Page 21 of Ruthless, But for Her

His voice was devoid of emotion, but his expression wasn't. Cassia had the distinct feeling she'd insulted him.

Of course she had. He had been raised here. He had been raised in a stew house.

“I am so sorry.”

“No need.”

He left the rest unsaid, the part where he told her he was accustomed to such derision. At least, that was what she thought he’d have said.

She had treated him no better than she’d been treated by the earl who'd come to Grantchester when she was fifteen, the one her father had bowed and scraped for. She'd curtsied and smiled, but the man had looked through her, turning to speak to her father about matters a girl needed not trouble herself with.

And she had just done the same to him.

Ashton said nothing more. He walked, and she walked beside him, the red door drawing closer with every step. Smoke curled from the chimneys as they approached and too soon, they stood on the building’s threshold.

A thick, wooden door, painted red.

An unmistakable beacon.

CHAPTER 13

Ashton

The red door opened before they reached it.

Margot stood in the frame. She was a small woman. Ashton had been grown before he understood how small she actually was, having spent his childhood certain she was the largest person at Mere’s End.

“You brought her through the front.”

“I did.”

Margot looked past him to the lady. Ashton knew the order of it. The gown first, the dye and the cut. Then the hands, soft, a lady’s hands. Then the face.

Cassia held Margot’s gaze.

Ashton noted it.

“Come in,” Margot said, “before half of Mere’s End wonders why.”

Inside, the Daisy closed around them, warm and familiar. The main hall ran the length of the ground floor. A fire was well built in the great hearth, and there was low talk at two of the tables, while the work of the kitchen continued on behind it as it always did. Clean boards underfoot, no rushes. Candles that smelled faintly of honey.

Ashton watched Cassia take in the room. He knew what she was finding, as she’d not yet learned to school her features to hide her thoughts. She saw wealth, where she had not thought to find it.

Margot led them past the hall to the small chamber behind the stair. It had a good door and no window. It was the chamber where she said she shut in the things she did not want carried.

“Say it, then.”

So he told her. About the merchant ship. Taking Lady Cassia. What waited for her at Denby. He kept it short.

Margot listened without moving. When he finished, she stayed quiet a while. She had understood the situation before he had. She always did.

“And you brought her here.”

“There was nowhere else.”

“There’s always somewhere else.” There was no heat in her tone. Only truth.

He didn’t answer. It was true, but he would not give her the reason.