“Are you calling me a liar?!” Bishop barked.
“My sister could have died!”
“And it would have beenyourfault!” Bishop snapped back at him. “I wouldneverhave put her life at risk the way you did this morning. Who brings a woman on a hunt?! She shouldn’t have been here to begin with!”
Seth moved, ready to defend Cooper, but he stopped. There was an ugly truth to Bishop’s words, and when Cooper flinched, he knew it too. Hunting accidents like these happened all the time. She woregreen. She could have died. Bile churning in his stomach, rising in his throat, he struggled not to retch as the words bounced around his mind.
She could have died.
If he had been a second too slow, if Sabre was tired, or if he had been a less experienced rider, less strong, shewouldhave died, or sufferedsevereinjuries.
And it would have been Cooper’s fault.
Cassandra’s small voice silenced everyone.
“Matthew.” She curled her fingers in his shirt. “Please, can we go?”
“I’m taking her back to the manor,” Cooper announced. Turning, he picked up Cassandra again and walked to his horse. A tiny protest escaped Cassandra that sounded like, “please not another horse.”
“I’ll accompany you. She’ll be looked over by my physician,” Lord Bolderwood said gruffly, following suit. “I expect everyone in my study! Nobody steps foot outside of the manor until a complete inventory is taken, every round and every gram of black powder will be accounted for. And Colonel, if you’ve lied and put one of my guests in danger, you will be disqualified.”
Bishop spluttered with indignation.
“And for God’s sake, someone go find that horse!”
Chapter Fourteen
“You’reabsolutelysure?”
Matthew towered over an unmoving Mr. Edgars while Cassandra sat straight-backed on a settee in the blue sitting room. Jasmine and Aunt Valentine sat on either side of her, holding her hands. If not for their comforting presence, she might have fallen apart. Her muscles ached from the strain, but she refused to crumple in a room full of people. It was humiliating enough that she burst into tears in the forest.
Lord Bolderwood stood in front of the room, speaking in hushed tones with Lord Dorchester. The Earl insisted upon staying until the doctor arrived, which surprised Cassandra, as his actions had been more than thorough. As soon as they arrived at the manor, he sent his fastest rider into Ringwood—a market town over an hour away by carriage—and had immediately cleared the blue room, ordering that all drapes and doors be closed for privacy.
Surely these measures were overboard. She wasfine, as she repeatedly stated, but Lord Bolderwood’s powerful glare silenced her protests. When he studied her now, she saw an emotion cross his face that she didn’t have the depth to recognize.
Concern? Puzzlement? Irritation?
The only emotion Matthew seemed to feel was belligerent, andSeth….
Seth.
With his arms crossed and his back against the door, he stood sentinel, blank-faced but radiating displeasure. Whenever someone would knock, he would open the door half an inch, give a terse, “She’s fine,” and close it in their face. His scowl matched Lord Bolderwood’s, deadly enough to scare away whoever had the audacity to intrude. At that moment, there was astrongresemblance between them. Questioning it only made her head hurt.
But her heart didn’t care who Seth’s parents were, or where he came from. Her heart wantedhishands in hers, wanted to lean into his strength, to be held, and accept the comfort she knew would be there. She tried not to stare at him, because for the first time, she trulysawhim. He hadn’t looked her way since he kissed her. And how he kissed her!Reallykissed her! With passion and desperation, and she had kissed himback.
When she imagined her first kiss, she thought perhaps it would be sweet and chaste, stolen at a ball, or with her future husband on their wedding night. At the very least, she thought she would have some control over it. In an instant, Seth stole that from her and she couldn’t even bring herself to be angry. Not when she decidedly controlled theirsecondkiss. Grabbing onto him and bringing him back to her had been as natural as breathing.
‘The heat of the moment,’ she had heard it called. When someone loses control of reason and abandons themselves to instinct. She never thought she would have experienced such a sensation, and withhim. And now….
What were they now?
It wasn’t as if they would start courting. Cassandra choked back a deprecating scoff. It wasn’t possible. Their circumstances hadn’t changed—far from it—as Colonel Bishop’s success that morning wasdetermined as a legal win. The three competitors were on even standing, and no matter the outcome, Seth would disappear from her life the moment the contest concluded. Wealthy or not, he was still a commoner, and she needed to marry agentleman.
For the family.
For Caroline.
Nothing had changed, and yet,everythinghad changed.
