Cassandra knew why Mary had returned before the maid uttered a single word.
"My lady." Mary said, "Lord Ravenshire wishes to speak with you."
There it was.
He came sooner than expected.
Cassandra slowly closed the document she had been perusing.
"So he’s here."
Mary nodded.
"He arrived only moments ago."
"And my parents?"
"They are aware of his presence."
Of course they were. Was there truly any doubt?
Cassandra rose and smoothed the front of her dress before meeting Mary’s gaze.
"I’ll speak with him."
Mary stepped forward. One glance at Cassandra’s face and it was clear she was less than thrilled to speak to John.
"My lady..." Something in her tone caused Cassandra to pause. "If you don’t wish to..."
She didn’t finish the sentence.
Cassandra managed a small smile.
"Thank you, Mary. I’ll be fine."
Mary wasn’t convinced. Neither was Cassandra.
But she understood something now that she’d failed to understand in her previous life.
Running wouldn’t solve this.
John would simply return tomorrow.
And the next day.
And the day after that. He was very persistent.
No, this conversation had to happen.
The morning room stood at the far end of the eastern wing.
"My lady." One of her father’s attendants opened the door for her and she stepped inside.
John was already on his feet by the time she entered, the door clicking shut behind her.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
John stood near the window as he faced her, his riding gloves resting neatly upon a nearby table. Sunlight spilled through the glass, casting him in warm afternoon light.
He looked exactly as she remembered. Well dressed, perfectly composed. The sort of gentleman mothers wished their daughters would marry. If she hadn’t lived through the years that followed, she might have found the sight reassuring.
Instead, her pulse quickened, warning her that a predator lurked nearby.
She knew the monster hidden beneath his smiles.
"Cassandra." His voice remained as gentle as ever. "I’m glad you agreed to see me."
Cassandra remained near the door.
"I wasn’t given much of a choice."
A flicker of something crossed his features. Gone almost before she noticed it.
"I’m sorry you feel that way. You are behaving rather strangely. Have I done anything to offend you?" He held up the paper he had been clutching in his hands. "I received your letter."
"I assumed as much." Why else would he have come?
He nodded thoughtfully. "I’ve read it several times."
"And?" Cassandra barely tried to hide her disinterest in the conversation. Anything at all was better than standing here with him, forced to endure another second of this farce and the fake persona of a concerned fiance he concocted for himself.
"And I came because I think you’ve made a mistake."
He hadn’t come because he wanted to understand her reasoning. No, simply because he believed she was in the wrong for wanting to end their engagement.
Cassandra looked steadily at him. "I haven’t."
A second later, a servant entered carrying a tray.
"My lord. My lady."
Without waiting for Cassandra to answer, John stepped forward. "Just leave it there."
The servant obeyed immediately before bowing and showing himself out.
The door closed once more.
John lifted the teapot.
"You still prefer your tea without sugar, right? You’re behaving so differently all of a sudden, I wanted to make sure this fact about you hasn’t changed as well."
"I don’t want tea."
He hummed noncommittally and poured her a cup anyway.
It was a habit she remembered all too well from their marriage. No matter how simple her request, he would ignore it entirely, always choosing to do whatever suited him instead.
Steam from the hot beverage curled gently into the air. He placed it on the table nearest her before pouring one for himself.
Afterwards, he sat and made himself comfortable, like a man settling into his own drawing room.
"Cassandra." He folded one leg neatly over the other. "I’ve been thinking during the ride here and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is all rather simple. You have been unattached for so long that you developed a fear of commitment. A month to our wedding and you are having second thoughts. It’s normal, it happens to the best of us. But you always tend to overthink even the smallest matters and I sometimes dread to know what goes on in that mind of yours."
She could hardly believe her ears. Shock rendered her momentarily speechless as he spoke to her like an unruly child rather than a grown woman of twenty-seven.
"I have always admired your logic and reasoning but right now, I do not recognize the woman standing in front of me." He went on when she remained silent. "Help me understand why you chose to send a letter instead of speaking to me directly about the matter. You’ve never been one to avoid difficult conversation."
She stared at him in disbelief. How? What on earth had possessed her to fall for a man like him? Why had she convinced herself that he loved her?
"John, I no longer wish to marry you." She knew he had never loved her. The way he had treated her throughout their marriage had made that painfully clear. So why was he so determined to prevent their engagement from being dissolved?
Their union offered no significant political or financial advantage. John was the son of a marquess, while Cassandra’s father was merely a count. House Ashford also possessed nowhere near the wealth of House Ravenshire. So what made him so unwilling to let her go?
Could it be her connection to the queen that he was after? Cassandra wondered. As she sought to uncover who had orchestrated the attack on the queen in her previous life, she could not afford to dismiss any possibility.
John regarded her quietly for a long moment after she finished speaking.
Then, to her astonishment, he smiled.
Not because anything she had said amused him.
Somehow, he had already decided her words weren’t worth dwelling on.
"I’ve been thinking, the guest list has grown rather larger than either of us anticipated. Mother insists on inviting the Randalls, though I doubt they’ll accept." He said.
Cassandra could only stare at him, once again astonished by how their conversation had veered in an entirely different direction. A single discussion with him was enough to leave her feeling disoriented.
Perhaps he realized that she wasn’t backing down so he reverted to a different tactic.
"I ended our engagement already."
"Yes." He gave a small, absent-minded nod. "I received your letter."
He acknowledged her words as casually as one might comment on the weather before resuming exactly where he had left off.
"I’ve also been considering a few renovations at Ravenshire Manor before you move in. The east wing gets considerably more sunlight than the west, and I think you’d prefer it."
For one disorienting moment, Cassandra wondered if she’d somehow imagined the entire exchange.
It felt unreal.
She had broken off their engagement.
Yet John was calmly discussing where she would live after their wedding, speaking with such certainty that it almost made her question her own reality.
Her irritation flared. In another life, she would have. She would have wondered whether she had been unclear. Whether she had somehow given him reason to believe she hadn’t meant it.
But she knew better now.
John wasn’t confused, nor had he misunderstood her. He was simply dismissing her words, just as he always did whenever things failed to go according to his plans.
"There isn’t going to be a wedding," she said, cutting him off once more.
"I would rather you didn’t make decisions while you’re so upset and overwrought."
This was why she hated arguing with him. It was both exhausting and a waste of her time.