard.” An unbidden tear over the memories ran down her cheek. “I won’t ask that of you.”

To her surprise, Logan reached out and gently brushed it away. Her heart expanded at his soft touch.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, and he nodded.

“Someday, your father and I will have a child together. However, I want you to know that you will always be the firstborn.”

It would have been nice to end that with a hug or some sign of acceptance. Instead, Logan watched her with eyes that had already seen too much in his young life. She would have to wait for him to come to her.

There was a footstep at the doorway. Elliot’s voice said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, my lord, but Cook wondered if anyone would be coming to the table?”

“Oh, I believe we can eat more, don’t you, Logan?” His son nodded. “We will be right there, Elliot.”

The butler withdrew. Soren helped Cassandra to her feet. “That was well said,” he said. “Thank you.” He tapped his son lightly on the head. “Come, Logan. We must wash for dinner.”

In that moment, Cassandra fell in love a little bit more. Did he understand how manly he was when he showed his son how to be a proper gentleman?

Logan rose from the chair and dutifully took his father’s hand. But then he held out his other. “Come, friend,” he said.

Friend. Just as she had suggested.

And someday, he might call her mother. Or think of her as one.

She prayed she would be worthy of the title. She took his hand.





Chapter 20




It had been a long time since Soren had sat at Pentreath’s dining table and enjoyed a meal, if ever.

Certainly, he couldn’t remember laughing. The unhappiness and dissatisfaction of the house’s occupants—his mother’s, his father’s, even his own—had made the air in the room almost impossible to breathe. It had not been a happy house, or childhood, he realized.