Cassandra pushed the lord back on his pillow. “I agree to it at great cost to myself and only if you will stay still.”
The dowager rushed into the room, “The doctor will be here in moments. Good, he is awake. That is promising.”
“We’re to be married,” Edwin said to his grandmother. “She’s said it, let you be a witness. She cannot change her mind now.”
The dowager’s expression showed worry. “Lord, he’s delirious. That isnota good sign.”
“He is not delirious,” Cassandra said quietly, finding herself somewhat embarrassed to have reversed herself so entirely.
“I promised her a lot of guns,” Edwin said.
The dowager crossed her arms. “I hope, dear grandson, you also spoke of love.”
“Most ardently,” Edwin said. “I believe she will come to love me too, over time.”
“We shall see,” Cassandra said, turning her head away.
“Cassandra Knightsbridge,” the Dowager said rather sternly. “Now is not the time to prevaricate.”
Cassandra blushed up to her ears. She did not know how the dowager had divined her real feelings, but it appeared that she had. Perhaps she had before Cassandra even knew them herself. “If you imply,” she said to the Dowager, “that I love him already, well then I do. Though it is certainly not my fault!”
Edwin squeezed her hand tight in his own. “My darling, darling girl,” he whispered.
The dowager turned to Ben, who stood near the door, red in the face. “Do be good and fetch my writing things. There is a gentleman here who needs to pen an appeal to a certain young lady’s father before the sun has set.”
“Ma’am! He is grievously injured,” Cassandra said. “He will not have the ability to write a letter so soon.”
The dowager turned back to Cassandra. “My dear, if he has one ounce of strength left in his limbs, he will manage it. We have not come this far to cry off now.”
“Just so,” Edwin said.
“I will send your maid in to chaperone while we wait for the doctor,” the dowager said, “though I warn you, I will be remarkably slow about it.”
Cassandra blushed up to her ears. The dowager, seeming pleased that she had arranged things to her satisfaction, bustled from the room.
“You have truly forgiven me?” Edwin asked with some trepidation.
“I have,” Cassandra said, playing with the torn cuff of his sleeve.
“I expect when I irritate you on some matter, which I am highly likely to do, you’ll wonder to yourself why you ever did forgive me.”
“Perhaps,” Cassandra said. “But then I will remind myself that I have come out of this experience far different than I went into it. Goodness, when I first arrived, I was so frightened of thetonand doing everything right and not disappointing anybody.”
“You? Frightened?” Edwin said. He laughed, and then clutched his head.
“Do be still,” Cassandra said in a firm tone. “Yes, I was frightened. And I was terribly affected by other’s opinions of me.”
“But you are not now?”
“No, I am not now. I hope you meant what you said, for I have every intention of shooting your pheasant out of the sky to my heart’s content.”
“If your heart is content, then so is mine,” Edwin said.
*
The doctor hadseen to Lord Hampton and pronounced him having a slight concussion. He would not be any worse for it, though it would be some days before he could be moved. The doctor had also been prevailed upon to examine May, who had come out of the whole thing with only a few scratches and a strained hindquarter.
The viscount had received Lord Hampton’s letter in good time, which had been prefaced with great apologies for not arriving in person due to the accident. Cassandra’s father wrote his daughter back that he would be as good as his word. She was to decide for herself who she would marry and she’d have to live with it if she chose wrong. It was perhaps not the most ringing endorsement, but it suited the couple well enough.
