Page 20 of A Highland Duke to Claim Her Heart

Who, he was fairly certain from the look of shock on her face, had heard every word that had passed between himself and Annabelle.

Chapter 8

Sometimes we must do things out of duty and responsibility. In order to protect our families.

Every time she closed her eyes, she again heard the duke’s words.

He had been speaking about marrying her. And he had not used words of affection or words of love. He had not said that he respected or liked her. He had not even said that hewantedto marry her.

Instead, he had spoken of duty and responsibility.

As if she was a task that he was forced to accomplish.

As if she was nothing more than an inherited problem, being passed from one brother to the next.

Because that, it appeared, was what was happening. She didn’t yet know why or how. All she knew was that Christopher was gone. The duke had come back from Inverness without him. And she was now willing to wager a great deal that he was never coming back.

As sunlight spilled into the room, she turned over onto her side and stared at the crack in the curtain, where she could just see a glimpse of the Scottish countryside.

What would it be like to marry the duke?

It would mean she would get to stay in the Highlands. That was a prospect that brought her joy. But it would also mean marrying a man she did not know. Not the one who had courted her, who had charmed her, who had given her hope that she might be happy. But also not the one with a reputation for rakishness, who had run off just weeks before their wedding.

Instead, it would mean marrying the brother with the reputation for distance. But who did, after all, seem honorable.

She remembered the way he had pulled her from the loch, how he had insisted that she ride the horse back to Calder Castle. Those large hands that had held hers, calloused and worn from tending his own fields, from caring for his land.

Something fluttered inside of her, and she sat up very quickly.

She needed to speak with Annabelle. That was the most important thing. If she were going to even consider marrying the duke, she first had to make sure it was something that would make the child happy. The last thing she wanted was to try andreplace Annabelle’s mother and earn the reputation of the evil stepmother.

Of course, she knew that the person sheshouldspeak with was the duke, but the thought of it scared her too much.

She rang for her maid, then dressed quickly. She already knew where she would find Annabelle: The child liked to pay in the secluded sitting room in the West Wing of the house.

And indeed, when she arrived there fifteen minutes later—having skipped breakfast altogether, her stomach too much in knots to even countenance it—it was to find Annabelle putting together a large puzzle on the floor.

She smiled widely when Cassandra came in.

“Lady Cassandra!” she cried. “Will you help me?”

“Of course I will,” Cassandra said, sitting down on the carpet next to the girl. The puzzle was large, with hundreds of pieces, and Annabelle had only just started the border. As Cassandra searched for pieces, she eyed Annabelle. What did she know? And how best to ask?

Fortunately, she didn’t have to.

“Papa came to see me last night after he returned from Inverness,” Annabelle said, as she tried unsuccessfully to fit two pieces together. “He said that you might be my new Mama.”

Cassandra felt as if her mouth had been filled with cotton. She tried to remain calm and focused on the puzzle, but as she lifted up a piece to examine it, her hands shook.

“Is that so?” she murmured. “And what would you think of that?”

“I would be delighted,” the little girl said, as she frowned at the two pieces she could not make connect. “You are very much fun to play with. As much fun as Miss Ashworth!”

“That is very kind of you to say,” Cassandra said, gazing at her in astonishment. Over the last few days, while Cassandra had waited to learn her fate, she had been spending her days playing with Annabelle.

It had been very soothing to be in the presence of a child, someone who was not at all concerned about her matrimonial state. And Annabelle was the sweetest, most precocious child she had ever met.

But she had not thought that meant the girl would want her as a mother.