“Nobody wants a bastard to sweep her off her feet.” Lady Honora huffed. “Especially one that has to be dragged onto the ballroom floor.You poor thing, you must have been humiliated. It might bring you comfort to know that Mr. Reeves was equally forced into that waltz as you were.”
“Forced?” Cassandra’s jaw dropped. “Neither of us were—”
“Oh, no one is judging you!” Lady Samantha said hurriedly. “We’ve all been in a position to dance with someone unfavorable, but neither of you are truly at fault. Your brother asked Mr. Reevesthreetimesto dance with you. Heclearlydidn’t want to participate in Lord Lincolnshire’s… what was the word? Oh yes,sabotage.”
“Are you certain you heard correctly?” Cassandra asked, reeling, because Matthewwouldn’t—
“We heard all of it at the refreshment table. It sounded like your brother was trying to prevent Colonel Bishop from asking you to dance!” Miss Georgiana chimed in.
Iron-hot embarrassment boiled within her.I should have known!Matthew promised her he wouldn’t interfere, but it was another one of his lies. It stung equally that Mr. Reeves was enabling her brother. A knot formed in her throat. Of course,of course, he only asked her to dance to help Matthew thwart Colonel Bishop.
And this morning, was that more of the same? Keeping her busy so she wouldn’t fawn over their competition? Neither he nor Matthew had the right! She felt like a toy being thrown from one child to the next in a game of keep-away.
How much fun they must be having at my expense!
“The way they treat the Colonel is abhorrent. It looked like Mr. Reeves was going to strike him yesterday at the match,” Lady Samantha clucked.
Lady Honora pursed her lips. “I despise a man that cannot control his temper.”
“Mr. Reeves doesn’t have a temper,” Cassandra defended him, but even as she said the words, they sounded untrue. Mr. Reevesdidpossess a temper, and this was the first time that he revealed it to her. Barely controlled rage lay under his surface, held back by a thread. Each time he was around Colonel Bishop, that thread was on the verge of snapping. For both men, really. If they were ever alone with each other, Cassandra was positive that they would tear each other to pieces.
“I heard him and your brother yelling at each other in the hall before breakfast!” Miss Georgiana cut in. “It sounded like they were brawling!”
Brawling?!
“In an Earl’s Manor?” Lady Samantha scoffed, but then giggled. “What brutes! Why didn’t you say anything earlier? Miss Cooper, your family never fails to entertain.”
“You must be mistaken. My brother and Mr. Reeves never even argue, they wouldn’t brawl.” Cassandra twisted her hands in her lap. Only one recent event would enrage Matthew enough to go to blows with his best friend, and that was if he had seen them embracing in the library. But no, he couldn’t have! They were far enough away from each other when Matthew stepped into the room. He had been annoyed, certainly, but not violently so. Mr. Reeves’ temper may have been on a short fuse, but Matthew never lost his composure.
And nothing happened for him to be upset over!
A lady couldn’t be compromised by a man rubbing his thumb over her lip. Right? Or holding her close, running his hands over her back, kissing herhair—a flush rose to her face. Yes, she certainly could, and that would be the one justification for Matthew to attack anyone.
Even Mr. Reeves.
Had Matthew seen? Or maybe—Cassandra paled—had Mr. Reeves confessed?
“I don’t see why the Earl tolerates it,” Lady Honora said. “I saw Mr. Reeves this morning, he wasn’t even dressed. Bastard or no, it’s disrespectful to the rest of us.”
“They say that he’s not the Earl’s son at all, but an orphan he kidnapped and locked away so that he could create the perfect soldier,” Miss Georgiana continued, voice low and spooky as if she were telling a ghost story.
“Where do you hear nonsense like that?” Lady Honora snorted. “‘Orphan’ is a delicate way to explain infidelity, Georgie. It’s fashionable to adopt a ward, but it’s a downright disgrace to raise a bastard. If itistrue, the Earl’s favoritism will disqualify your brother, Miss Cooper, I’m sorry to say.”
But Lady Honora didn’t sound sorry in the slightest.
“Which is it, Miss Cooper? Is he an orphan, or a by-blow?” Lady Samantha asked, as if she were asking,‘one lump of sugar, or two?’
Cassandra held her hands tight in her lap.
“I don’t know.”
The ladies erupted in giggles.
“Of course she wouldn’t say,” Lady Samantha said to Lady Honora, as if Cassandra hadn’t been sitting next to her.
Cassandra’s brain churned with the barrage of new information and the frustration at not being able to answer such a simple question. During their fourteen years of knowing each other, she had not once thought to ask Mr. Reeves about his parents. During those summers he spent with her family, he fell in with the Coopers so completely that it was easy to forget that he came from somewhere else. But not just anywhere else.
Here, in Hollingsworth Manor.
