Page 49 of The Damsel
After a few deep breaths, she met his gaze and shook her head, her watery eyes wide and dazed as if she were in shock.
“I have to leave … I have to go … I cannot be here …”
He reached out for her, but she cringed away from his touch, so he maintained his distance. She was clearly in a state of panic, but would not allow him to comfort her, leaving Robert at a complete loss.
“Cass, I cannot let you leave like this. You are overwrought, and I’m worried about you. Please, tell me what the matter is.”
She wrapped her warms around herself and shook her head several times. “It does not matter. There is nothing you can do to mend it. Lady Downing, she … she did not deserve this.”
He nodded slowly, still uncertain what it was about Lady Downing’s death that upset her so. She wasn’t known to have many friends, and he couldn’t remember hearing about any connection between them. Whatever it was, she was frightening him, falling apart right before his eyes. A brittle, hardened Cassandra was familiar to him; this sobbing mess of a woman seemed like a different person entirely.
Unable to stand it any longer, he took hold of her shoulders and hauled her against him. She resisted, arching her back and pushing against his chest.
“Let me go!”
Wrapping both arms around her waist, he only held her tighter. “No.”
She thrashed in his hold, her strength nearly breaking his grip. But he fought back, capturing first one wrist, then the other, and gathering them both in one hand. Wrapping his free arm around her waist, he pressed his forehead against hers and met her gaze.
“That’s enough,” he said, his tone firm and his grip like iron.
He’d never manhandled a woman in his life, but these felt like extenuating circumstances. If he had to use his strength to get through to her, he would.
“Stop fighting,” he murmured.
She shook her head but went still, the tension melting from her limbs the longer she stood his arms. “I can’t.”
“Just tonight,” he urged. “Tomorrow, you can raise your defenses again and shut me out. You can be strong and fight and do whatever you feel you must to survive. But right now, you can stop. I am here. Do you understand? I’m not abandoning you like this.”
He felt the steel leaving her spine by degrees, her arms falling limp as he released her wrists. She lowered her gaze and let out a small sob, a tremor ripping through her body and jolting his. For the first time since he’d met her, Cassandra seemed defeated, vulnerable. Broken. That she had complied gave him no satisfaction. He wanted his fiery siren back; the woman who could command him with a word or a glance.
“Will you come with me?” he urged, tipping her chin up so she looked him in the eye. “If we remain out here much longer, someone will come looking for us. No one has to know you are still here.”
Her shoulders sagged, but she nodded her agreement. Taking hold of her hand, he led her away from the front doors and toward a servant’s entrance on the side of the house. He opened it and pulled her through the dark passage to a staircase leading to the upper floors. Knowing the way by heart, he did not need a taper to light their path. He had sneaked through these passages many times as a young man, not wanting to be seen on his way to the woods to meet Daphne.
Now, instead of creeping out, he was secreting someone back in.
They came out on the landing of the third floor, and he led her to his bedchamber, spiriting her inside before a servant happened by. Felix, his valet, came rushing from the open door of the dressing room, eyes going wide at the sight of Cassandra.
“Mr. Stanley—”
“Leave us,” he barked, without sparing the man a glance. “Go to the stable and find Lady Cassandra’s driver. Tell him that she has requested he return home without her. I will see her back safely. Tell no one what you saw.”
“Of course, sir,” the man replied before turning to go back the way he came. Another door closed in the distance, and Felix’s retreating footsteps faded into silence.
Pulling Cassandra near the hearth, he found himself grateful the valet had just stoked it. It was cold and she’d been outdoors without her cloak. He took hold of her shoulders and found her skin still chilled to the touch. Chafing his hands over her arms, he looked into her glassy eyes.
“I have to leave you here for a little while, but only to tell them I must see you home. The party seems to be winding down, anyway, so I should not be expected back. I’ll return as soon as I can.”
She did not reply with words, but nodded, her stare unfocused.
With a sigh, he took her hand and led her into his dressing room, where Felix had left a bowl with hot water on the washstand.
“You can clean yourself up a bit if you’d like. Make yourself comfortable. But, do not leave this room. I do not think I need to tell you how horrible it would be for someone to see you up here.”
Again, she nodded but did not speak, leveling a blank stare at the washstand. With a heavy sigh, he turned to make his exit. He did not want to leave her alone for a second, but he had no choice.
Dashing back the way he’d come, he circled back to the front of the house from the servant’s entrance. He rushed back in, ensuring the butler and footmen saw him returning to the drawing room.
