AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If he did, I think she would have told me, or he would have mentioned her arrival, don’t you think?”
Cassandra smiled. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to earn her fare back to Massachusetts after all. She could meet someone and stay. Maybe she’d meet the man of her dreams at the picnic.
She’d just finished up watering every plant in the huge garden when Mr. Royal rode up to her. “I see you’re at least earning your keep.”
Cassandra straightened her back and glared at the man. “There’s no reason for you to be angry with me. I’m a victim of false pretenses the same as you are.”
Cameron watched her for a moment before nodding. “I guess you are. All right.” He didn’t apologize but instead rode off to the stable—or a building she assumed was the stable—and put his gelding away.
After staring after him for a moment, she returned to her work. The longer she took, the more chance she gave mother and son to talk about the situation and decide what to do.
She returned all the garden tools to the spot in the small shed Mrs. Royal had shown her. Brushing her hands off, she slowly walked toward the house. She didn’t want to hear a discussion about her needing to go back where she came from.
When she opened the door and stepped inside, she could see that Miriam was putting supper on the table. It was hard to call the older woman Mrs. Royal even in her mind. She was so friendly, Cassandra already felt like they were friends.
Miriam looked at her and laughed. “You weren’t joking when you said you loved digging in the dirt. You are a mess, child.”
“Your garden is beautiful. I truly enjoyed working in it. Is there time for me to wash up a bit and change before supper?” Cassandra did her best not to be embarrassed by the state of her appearance. It wasn’t as if someone who mattered could see her.
“Absolutely. I’ll give you a pitcher, and you can fill the bowl in your room and clean up in there.”
“Thank you so much.” Cassandra gratefully accepted the pitcher and took it upstairs to her room, where she stripped down to nothing and put on all new clothing including her underthings. Everything was covered in dirt, and she had to giggle just a little. She was a mess, and she wasn’t even ashamed of it.
She took her hair down out of the bun it had been in when she arrived, though little of her blond hair remained up. Instead of fussing with it, she brushed it out and let it hang down her back. It looked better that way anyway, and her mother wasn’t there to tell her she looked like a loose woman.
She hurried down the stairs to the kitchen where she unfortunately overheard a bit of talk about herself. “Give the girl a chance, Cameron. She’s feisty and sweet and the type of woman I would love to have for a daughter-in-law.”
“Then I hope you have another son around. I will not marry someone who my mother found for me.”
“Why not? I’m not controlled by what’s in the front of your pants, and I’m sure I’ll make a better decision than you will.” Miriam sounded downright cross to Cassandra.
“Is that so?” he asked.
“Very much so. The last two girls you courted were dumber than a lamppost, and I know they weren’t worthy of being Royals.”
“Royal isn’t even our real name, so how can you act like you have this family heritage that matters to you so much?”
Cassandra frowned. Why don’t they use their real name?
“Doesn’t matter whether we took our name from the river or not. We now have a Royal heritage.”
He scoffed. “You’re just being silly now, Ma.”
“I refuse to believe I’m anything but a Royal. Everything that happened in Manhattan needs to stay right where it is. There, not here. We’ve made a new life together, and a bride would simply make everything complete.”
He sighed. “I’ll talk to her. Spend a little time with her. But if I’m not as enamored of her as you are, I’m putting her on a train right back where she came from.”
“All right,” Mrs. Royal said.
Cassandra waited another minute before going into the kitchen to join them. “What can I do to help with supper?” she asked, keeping her voice cheery. They didn’t need to know she’d overheard their conversation.
“You’ve done enough work today, dear,” Mrs. Royal said with a smile. “You just sit down and let me bring you a plate. I shouldn’t have let you work on the garden after being cooped up in the train for so long, and I’m angry with myself for letting you talk me into it.”
“I think if you hadn’t let me work in the garden, I may have needed to be sent to an asylum. I needed to reconnect with the earth after so many days in a man-made contraption.”
“I bet you loved working with the children,” Miriam said. “I hope you didn’t spend every day with them playing in the dirt.”
Cassandra shook her head, taking a seat at the table as far from Cameron as she could. “My former employers wouldn’t allow me to take the children outside. They felt it was best for them to stay indoors and concentrate on scholarly pursuits. I only had one afternoon off per week, so my dirt time has been very limited.”
