The Accidental Countess (Accidental #2)(42)

“I’m sorry, Captain Swift, but I fear that I’m … unable to…” She stood and ran from the room. She could hear Julian’s calls, asking after her health, if he might be of assistance, but she just couldn’t stop. Tears streamed down her face, tears she couldn’t let him see. Better to allow him to think she was mad or sick or both.

She ran out of the library, down the corridor, and up the main staircase. A few of the servants watched as she flew past. If they thought she seemed overwrought running through the halls, she didn’t care. She ran up the marble staircase and down the long corridor to her bedchamber. She didn’t stop until she landed squarely on her bed, where she let the wrenching sobs rack her entire body.

*

Cass cried for exactly ten minutes. She hugged a pillow against her face and bawled like a child whose Christmastide stocking was empty. Then she sat up, dried her eyes with a handkerchief she retrieved from her reticule, and stared. She crossed her arms over her chest and contemplated the wall. It occurred to her then. She was tired of crying. She’d cried the entire time she’d thought Julian was dying. She’d cried for hours, days, weeks. She’d cried and cried, and when she’d known he was coming back to marry Pen and would be forever lost to her, she’d cried more. And now, she realized, staring at the shadowy wallpaper in the darkness, she was quite through with crying. Patience Bunbury wouldn’t cry like this, would she?

She rang for her maid. The young woman appeared in the doorway, minutes later. “Maria, please send a message to the duchess and Miss Lowndes. Tell them I must see them as soon as possible.”

“Yes, my lady,” Maria said, hurrying away to do as she asked.

Yes. Cass was finished with crying. She was going to take action, just what Patience Bunbury would do. She had a plan.

Fifteen minutes later, Lucy and Jane hurried into Cass’s bedchamber. “What is it, dear?” Lucy asked, flying over to her bed and pushing Cass’s curls back from her face to look at her.

“It’s Julian,” Cass replied, wiping away the last remnant of tears.

“Oh, no, what happened?” Lucy asked.

Jane watched her closely, a sympathetic look on her face. “Tell us, Cass.”

Cass straightened her shoulders. “Julian told me tonight he cares for someone else. Someone other than Penelope.”

Jane’s brow furrowed. “Not Penelope?”

“No.” Cass’s voice was calm.

“Who?” Lucy asked, looking equally confused.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter,” Cass replied. “I just know it’s not me … Cass, and it’s not Penelope.”

“I don’t understand, dear,” Lucy said. “Is it Patience?”

“No.”

“Who, then?” Jane asked, her hands splayed upward in a question.

“I don’t know,” Cass replied. “But whoever she is, she apparently doesn’t return his affection. He said so.”

“He said that?” Lucy asked.

“Yes,” Cass replied. “At first it made me cry. Now it’s making me angry.”

Jane’s eyebrows shot up. “Angry?”

“Yes. Angry. Angry enough to do something about it.”

Lucy’s different-colored eyes scanned her face. “What do you mean?”

Cass gritted her teeth. “I mean I need a plan.”

“A plan?” Jane echoed.

“Yes.” Cass nodded resolutely. “When I thought that I’d be breaking up Julian and Pen, I was racked with guilt. I felt absolutely awful. She may not love him, that’s true, but still, she’s my cousin and they are intended for each other.”

“Yes, dear, and…” Lucy prompted.

“Now I am without guilt. Oh, I still have guilt about lying to Julian about who I am, but I have no more guilt about taking him away from Pen. He doesn’t seem to want Pen. And I know Pen doesn’t want him.”

“What else did he say?” Jane prompted.

Cass took a deep breath. She would not reveal Julian’s secret that he intended to break things off with Pen. It was enough to tell her friends that he had feelings for someone else, some unknown woman whom Cass wanted to throttle.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is, if Pen doesn’t return his affection and this other woman is in love with someone else, why should I not try to make him love me?”

“You as Patience or you as Cass?” Lucy asked.

“Both!” Cass replied with a wide smile.

“This is so complicated.” Lucy sighed, tapping her finger against her cheek.

“No thanks to you,” Jane pointed out, nudging Lucy with her elbow.

Lucy gave her a mock-angry look.

Cass took a deep breath. “As long as Julian intended to marry Pen for love, I knew I couldn’t be with him, not really. But now, nothing is standing in my way. I feel no guilt whatsoever fighting for Julian with this unknown lady.”

Lucy squeezed her hand. “What do you plan to do, Cass?”

Cass pushed herself into an upright position. “Why, I’m going to be bold. You taught me that, Luce.”

Lucy and Jane exchanged worried glances.

Jane searched Cass’s face. “What exactly do you intend to do?”