Page 35 of Ruthless, But for Her

Sorren's eyes shifted to Lady Cassia.

Ashton realized the truth of it immediately, every muscle in his body tensing.

“Aye. As well as Roland himself.”

CHAPTER 20

Cassia

He was here?

She hadn’t expected him to come. Throughout their courtship, if it could be called that, he’d often sent others to do his bidding.

Someone else had signed the agreement. Someone else had stood in as his proxy at her own wedding. Someone else had delivered the ring he'd never chosen himself. Then, after his appointment, someone else had sent for her to join him at his new post on the border.

And yet, he was here.

Why?

“He's in the northern landing, no warden banner. Appears to have commandeered a fisherman's coble, four men aboard, perhaps six,” Sorren said.

The three of them continued toward the Daisy.

“I don't understand.” She'd imagined it would be a messenger that came. “Why is the deputy warden allowed to enter Mere's End if the warden himself is not?”

Ashton answered. “If de Grey dared as much, it would be akin to a formal declaration of contested land. Angus McGarron, the Scottish East March warden, would see it as a breach of the neutrality that keeps this stretch of coast outside either crown's reach.”

The red door loomed.

“It could spark a war between the two countries,” Sorren explained.

Cassia thought back to a history her father had once made her read, one about the border wars.

“You survive by playing the two against each other,” she concluded.

Ashton and Sorren exchanged a glance.

“That's one way to put it,” Sorren said as he opened the door. Unlike the other times she'd walked past the hall, no one was there now. Were the women all upstairs? In the middle of the day?

“Leif and Ryker are above stairs already. Margot is seeing to something at the docks, but she is on her way,” Sorren said. He glanced at Cassia with a questioning look.

“She's coming,” Ashton said.

With that, neither said another word. Although they climbed the back stairwell, the same one that led to the chamber where she'd been kept, this time their party went left.

The same floor that only a few were permitted near while she was held. A courtesy? Or a way to ensure no one helped her escape? As if she could have.

Cassia realized, the moment they stepped inside, that she was safer with her captor than she would have been venturing through Mere's End alone.

When Sorren opened the door, the room they stepped into was nothing like what she expected.

Charts covered a long table, corners weighted down with stones rather than the polished brass she might have expected. A map of the coastline hung nailed to the far wall, corrected by hand in several places. There was no velvet here. No candlelight arranged for effect. Whatever the Daisy was to its clients, this room had never been built for them.

Ryker sat with one boot hooked on the rung of an empty chair. Beside him sat the broad Norseman she'd seen only once on the deck of The Einar. Leif. Close enough to Sorren in height and build that she'd marked them as kin before she’d learned otherwise.

The men didn't stand. She hadn't expected them to, but she didn't mind it. In Grantchester, when a woman entered a room the room rearranged itself around her rank. Here, no one moved.

Leif inclined his head. “My lady. You look better than the last I saw you.”