Lady Sherborne coughed, and Lady Honora gave a perfunctorycurtsy to Aunt Valentine.
“Good morning, Lady Dorchester.”
“Perhaps we are early,” Lady Sherborne mused. “I could have sworn that our appointment was at eleven.”
“Is it eleven already?” Aunt Valentine gave her an apologetic smile. “The blame lies with me. We’ve overstayed. We’ll get Cassandra out of her dress”—Lady Honora rolled her eyes with a snort—“and we’ll be on our way.”
“No need to make haste on our behalf. We are here for the same purpose, after all.” Lady Sherborne turned to Cassandra, and her smile faltered. “What a fascinating dress. Congratulations to you, Miss Cooper on your…speedynuptials.”
“And to Honora, forhers,” Aunt Valentine cut in, and then paused. Her voice laced with concern at Lady Honora’s appearance. “Dear, you look pale.”
“She has been agitated all week. Young brides and their theatrics. I’m sure you understand.” Lady Sherborne clucked, and then simpered. “Come with me, Lady Dorchester, let’s leave these girls to catch up. I simply must have your opinion on this silk brocade.”
“Of course.” Aunt Valentine smiled and gestured to the modiste. “Madame Fournier if you would be so kind?”
Madame Fournier followed Lady Sherborne from the room. Pausing at the curtain, Aunt Valentine shot Cassandra a look that saidbehave. “We’ll be just outside.”
The curtain fluttered closed behind her.
Abandoned, Cassandra stood on a pedestal, unable to move with pins against her skin. She tried to follow Aunt Valentine’s advice as Lady Honora circled her like a shark, examining Cassandra from head to toe as if she were a new species. She picked at lace and tugged at embedded pearls, scowling as if each stitch offended her. Cassandra fought the urge to slap her hands away.
“Good morning, Lady Honora.”
Lady Honora stood in front of her and scoffed. “Some dress. I’m surprised they’re letting you marry in a church.”
Cassandra adopted her own air of ennui.
“St. Paul’s Cathedral, in fact.”
“Nothing but the best for Lord Bolderwood’sson, hm?” Lady Honora put a hand to her cheek. “What a shocking announcement to make on thesame dayMr. Reeves compromised you under his own roof. I suppose what they say is true, agrandchildcan turn any man’s heart. Have you thought of names?”
“We’rebothbeing married by special license,” Cassandra parried, darting her eyes to Lady Honora’s stomach and then to her face. “Haveyou?”
“Here’s a name for you,” she said, icy and lethal. “The Wager Wife. Captain Reeves’Gallant Exploit, indeed.”
Confused by the insult, Cassandra frowned. Aunt Valentine hadn’t allowed her access to the society papers. It wasn’t as though anyone was banging their door down with gossip about her incident in Hampshire, but now she understood. The pamphlets. Her own moniker, no different from a schoolyard taunt.
Wager Wife.
How absurd.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
Lady Honora laughed, unbalancing Cassandra by her sudden change in tone.
“You truly don’t know about the wager? The entiretonis talking about it.”
“What wager?” Cassandra snapped.
A victorious smile crossed Lady Honora’s face, and she said sweetly, “Why, the one that Mr. Reeves and Colonel Bishop made foryour virginity, of course.”
Pins broke Cassandra’s skin with her sharp inhalation. Controlling her breathing, she smothered the seed of doubt even as it took root. Lady Honora was lying. Cassandra knew that because… “Seth wouldnever.”
“We all watched him do it.” She ensured she had Cassandra’s full attention before she continued, “During the target competition, Mr. Reeves and Colonel Bishop made a wager that whoever made the final shot would win the right to ‘bed’ you. They shook hands on it in front of everyone.”
The memory flashed in her mind, and yes, shehadseen the moment Lady Honora was referring to. When she thought Seth and Colonel Bishop might come to blows on the range. A handshake, a rush of movement, a shot from a rifle… and Seth pursued her outright. Kissed her in a field, in a glasshouse, in herbedchamber,when he had never shown an interest before. That wasn’t because of a wager… was it?
Seth loved her.