Page 57 of Impetuous

“I am not!” Cassandra stopped, planting her hands on her hips and facing him.

“My mistake,” Philip said drily. “I seem to be making any number of wrong assumptions these days. You are not running away. You do not hate me. Nothing is wrong.”

Cassandra let out an exasperated noise. “All right. If you must know, it is not anything you did. I mean, nothing you did to me, specifically. It is your attitude in general. It is your smug, male—” She sputtered to a stop, unable to think of a way to express herself decently. “Oh, damn and blast!” She let out one of her father’s favorite oaths. “How could you put that home here?”

His jaw dropped. Whatever he had expected her to say, it was not this. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Silverwood, of course. How could you have set it here, not a stone’s throw from Haverly House?”

“You are upset because of where I put the boys?”

“Yes. It’s bad enough that everyone knows about them, that it’s common knowledge that you— But to insult your mother in such a way! And your grandmother, too.”

His face changed, settling into lines that, to Cassandra’s amazement, looked very much like disappointment. “That is why you have been avoiding me? Why you turned from me yesterday? Because I gave those children a home?”

“No. Not that you house and feed them. It is certainly decent of you.”

“Thank you. Your enthusiasm overwhelms me.”

“Surely you cannot expect me to praise you for doing your duty!” Cassandra flared. “But the way that you do it! Plopping them down right here, practically on your mother’s doorstep. She must be mortified.”

“Not all women are like you. Believe it or not, Mother is rather proud of me. She bruits it about far more than I care to have it known.”

“I am sure that is true,” Cassandra retorted sarcastically, stung by the contempt in his voice. How dare he act as if she were in the wrong?

“I would never have thought that you, of all people, would object to Silverwood. There are those who do, of course—straitlaced, arrogant snobs who think that children like that should be hidden away somewhere—but I would never have counted you in their number. Obviously I was mistaken.”

“Obviously you were, if you thought that I would countenance your setting up a house for your by-blows right in front of your family! Did you think me that loose, that I would not care that you have a score of—of—”

He stared at her, understanding dawning on his face. “Bastards? Is that what you were going to say?”

“Not exactly. But it will do. I agree that there are men who would have denied their obligation, but I cannot find it noble on your part not to deny them. It is, I think, basic decency.”

“I see.” His jaw tightened. “So I am a decent man to house and feed them, but a cur to do so near to my home.”

“No,” Cassandra flared. “Merely disrespectful to do that to your mother and grandmother. What makes you a cur is callously bringing them into the world to begin with.”

“I see. Pray tell, how did you find out all this?”

“’Tis a common rumor. Aunt Ardis told me.”

“And you, of course, believed her.”

“It is obvious, isn’t it? You have made no effort to hide it!”

“No. I am not ashamed of Silverwood.”

Cassandra felt hot tears starting in her eyes, and she turned and began to walk away again. She refused to let him see that she was crying because of him. How could he be so cold? So unfeeling?

After a long moment Philip began to walk after her. He stayed at a distance, not trying to catch up. Cassandra wished miserably that he would stop and let her get far ahead of him. It was a struggle to hold back her tears. She had been hoping that somehow Philip would explain away Silverwood, that there would be another explanation for it. But he had not said a word to deny it. He had not even seemed embarrassed. Indeed, he apparently thought that it was somehow reprehensible of her not to be in awe at his kindness in taking care of his own children!

She continued walking briskly, trying to ignore his silent presence behind her. It was a relief to see the small rise that lay this side of the broad and know that they were almost there. Cassandra picked up her pace.

At that moment a scream pierced the air.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CASSANDRA BEGAN TO run, lifting her skirts to keep from stumbling. The piercing shriek came again and again. Philip tore by her as she crested the rise and raced down toward the water’s edge. Someone was floundering in the water, not far from the shore. As Cassandra drew closer, she saw that it was Joanna. At the edge of the broad, everything was chaos. Miss Yorke, the twins and the two young girls were darting about, calling to the person in the lake. One of the maids was having hysterics, and the other one was hitching up her skirts to go into the water. The footmen were running, carrying something, followed by the grooms. Closer to Cassandra, beneath the tree, Violet and Aunt Ardis were standing, looking down at the pond in horror. Even old Lady Neville, in the carriage, had awakened and was looking about.