Chapter Ten #2
“We had three dances yesterday and that was all,” he said evenly.
“I’ve danced with a hundred pretty girls and they are all the same to me, including you, so think not that there was anything special with a few leaps and twirls.
You were a few pleasant moments to pass the day with and nothing more.
So if you’ve come to Edenthorpe because you thought I wanted to see you again, I am afraid you are gravely mistaken.
Anything you thought I might want is a creation of your own mind.
If you’ve really come just to see me, then you may as well return home. I am not interested.”
Amata was red in the face when he finished, deeply ashamed. “That is a terrible thing to say to me,” she said. “How dare you!”
Cassius cocked an eyebrow. “Feeling humiliated, are you?”
Amata was near tears. “If that is what you intended, then you succeeded.”
He pointed to the keep. “Now you know how your cousin feels,” he said. “Clearly, you made her think that you had come to visit her when it was me you really wanted to see.”
Amata opened her mouth to retort but nothing came forth. She huffed and stomped her foot, grunting unhappily.
“You’ll not school me on manners, Knight,” she said. “Dacia is my cousin. She knows I love her.”
He sighed impatiently. “Does she?” he said.
“It seems to me that when I told you that I was coming to Edenthorpe, you made a point of warning me against your cousin with her witch’s marks.
You mentioned that to simply look upon her was to be cursed.
Is that what you tell everyone, Lady Amata?
That your cousin has witch’s marks and she turns men to stone like Medusa? ”
Caught in a web of her own design, Amata backed away from him. “She does have marks on her face,” she said defensively. “You just saw them, for she was uncovered. Everyone knows she has the marks!”
“Everyone knows because you tell them,” he said. “I was a virtual stranger and you told me, humiliating your cousin in the presence of a stranger. Why on earth would you do such a thing?”
Amata didn’t have an answer. Instead, she began to seethe. “Rude,” she hissed. “You are rude and horrible and I hope I never see you again, Cassius de Wolfe!”
Cassius looked at her for a moment before breaking down into a weak grin. “That can be happily arranged,” he said. “But remember one thing – you, my lady, are not nearly as pretty as you think you are. Your cousin, Dacia, is more beautiful than you could ever hope to be.”
With that, he walked around her, heading towards the keep because it was clear that he cared more about Dacia’s feelings than her own cousin did.
He felt badly enough that he wanted to see to her, to make sure she knew he had no designs or intentions towards Amata.
Odd that he should want to make that clear to Dacia, but he did.
But as he walked, he noticed that Argos was not beside him and turned in time to see the dog lifting his leg on Amata, peeing on the back of her dress.
He didn’t even call the dog off.
He just started laughing.
Amata’s screams of rage were like music to his ears.
*
She had kicked the maids out.
When Dacia arrived in her chambers, four of the six maids were there, cleaning part of the floor, and she had no patience for their presence at the moment. With a shriek, she threw them all out of the chamber and slammed the door, bolting it.
She needed to be alone.
The tears came. Tears of shame, tears of hurt.
Shame because of Amata’s motives, hurt because Cassius had evidently spewed words of flattery to Amata, enough so the woman had come all the way to Edenthorpe to see him.
Hurt because Cassius had turned those same words of flattering on her, making her feel special.
But she wasn’t.
She was angry at herself for ever believing his compliments.
Her pockets were bulging with dragonwort and she pulled it out angrily, tossing it on the table in her smaller dressing chamber.
She felt like an idiot for having sought out the weed in the first place, an idiot for letting herself get swept away by Cassius’ presence and sweetness.
God, the man was sweet, and she’d fallen for it.
She wondered how many other maidens had fallen for it.
A knock on the door distracted her from her thoughts.
“Go away!” she yelled.
Whoever it was hadn’t heard her because she was in another chamber, so she stepped out into the big chamber just as the caller knocked again.
“Go away!” she boomed. “Get away from that door!”
There was no reply, only more knocking, this time continuous. Enraged, Dacia went to the door, threw the bolt, and yanked the door open.
“Stop knocking, you stupid –”
She had started yelling before she’d ever seen the caller and now she found herself looking into Cassius’ somewhat surprised face. His mouth was open in astonishment and, for a moment, neither one of them moved. Finally, he lifted his eyebrows.
“Would you care to finish that sentence?” he said.
Dacia looked at him, dumbfounded and hurt. “What?” she said, then realized what he meant. Quickly, she lowered her head. “Nay, I will not. I thought you were one of my maids. Sometimes they can be rather insistent and annoying, and… oh, it does not matter. What do you require, Sir Cassius?”
Cassius watched her lowered head. “Require?” he repeated. “Nothing. I came to see you.”
Given what had just happened, she was understandably on the defensive. “You do not have to keep up the pretext, my lord,” she said. “Please have Amata entertain you. She is better at it than I am.”
He cleared his throat softly. “I am not sure why you think I have been keeping up a pretext,” he said.
“I am an honest man, my lady. Pretexts are excuses and I do not make excuses. I came to see you because I wanted to assure you that whatever your cousin said out in the bailey was completely one-sided.”
Dacia lifted her head slightly to look at him. “She said she met you in town.”
He nodded. “She did,” he said. “We were passing through, as she said, on our way to see your grandfather. We stopped because we were tired and hungry, and there was enough free food to feed an army, so we stopped to refresh ourselves before continuing on. Lady Amata grabbed me and pulled me into a group of dancing people, so that is how I ended up dancing with her. I did not ask her, I assure you.”
Dacia lowered her head again. “She is a good dancer,” she said. “Pretty, too. I do not blame you for dancing with her.”
Cassius could see how hurt she was. It was in everything about her.
It began to occur to him that only someone with an emotional investment in the situation could feel hurt, and it further occurred to him that he was rather pleased about it.
It made no difference to him that Amata was sweet on him, but Dacia?
That was a completely different story.
Truth be told, he might have been just the slightest bit sweet on her, too.
“I danced with her because I did not want to be rude,” he said. “And also because it has been a very long time since a pretty girl asked me to dance, but I discovered something about Amata.”
She was back to peering at him again. “What is that?”
“She is annoying.”
Dacia’s eyes widened briefly and she began fighting off a smile. “Mayhap a little.”
Cassius grunted. “From what I’ve seen, it is more than just a little,” he said, pleased that he’d at least lightened her mood somewhat.
“The fact that she used you as an excuse to come to Edenthorpe because she wanted to see me is an appalling lack of tact and I told her so. I also told her something else.”
“What is that?”
“That no matter how pretty she thinks she is, you are more beautiful than she could ever hope to be.”
Dacia’s head came up and she looked at him full-on, her eyes wide with astonishment. “You told her that?”
“I did.”
She blinked. “But why?”
“Because it is the truth.”
Dacia stared at him a moment before finally shaking her head. “I… I do not even know what to say.”
He clasped his hands behind his back, bracing his legs apart as he looked at her.
“You need not say anything,” he said. “I came up here to tell you not to let your cousin hurt your feelings. I do not have the slightest interest in her and she is quite upset about it. She seems to think that I would die for a taste of her lips.”
Dacia shrugged. “Some men would.”
Cassius shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “In fact, I have come here to ask something of you.”
“What is it?”
His eyes took on that warm glimmer again, something that seemed to happen every time he looked at her.
“I know you like to tend the kitchens and not attend the evening meal,” he said. “But I was hoping, just for this evening, that you might rethink that usual practice and sup with me. I would very much like you to.”
Dacia’s cheeks began to turn that familiar shade of pink. “Me?”
“You.”
Dacia lowered her gaze, as if thinking very hard on his invitation. She’d just convinced herself that every bit of flattery out of his mouth was insincere, but here he was, being kind to her again. He’d thought enough of her to explain her cousin’s comments and his side of things.
Perhaps a man like that deserved better than what she thought of him.
He seemed to be making the extra effort.
“I suppose I could,” she said. “If you’d really like for me to.”
“I would. Very much.”
“Then I shall attend.”
“Will you do something more for me?”
“What is it?”
“Do not wear your veils.”
She looked at him as if he were suggesting something scandalous, but the lure of his sweet invitation took precedence.
“Are you sure you will not mind?”
He smiled, flashing that smile that had caused many a maiden to swoon. “My lady, I prefer it,” he said. “I’ve noticed you have dimples that would cause most men to fall at your feet.”
The blush was back, ragingly so. She wasn’t very adept at flirtation, or kind words, so she said the first thing that came to mind.