The Accidental Countess (Accidental #2)(3)

“What things?” Cass prodded. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared down her nose at her cousin.

“You know. He will want to plan the wedding and choose a date and I’m—I’m simply not prepared.”

Cass pressed her lips together. Oh, yes. Why should she be prepared? She’d only had seven years to prepare. And this entire farce was so like Pen. She was always asking Cass to do outlandish favors for her, nothing quite this outlandish to date, but it still shouldn’t have surprised her. And Cass, good proper young lady and steadfast cousin and friend, had always agreed, always done whatever her cousin asked. But not today. Not with Julian. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

Lucy shifted in her seat and took a sip of tea. “So, you’re saying that in order to evade your intended who is just back from the war and whom you haven’t seen in years, you’ve invented a friend whose fictitious house party you’ll supposedly be attending until such a time as you deem fit to return and see him?”

Pen smiled and nodded happily. “Yes. Exactly.”

“And what does your mama think of this?” Lucy wanted to know.

“Oh, Mama doesn’t know. I hid Captain Swift’s letters, and thankfully she and Papa are both out this afternoon.” She turned to face her cousin. “That’s why I need you, Cass. Julian knows you. He likes you. You’ve been writing to him all these years, haven’t you? You are friends, are you not?”

Cass nodded. She couldn’t meet her cousin’s eyes. Yes. We’re friends, but I’d like to be much, much more. Oh, she was the worst cousin on earth, the very worst. Pen would order her from the house if she knew how much Cass coveted her would-be bridegroom. At the very least Pen certainly wouldn’t ask her to do this mad favor for her.

Lucy set her teacup aside and dabbed at her lips with her handkerchief. “I have one more question.”

Pen nodded a bit impatiently. “Yes?”

“Have you completely lost your mind?” Lucy asked, a serene look on her face. “Or just a part of it, dear?”

Cass had to sharply turn her face away to keep her cousin from seeing her smile.

Pen blinked at Lucy. “I don’t know what you mean.” Pen stood again and made her way back over to the window with her teacup in her hand. She glanced outside. “I just need—”

The teacup dropped to the rug with a solid thunk, spilling its contents on the expensive Aubusson carpet. “Oh, my goodness. He’s here!” Pen called.

All the anger drained from Cass’s body, replaced with sheer, freezing-cold anxiety. She pressed her hand to her belly. “I think I may cast up my accounts.”

Lucy squeezed Cass’s hand and raised her voice to address Pen. “Who’s here?”

Pen whirled to face them, a look of panic in her blue eyes. “Captain Swift! He’s here! Now!” She rushed to the drawing room door and opened it before turning back to the other two ladies. “Cass. Cass, please,” she begged. “You must do this for me. You must tell Captain Swift I’ve gone to see Patience in the country. You must.”

Cass’s teeth chattered. She shook her head. She couldn’t do this. She could not. “But I haven’t even seen him in seven years, Pen. I was a child when last we met. And besides—”

“Please!” Pen nearly shrieked. “I must go. I’ll sneak up the back staircase so he won’t see me. Cass, please do this for me. Please!” And with that, Pen was gone from the room in a sweep of puce skirts.

Cass sat dumbly staring at the empty teacup lying haphazardly on its side on the carpet. She blinked, replaying the last few moments again and again in her mind. A log snapped in the fireplace. The smell of burnt wood filled the room. “This cannot be happening. It simply cannot,” she murmured.

Lucy took a deep breath and pushed her hands down her legs, smoothing her skirts. “It appears it is happening,” she said just before Pen’s butler arrived at the door to the drawing room.

“Captain Julian Swift,” the butler pronounced.

“Show him in, please,” Lucy replied in a commanding voice, as if she were the lady of the house. She turned quickly to face Cass and grasped her shoulders. “Cass, look at me.”

Cass managed to meet her friend’s eyes. Her headache had been replaced with a strange buzzing sensation and a dazed feeling. She grasped at the smooth satin of Lucy’s sleeves.

“You look frightened half to death.” Lucy squeezed her shoulders and gave her an encouraging shake.

“I am frightened half to death. Oh, Lucy. What am I going to say? What am I going to do?” She searched Lucy’s face. Lucy was always sensible, always rational, always so good with words. Lucy would know what to do. Wouldn’t she?

Lucy nodded, a determined look in her eye. “Don’t worry, Cass. I’ll handle it. Leave all of the talking to me. I have an idea.”





CHAPTER TWO


Cass had heard of people being overcome by fits of uneven breathing. She’d even seen it a time or two at the odd, overly crowded crush. Once Lady Sarah Markingham had delicately fluttered to the parquet floor in the middle of the Thorntons’ ball, only to be carried away by two footmen and followed by her mother who declared that smelling salts were in order and she just so happened to have a vial of those useful little pebbles in her reticule. But Cass had never expected such a dramatic turn to happen to her. Today was certain to be the first. Spots danced before her eyes. The room seemed to be closing in on her. For a strange moment, she thought she smelled oranges. She braced a hand against the arm of the sofa.