Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Isolde paced the morning room as her nerves steadily built. She ought not to have been so nervous, but she was. Nervous and excited, in fact. It was a cavalcade of emotions that poured through her body, tied together neatly because she knew just how important today was.
Cassian needs to be shown what it means to love and have those who love you in return. He needs to understand that it is not a weakness but a strength.
She had spent all yesterday organizing this. It had been done in secret for several reasons, partly because she did not want Cassian to find out, and partly because such secrets were necessary because of who she now was.
And now that the moment had come, well, she wished that it would hurry up!
“Your Grace…” Mr. Pemberton appeared in the doorway of the morning room.
She looked up, her eyes wide. “Mr. Pemberton! Are they…” Her words caught in her throat.
His smile told her the answer and the tightness in her chest loosened considerably. And then her heart soared so that even the sun seemed to brighten as Mr. Pemberton stepped aside and in rushed two very familiar faces.
“Isolde!” Thomas came first. He wore a dusty old cloak, chosen to hide who he was, but the hood was down and that allowed for Isolde to see that face which she had missed so much.
He rushed at her, his little arms held wide, and she dropped to her knees and pulled her brother into the tightest of hugs.
Next came Marianne. She hesitated by the doorway, her hood still up, a look on her face that was unsure and a little afraid.
She bit into her lip as she looked the room over, and then she found Isolde, and her brow creased as she studied her older sister in a way that might have suggested she did not know her.
Still holding Thomas, Isolde raised an eyebrow at Marianne and then beamed. Marianne sniffed back tears, she took a hesitant step into the room, and then she ran for her older sister.
“There she is…” Still holding Thomas, Isolde swept Marianne into her other arm, and for a moment, she simply held her siblings close.
It had been so long since she’d seen them both.
Far too long, by her estimation. When the wedding was first announced, she had planned on inviting them to the ceremony and then slowly introducing them to her new world.
But with the revelation of who she really was tearing her world apart, Isolde had been forced to stay away from her family for fear of her secret coming out.
Even this visit had been carried out secretly.
Her father was forced to remain behind. Thomas and Marianne were brought here in a carriage, hidden from prying eyes so that no questions would be asked.
Even the staff had been given strict instructions to avoid this room today, as well as the back garden where she planned on spending most of the day with them.
But it was done, her heart was full, and Isolde could not remember a time she had been so happy.
“We thought you had forgotten about us,” Marianne said through sniffles as she pulled back from the hug. “Why did you not write to us?”
“I wish I could have,” Isolde said. “But it has not been that simple.”
“I told you she didn’t forget!” Thomas said to his sister. “I told you so!”
“I will explain everything in time,” she promised them. “For now, let us just enjoy the fact that we are together.”
Thomas did not seem to care about where he was. He was just happy to be with his older sister again. Marianne, however, as she was older, seemed to register the strangeness of it all and the seriousness too.
She looked around the morning room, her eyes wide. “You live here…”
“I do,” Isolde said.
“Father said… he told us that you and His Grace…” She frowned as she looked around the room. “He said you were a duchess, Isolde. Is that true?”
“It is,” she said.
“Does that mean I am…” She hesitated, almost afraid.
“Come.” Isolde stood and took her sister’s hand as she held onto Thomas. “Let us go outside, and I will tell you everything.”
She led her brother and sister secretly through the manor and into the back garden.
As she had known would happen, Thomas cried out in glee when he saw the expanse of it.
All the colors. How beautiful and green it was.
He released her hand and giggled as he ran ahead, so thrilled that Isolde wondered if he might start to fly.
Marianne was more circumspect, but even she was unable to hide her awe. And she looked often at Isolde, noting the gown, her hair, and makeup, always with an expression that looked as if she expected to wake up at any moment.
There was a table set in the back of the garden for them, under a tree for shade, and laden with sweetmeats and tea. Thomas did not hesitate to shove the treats into his mouth, and Marianne sipped the tea as if she expected it to be some kind of trick.
“How is Father?” Isolde asked her sister. “Is he well?”
“He is the same,” she said. “He misses you.”
“As I miss him. But I promise that things will soon improve, Marianne. For all of us.”
“That is what he said,” she said warily. “Only… well… things don’t usually change, do they? I know you said they do, but I know they won’t.”
“Look around you, Marianne,” Isolde laughed. “They have changed.”
“For you, maybe,” she said with a pout.
Isolde winced with guilt. She had been so focused on Cassian and her role here that she had completely forgotten to do as she had promised— the very reason she had done all of this in the first place. But that would change. Today, everything was going to change.
“So, tell me everything that I have missed.” Isolde pulled Thomas onto her lap. “Leave nothing out.”
For the next hour, Isolde and her siblings spoke about everything and nothing.
It was so easy, so effortless, and it reminded her of how things used to be.
They laughed. They made jokes. They teased one another.
As hard as things had been of late, it was nice to be reminded that there would always be people in this world who loved her.
However, it was as Marianne started to tell Isolde about a book that she was trying to read but struggling with that Thomas’ eyes turned wide as he looked over her shoulder.
Isolde noticed it immediately, and she realized the cause. He was looking past her, toward the manor, and she smirked because it was time to finally see if her plan might work.
“Is that… is he…” Thomas stammered and pointed.
Isolde turned to find Cassian crossing the garden toward them. She had made Mr. Pemberton promise to tell Cassian of her siblings’ arrival, as she had asked that he insist Cassian come and greet them.
“Ah, yes, I see you have found my husband…” Slowly, she rose from her seat and made her way toward Cassian.
He looked more nervous than she expected. His eyes flicked between Thomas and Marianne as if he had never seen children before. And when he reached the table, he stopped short, careful not to get too close.
“Cassian…” Isolde reached him, and then, without waiting for permission, she took his hand. He started at the gesture, and she lifted an eyebrow at him as if to warn him against pulling away. “I would like for you to meet my brother and sister. Thomas, Marianne, come and meet His Grace.”
“Please…” His voice cracked. “You may call me Cassian.”
Thomas approached Cassian nervously. As small as he was, he had to crane his neck up to find Cassian’s face. “Are you really a duke?” Thomas asked.
“Of course he is,” Marianne scoffed.
“I am,” Cassian said seriously.
“You’re so… big,” Thomas gaped.
Cassian frowned. “I… perhaps you are just small?”
“It is nice to meet you.” Marianne stayed back as if with worry.
“I assure you that the pleasure is all mine,” Cassian said with a slight smile. “I wished to make my greetings as your sister is…” He hesitated, forming the words slowly in his mouth. “She is dear to me, and the two of you are…” He exhaled. “You are family.”
“We are?” Thomas blinked.
Isolde laughed. “Of course you are.”
“I should go…” Cassian gently pulled on her hand.
“You’re going?” Thomas pouted. “No! Stay. Why do you have to go?”
Cassian had no answer. He looked pleadingly at Isolde as if she might provide one, but she simply cocked an eyebrow back, daring him to deny the little boy.
“Stay!” Thomas demanded. “Please, stay!”
“Thomas, if His Grace has more important places to be…” Isolde looked pointedly at Cassian, giving him no room to squirm.
“I suppose…” He bit into his lip, and she saw the fight raging within. “I suppose I can stay for a little bit.”
“Yay!” Thomas snatched Cassian’s hand and pulled him toward the table. “If you’re a duke, does that mean you know the king?”
“I… I have met him.”
“You have! Wow…” Thomas scrambled into the chair beside where Cassian sat. And then he gaped at Cassian as if he were the most interesting man he’d ever seen. “What’s he like?”
“The king?” Cassian frowned. “I am not…” He looked at Isolde, who just shrugged as she chuckled and shook his head. “He is shorter in real life than you might expect.”
Thomas giggled. “Short like me?”
“No one is short like you.”
Isolde’s heart swelled, and she did not try to hide her smile.
It had been a risk introducing Cassian to Thomas and Marianne.
In fact, she had fully expected Cassian to meet them and then flee back inside to safety.
But Thomas’s innocence and his general eagerness were infectious, and they wrapped themselves around Cassian in a way that could not be denied or fought against.
And Cassian, faced with a young boy who did not fear him or want anything from him like so many did, quickly relaxed, forgetting who he was so desperate to be, and acting as himself for once. His true self.
“Do you have a sword?” Thomas asked next.
“I do,” Cassian said with a chuckle.
“Thomas, that is a silly question,” Marianne snapped. She eyed Cassian nervously, unable to look at him for too long. But Isolde saw the curiosity in her eyes, just as she saw how overwhelmed her sister was.
“It is not!” Thomas cried. “I always wanted a sword.”
“Maybe Cassian can teach you how to use it?” Isolde said as she sat down beside Cassian. Then, again, without asking, she took his hand. That time, he did not start or try to pull away.
“Maybe in a few years,” Cassian chuckled. “Right now, it is almost as tall as you are.”
“Promise?” Thomas demanded.
“I do,” Cassian said with a warm, genuine smile.
Isolde did not try to steer the conversation a certain way. She did not try to intercept Thomas’s barrage of questions. Rather, she sat back, relaxing fully, and felt Cassian do the same.
It was a most comfortable morning spent together.
There was no expectation about it. No decorum or need to impress and play a specific role.
It was the scene of a family spending time together, enjoying one another’s company, and reminding one another of what it meant to have those in this world worth caring for.
And as the hour wore on, Isolde saw Cassian warm up to the setting, his smile real and permanent, the light in his eyes reminding her of the man who she had first met when he’d woken in her home without a memory of who he was.
The real him…
When it finally came time for Cassian to leave, Thomas jumped from his seat, rushed Cassian, and threw his arms around his leg in a hug. Cassian started in surprise, looked at Isolde as if to save him, and then laughed as he patted Thomas on the head.
“Will you come and visit us?” Thomas asked as he clutched to Cassian’s leg.
“I will,” Cassian said. “So long as your sister allows it.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
Cassian left them after that, but when he did, he found Isolde’s eyes and made sure that she saw the smile behind his own. The sun shone brightly, and not just above, but all around them, as if blessing this day for what it was.
“I liked him,” Thomas said as they settled back down.
Isolde laughed as she looked back toward the manor.
A change had occurred that day, and she could feel it in her heart as well as her soul.
It wouldn’t be enough to change Cassian’s mind entirely; there was still some way to go, but she knew that this was the first step.
A necessary one. And honestly, she could not wait to take the second.
“I like him too,” she said to Thomas as she turned back. Truer words had never been spoken.