Shackles of Honor (4 page)

“Is this what you want, Father? For whatever reasons you have, do you want me to adhere to this betrothal agreement?”

She watched as her father’s jaw clenched tightly shut. He stood erect, confident
,
and powerful once again. “Yes,” he stated simply.

She heard her mother’s somewhat heartbroken whimper and, reaching over, pulled her mother’s arm from about her shoulders. “Then I will do as you wish. I will marry this man on whom I’ve never before laid eyes.” She looked to Mason Carlisle, his eyes still heartless and dark. “This man who looks upon me as no more than a duty, one that he so obviously despises.”

“I hold no grievance with you, miss,” Mason Carlisle mumbled.

“None other than the grievance you hold at my ever having been born,” Cassidy retorted calmly.

“Father!” Ellis was angry. It was the first time in her life that Cassidy could remember her brother shouting at their father. “This…this is insanity! She knows not of him! Nor do I! How can you ask her to…how can you expect her to do this? It is obvious he has no regard for her!”

“I have a profound regard for her!” Mason Carlisle erupted. “For I, of any in this room, acknowledge her predicament!” He stopped himself short and inhaled deeply in an attempt to regain his composure. “Excuse me. If it would be acceptable, would you have someone bring a plate to my room? It is obvious that this is the time for your family to confer alone. I’ve caused you enough irritation for one evening.” He strode past Cassidy toward the door. The aura of power and attraction about him was undeniable. Even as he brushed Cassidy’s arm in his exit
,
she could not deny his magnetism.

“Mason, please…” her mother began.

“Let the brute run, Mother,” Ellis taunted. “The longer his filthy hands are kept from Cassidy, the better!”

Cassidy gasped as Mason paused and took hold of Ellis’
s
lapel in a tight fist. “Only a man of honor would subject himself to such as this!” Mason growled, looking about the room and then back to Ellis in a gesture of distaste.

“Enough!” Lord Shea shouted. “Ellis! Enough. The man is innocent. Direct your anger at me if you must direct it.”

Ellis still glared hatefully up at Mason, but Mason released his hold on Ellis’
s
lapel and, tugging at his collar, said to Lady Shea, “Disregard the plate I requested.” Looking to Cassidy angrily, he added, “I’ve lost my appetite.” Then he stormed from the room
,
and his angry footsteps could be heard as he bounded the stairs two and three at a time.

Ellis immediately turned on his father. “What is the meaning of this, Father? Not a word! Not one inference! Never have either Cassidy or I heard of this! You’ve known since her birth? Known always? Today even, you knew and said nothing!” Cassidy’s mother burst into tears, burying her face in her hands and collapsing into a nearby chair. “
Why
, Father?” Ellis shouted. “Why the secrecy? Why the existence of the fact itself?”

Cassidy was numb, body and mind. It was too much to take in. In the course of the past fewest of minutes, her life had been irrevocably changed. She had become a casualty like so many of her acquaintances, offered to a stranger. But for what price? What reason could her parents have for entering into such an agreement with a family of which she had never before heard mention
?

“We were wrong in our silence perhaps,” Lord Shea admitted, yet his authority permeated the room as he continued, “and perhaps not. For there is much that neither of you know…that neither of you could begin to understand. I only ask for your trust once more. Ever have I earned it. Throughout your entire lives I have given you no reason to doubt me…until now. With that knowledge that ever have my strivings been for your benefit…ever have I done right by the both of you…with that knowledge I tell you that still I deserve your trust. Your mother and I will regret this decision for only a short time. It will come to serve you better than you can ever imagine, Cassidy.”

Cassidy felt the hot tears streaming down her lovely cheeks. Looking to her father, she could only whisper the question, “Why? Why, Father? Why me and why…why that man?”

Straightening his shoulders confidently, Lord Shea answered, “That I am not in readiness to reveal to you, my daughter. There is much that I must contemplate. Much comfort that I must give your mother. But I tell you now, with the honesty of all my heart and love for you…it will serve better than you can ever imagine.”

Ellis growled angrily and stormed from the room. Cassidy dropped to her knees before her mother and, taking her hands, begged, “Who is he, Mother? This man to whom you have given me? Who is he to you?”

Cylia Shea raised her eyes to her daughter’s in regained confidence. “He…he is the best of men, darling. Son to a family beloved by your father and me. He will serve you well. Believe in your father
,
and trust in us, please.”

Cassidy stood and, turning to leave the room as well, paused
,
saying, “I…I want to believe in you. But it’s made difficult when you will not even tell me why it is I must go with him.” And she fled from the room in a torrent of tears.



It was near to an hour that Cassidy spent alone in the west gardens sobbing as the fragrant scents of daffodil and tulip surrounded her. There was not reason to it! No way to understand it! Her parents would not even tell her how it had all come about. She could guess that they had formed a fast friendship with a couple and decided mutually that their children would wed when they were grown. But why then had she never heard the name of
Carlisle
before this very day?

As she thought on it, she could remember the initials D.B.C. on letters from someone to her mother. Initials of L.C. on letters to her father. Could the
C
in the initials be for
Carlisle
? Still, if they were such intimate friends as to wish their children to join, why then had she never heard of them? Why?

Finally, when there was no moisture left in her tired eyes for crying, she made her way back to the house. All was quiet within
,
as if nothing had changed. Her mother and father were nowhere to be seen
,
and she had heard the mad drumming of Ellis’
s
mount leaving the stables when she had been in the garden. She knew her mind was too alive with facing the death of her independence to sleep easily.

Perhaps a book, she mused as she entered the library, a book to divert her thoughts. But as she entered and looked toward the warming fire that crackled and spat in the large hearth, she noticed a form sitting in the deepness of a soft chair off to one side. Immediately her heart began to pound with a mania that was deafening. He sat, his elbows resting on the arms of the great chair, his hands made into tight fists, knuckles braced against one another beneath his chin. She stood frozen as he raised his eyes to her and then straightened in the chair.

“You’ve been found then,” he mumbled. “To think they had the audacity to inquire of me about your whereabouts.”

“You’ve known nearly your entire life?” she asked bluntly.

“I have.”

“And you despised me from the first.” She stated it. There was no question in her voice.

He did not argue the point
—
only said, “I’ve been sitting wondering which is the worst of it. Was it worse to know and anticipate my whole life as I have? Or would it be worse to be you and have it thrust on me unexpectedly, unwelcomely, all at once?”

“My father must have an immense regard for your father,” was all she could say.

“Hmm,” he mused, sarcastically somehow. “Yes, for my father.”

She did not miss the insinuation in his voice. “Our mothers then.”

“Ah, yes. Our mothers are great friends!” he exclaimed
,
and she sensed the anger rising in him once more. “And therefore, that fact alone makes this all dandy, doesn’t it?”

“Are you as violent a man as you appear to be?” she asked forthrightly.

“I am,” came his uncompromising response.

“Is your hatred for me as complete as it seems?”

“No.”

She was somewhat astonished at his answer. “Why not?” She was again surprised at her own bold question. She shifted uncomfortably as he stood, strode toward her
,
and seemed to study her carefully from head to toe.

“You are, at least, a comely girl,” he said rather indifferently.

She was infuriated at his brazen and worldly response. How dare he imply that her physical appearance would make the situation endurable for him? But she would not let him have the upper hand
,
and she quickly retorted, “And you are, at least, uniquely handsome.” Then, unable to hold her tongue any further, she added, “Though…I must tell you now that it would make no difference to me were you elderly, obese
,
and heinous to look upon.”

“Humph,” he sneered rather mockingly. “You’ll come to know the intense untruth of that remark.” Rising from his chair and pushing past her, he strode angrily from the room.

Chapter Two

There would come no respite through sleep for Cassidy Shea that night
—o
nly brief periods of fitful dozing when her mind would imagine the angry face of Mason Carlisle before her, disapproving and resentful. Therefore, she awoke ill-tempered, puffy-eyed
,
and more fatigued somehow than when she had retired.

“Good morning, Miss Cassidy,” Lynette said, entering the chamber with a basin of fresh water. “
’
Tis well past nine o’clock, you realize. The birds have been twittering for hours. I cannot believe you didn’t wake for them.”

“Nine!” Cassidy exclaimed, leaping from her bed. “How could it be that I slept so long? How could it be that Mother allowed me to sleep until now?”

“I would think it is because she has been otherwise occupied in your father’s study with their guest for the entirety of the morning.”

Cassidy felt as if a large lump of something was caught in her throat. She swallowed hard and smiled kindly at Lynette, grateful for the girl’s wonderful way of letting her know all the news in Terrill without actually telling her all the news.

“He’s still about then? That bullying brute of a man,
Carlisle
?” Cassidy asked, half hoping the morning would have found him taking his leave, certain she met with disgust in his eyes. Still, the other half
—
the more silent half of her soul, the half that only manifest itself in her mind
—
somehow delighted to learn that he remained under her father’s roof.

“Yes, miss. He’s about. That sinfully attractive, dark-haired man that is to be your husband, I hear.” Lynette’s eyes twinkled mischievously
,
and Cassidy was irritated by the sudden blush that heated her own cheeks. “I’ve never seen the like of him before. Not in all my days, I haven’t.”

“He is a heartless beast,” Cassidy mumbled, going to study her weary face in the looking glass.

“And you’re the beauty then, miss, to charm the savage in him?”

Lynette giggled
,
and Cassidy could not help smiling at her playful way. “You bring me such delightsome mirth and…and…”

“Common comfort?” Lynette finished.

“For lack of better words, yes. You help me see that life isn’t so all serious and dreary as I maybe perceived it.”

“How could life be dreary in the arms of such a man?”

“Lynette. Hush now. You go too far,” Cassidy scolded. Yet she was uncomfortably disturbed by the odd thrilling sensation that traveled over her flesh at Lynette’s comment. “Well, then,” she continued as Lynette only stood grinning all too knowingly, “come. Help me to look presentable as I face Monsieur Guillotine.”