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“On the Welsh border.” She pressed her lips together. “I’ll pay.”
He let out a low whistle and was about to object, but something in the pretty blonde’s face forestalled him. What was the harm in a little country amble?
“All right then. If that’s what you want.” He tapped the address into his sat nav then settled in for the long drive ahead.
Cassie stared out of the window, and tried not to think about Layth, and the fact she’d just run away from her very powerful, very beautiful lover.
The driver made good time on the road out of London and before long the scenery began to merge into something recognisable. Though Cassie hadn’t been to Jude’s in years, it was almost exactly the same. Magical hedges of green lined the long drive, and vines scrambled drunkenly over the stone walls.
“Not a bad place to hang yer hat,” the driver commented in his thick Essex accent.
Cassie leaned forward, scanning the impressive façade. Jude had her flag waving; she was home. Cassie pulled almost a thousand pounds from her bag and handed them to the driver. At his insistence that she was being overly generous, she demurred, “It’s for the return journey. And for getting me away. Thank you.”
“I hope it all works out for you, love.”
Cassie nodded. So did she.
It was impossible to imagine, in that moment, how in the world it ever could.
Cassie searched under the mat until her fingers pressed against the reassuring shape of the hide-a-key. She slipped it into the lock and crept inside.
“Who’s that?” Jude called, moving with her usual speed into the hallway. “Oh, Cass!” She laughed gaily. “What a treat. I was just thinking of you yesterday.” She engulfed Cassie in a warm embrace and the smell of exotic bath products. Her lips were bright red despite the fact it was still relatively early in the morning, and her hair was now a shade of blonde and mauve. It suited her.
Cassie opened her mouth to say as much, but one look at Jude’s face and she burst into tears.
“Oh, Silver.” Jude wrapped her up tight, reverting to the name she’d given Cassie the first moment she’d seen her blonde hair and pale skin. “You’re in a pickle. Come and tell me all about it.”
Jude kept an arm around her niece’s waist as she set the kettle boiling and brewed a pot of peppermint tea. “What’s happened?”
It took twenty minutes to lay the whole story out for a silent and contemplative Jude. Cassie didn’t omit any details; there was no need with Jude.
“Do you love this man?”
Cassie bit down on her lip. “I can’t love him. It’s forbidden. By who he is, and what’s expected of him, and what he wants from life.”
“What’s that?”
“He wants to do the right thing by his people. He’s been raised to see his royal duty as the ultimate. Nothing would convince him to forsake that.”
“Not even you, and the possibility that you might be pregnant?”
Cassie was numb. “If I am, I have no idea what he’ll want to do.” She shivered.
“What he wants is not what I care about. What do you want to do, Silver?”
Cassie stared at her aunt, completely at a loss. “I don’t know,” she said finally.
“Until you know for sure, this could all just be a storm in a teacup.”
“Sage advice, Jude, but he’s getting married. That’s not a storm in a teacup. That’s reality.”
“Mmm,” Jude pouted her bright lips together and reached for Cassie’s hand. Jude wore a ring on every finger except one. Cassie stared at the bright jewels, and thought of the ring Layth had given her. “But you knew he would get engaged. You were aware of that from almost the first time you met him.”
Cassie’s throat hurt. “But I didn’t know then how that would make me feel. I was actually afraid when he first mentioned it, that he might have been suggesting I marry him.”
Jude watched as Cassie laughed awkwardly. “And now? Is that what you want?”
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” She groaned angrily. “But when I think of him marrying someone else …”
