“We’re mapping the landscape for treasure hideouts. Now give us yer coin or walk the plank!” Clara hollered.
Cassie covered her mouth to hide a giggle.
“My apologies, Lord Reardon, we’re learning about maps and sketching our own of the manor grounds,” Miss Grace said.
“Clearly we interrupted an argument,” Josephine said.
Cassie blushed and Sidney grimaced.
“Well, I’m sure you have lots to do, and Lady Reardon and I will return to the house so as not to distract.”
“No,” Cassie said. “We will talk.”
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.” Cassie wanted to growl. She knew that if they returned now, the conversation was over. “Captain Clara, grab him.”
Clara wrapped herself around his leg.
“What are you doing?” he asked with a frustrated glare at Cassie.
“A proper interrogation is in order. You’re not going to escape me again. Josephine, give me the rope.”
Josephine did as asked. “You’re our prisoner now.”
“I beg your pardon, but what is going on?” Miss Grace asked.
Cassie tightened the rope around his midsection, securing his arms to his sides.
“Cassandra,” he said between clenched teeth.
“Let’s escort our prisoner to the stables. I have ways of making him talk.” Cassie held the end of the rope and tugged him into motion.
“Ohhh, we’ll torture him!” Clara said.
“Whatever we have to do to make him talk,” Cassie said.
“And tell us where the treasure is!” Josephine added.
“I’m not sure the duke would approve of this,” Miss Grace warned.
“I’m certain he would,” Sidney mumbled.
Cassie looked back at him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to do.”
“But surely this isn’t it,” he muttered.
They reached the stable and secured him to a stool. The grooms, seeing the curious business, disappeared, leaving them alone with their prisoner.
“Now…” Cassie said, not sure what to do next.
“What do we do? Dunk him in a bucket of water until he talks?”
Cassie raised a brow at him. “Would that work?”
“Release me,” Sidney ordered.
“He’s too calm to confess,” Josephine said.
Cassie was beginning to feel ridiculous, but at least this way he couldn’t leave. He had to listen to her. “Girls, I’ll need a bit of privacy, and if Uncle Sidney tells me what I want to hear, I’ll extract the location of the treasure.”
“Yay!” they cried.
Cassie looked to the anxious Miss Grace. “Perhaps they could stand guard outside. Out of hearing?”
Miss Grace nodded and led them out.
“Now what?” Sidney asked as the door closed.
Cassie brought another stool over and sat. “Now you can’t avoid this conversation. Tell me what is bothering you.”
“Being tied to a stool bothers me.”
“At least you’re not gagged,” Cassie returned.
They stared at each other, a stalemate of awkwardness.
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Tristan once tied me to a tree and put caterpillars on me until I told him where the tin of comfits was hidden in my room. Don’t tempt me. Torture isn’t completely off the table.”
“We’re not children.”
“No, so whatever it is you are afraid to say, just say it. I’m not a child, and I deserve to know why you are distant with me. I thought…we’d gotten past this when…you said you loved me.”
His eyes grew haunted. “I meant that. I love you.”
“And I love you, so what is it you could possibly say that would…change that.”
He swallowed. “I’m afraid to find out.”
Cassie took a deep breath. How terrible could this be? “The answer is nothing could change the way I feel about you. My love is not conditional. It is fact, it is inevitable, it is fate, whatever you need it to be, it just…is.”
His lips pressed together. “Do you remember the day we visited Old Bill’s grave?”
“Of course. That day my whole life changed.”
He looked down. “The secret I couldn’t tell you.”
“Yes. Because it belonged to someone else. I’m guessing Tristan?”
He nodded. “Two years ago, he almost died…because of me.”
All the air left her lungs. “What?” But she didn’t know if he even heard her.
“We were drunk, and I wanted to take a shorter route to our next engagement. Four men set upon us, and we fought, but I…I was knocked down. When I woke, Tristan was on the ground, bleeding. He’d been stabbed.”
Cassie knelt before him. “What are you saying?”
“He took on those men alone and saved me, but it almost cost him his life. We got to safety, and for two days, he didn’t wake. When he did, he swore me to secrecy.”
“This is what you’ve been keeping from me? From my family?”
He nodded, not meeting her eyes. “Every time I look at you, at your parents, it feels like I’m lying to you. I’m not the man you all think me to be. I was reckless and arrogant, and it nearly cost him his life.”
Cassie covered her face. Relieved and…irrationally angry. All this time. For two whole years, he’d lived with this burden all because…. She snorted with laughter.
“What the devil is there to laugh about?”
Cassie stood and wiped tears from her eyes. “Tristan is your Old Bill.”
“What?”
“The thing you fear. The burden you can’t get over, that no one else but you understands. I can imagine what it felt like to keep that to yourself all this time. I’m sorry he did that to you.”
He blinked at her. “I beg your pardon?”
“Tristan, he made you keep this secret, probably because he knew my father would lose his head—”
“He almost died!” Sidney said angrily. “If your father had seen what I’d seen—the paleness and coldness of his skin, the lifeless stare in his eyes—your father might have died. Your mother…she would have wept uncontrollably. And you—don’t you see? This is why I couldn’t tell you. Tristan knew we needed to spare the lot of you the unbearable pain I felt. The sheer guilt is enough—” He swallowed.
Her poor husband, so cool and reserved, stoic, logical. He cared so deeply for all of them. How heavy this secret must have been.
“You’re right,” Cassie said. “You protected us.”
“I—I…lied to you all. Over and over. How can you ever trust me?”
“You did it because one, Tristan asked you to and you are a steadfast friend. Two, because you knew the hurt it would cause us. But you didn’t think about the hurt it would cause you. But I will.” Cassie brushed her fingers though his hair.
“I won’t tell you to let it go, but I will say that you are strong enough to bear this burden, and I will help you. You are a good man, Sidney Anthem. And I’ve always known that. It’s one of the reasons I love you so very very much. Do you hear me?”