Page 36 of Ruthless, But for Her

She'd been half-frozen and furious the last he saw her. “That wouldn't be difficult.”

Something that was almost a smile crossed his face before it was gone.

Ashton guided her to an empty seat and she noticed maps spread across the table. Coastlines. A harbor she didn't know. Marks in ink that meant nothing to her, but clearly meant a great deal to them.

“She shouldn't be here,” Ryker said, not quietly.

Emboldened by Ashton's treatment of her, Cassia looked him straight in the eye. She rarely spoke to her betters so, least of all men. But two thoughts raced through her mind.

First, she was the highest ranking person in this room. And more importantly, since none of them seemed to care a whit for rank or the order of things, there was the simpler truth. She was the one they'd taken. They'd done this. And now they thought they could settle her fate without her in the room? She thought not.

“I cannot read the maps in front of me,” she said. “But I would very much appreciate a say in how events that concern me unfold.”

The words were out before she could weigh them.

“She stays.” Ashton’s words left no room for dispute.

She'd seen this man take a ship without raising his voice. And somehow, those two words were the most frightening thing he'd said since they met. They were delivered with such force, such flat authority, that they seemed to give every person in the chamber pause. Including her.

Her captor could be kind. He was also deadly. She'd do well not to forget that.

The door opened.

Margot swept in, a mantle thrown over her gown. She scanned the chamber and her eyes settled on Cassia. Her mouth opened.

“Not negotiable,” Ashton said, before she could speak.

The two of them held each other's gaze, and it was in that moment Cassia understood the balance between them wasn't what she'd first taken it for. It wasn’t settled. Or simple.

Margot sat and rearranged her mantle.

“Roland will want her back whole,” Sorren said. “A wife that is returned damaged tells de Grey we couldn't hold her. A wife returned untouched tells him we chose not to.”

“A wife not returned at all,” Ryker said, “tells him something better.”

“We're not keeping her, Ryker.” Ashton didn't raise his voice.

“I didn't say keep.” Ryker leaned back. “I said not return. There's distance between the two... One de Grey will lie awake measuring.”

Leif spoke. “The man came himself. No banner, no warden's colors, a fisherman's boat and six men. He didn't come to treat. He came to see what we are. That's worth remembering when we decide what to show him.”

They talked over her as though the chair she sat in were empty. As though the woman in it hadn't just asked, plainly, to be included.

Heat rose to her cheeks.

“Then we show him nothing he can use,” Margot said. “She's clean, dressed as befits her station, and brought to the landing looking every inch a lady who's been treated as a guest. Let him wonder why she doesn't weep at the sight of him.”

For the first time, they all looked at Cassia.

“And if the lady weeps anyway?” Ryker asked. But he was watching her when he said it, and she understood the question wasn't for the room.

“You speak of me as though I were not here.”

No one spoke.

She'd said too much. She always knew, after, when she'd said too much. But she found she didn't wish it back.

“I won't weep,” she added. “Not for him. You needn't dress me to make certain of it.”