Miss Perdita whimpered. “I don’t know. I haven’t done anything to her.”
“You’re lying.” Daisy turned to Miss Cassandra. “If you were cruel to that cat in any way—”
“I don’t like your threatening tone.” Miss Cassandra managed to look angelic. “You have a tendency to be impulsive—”
“Oh, bother with that.” Daisy put her hands on her hips. “Where’s Jinx?”
“If either of you knows, out with it,” Charlie urged the two girls. He was disgusted with their obvious guilt.
Miss Cassandra drew herself up and looked at him with wide eyes. “Of course we didn’t harm Hester’s cat.” She put her chin in the air. “I’m horribly hurt, Daisy, that you think we’re capable of cruelty to an innocent animal. You’re embarrassing the entire family in front of the viscount. You’re volatile, careless—”
“Careless?” Daisy’s face flared red. “How have I been careless? I care enough to look for her—”
Miss Cassandra put on a patient look and swiveled to face him. “You do know about the tragedy, don’t you?”
Charlie felt vastly uncomfortable. Something was terribly wrong here. “No,” he said, and wished he could walk away. This was a family squabble. Private business. He didn’t belong.
But Daisy was obviously outnumbered and outflanked, and damned if he was going to let her stepsisters hide the truth about the cat. He already had a soft spot for Hester, and he wanted answers, too.
“Now is not the time,” Daisy said to Miss Cassandra.
Charlie couldn’t agree more.
The charged atmosphere sent Joe limping away.
Miss Cassandra crossed her arms over her chest and locked gazes with Charlie. “She burned down the bungalow.” She wore a distasteful smirk.
The words made no sense at first. It took several seconds for Charlie to understand.
Daisy looked at him with steel in her expression. “It was an accident.”
“Yes,” said Miss Cassandra, “but you were careless.” She looked at Charlie. “Sadly, her father—my stepfather—was so traumatized by the incident, he died a week later.”
Miss Perdita began to tremble.
A sheen of tears appeared in Daisy’s eyes. “You are cruel, Cassandra. How could you bring that up now?”
“I wasn’t trying to be cruel!” Miss Perdita roared, and put her hands over her ears.
“Enough.” Miss Cassandra laid a hand on Perdita’s shoulder. “Jinx is fine.”
“Then where is she?” Daisy demanded to know, but her voice was thin with worry.
“Be quick and tell us,” Charlie interjected.
Miss Perdita merely stared goggle eyed at all of them, her hands still over her ears.
“She’s locked in Perdita’s wardrobe,” Miss Cassandra said quietly.
“We put her in,” Miss Perdita boomed. “And I turned the key.”
“How could you?” Daisy’s voice trembled with fury. “The two of you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Miss Cassandra lifted her chin. “Perdita did it and told me afterward. I was on my way to getting the cat out when we were diverted by news of the visitors.”
“No you weren’t,” Daisy said. “You strolled into the kitchen, and—”
She felt a restraining hand on her arm. It was Charlie, and she couldn’t help but take comfort from it.
“Just go let the poor animal out of the wardrobe,” he said quietly to Miss Cassandra, who blinked at him once and turned on her heel.
“Follow me, Perdita,” she said in injured tones. “As usual, I am being blamed for your folly.”
Miss Perdita finally dropped her hands from her ears and lumbered after her sister, shaking her head all the while. “I’m going to tell Mother, and Daisy will get in trouble. Not me. How dare she say I did anything wrong?”
Charlie watched Joe limp after them. He’d see to it that Jinx’s release was complete.
When they all disappeared into the house, Charlie looked at Daisy. “What’s going on?”
She had a hollow look about her. “You heard them.”
“Yes,” he said. There was a moment’s silence. “I’m sorry about your father.”
He could see her jaw working.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” he assured her.
She looked at the ground but cocked her head to her right. “Do you see that empty spot, over by the oak and rowan trees? It looks as if something was once there?”
He nodded.
She wouldn’t look at the site herself. “That was where my mother’s bungalow stood. Papa built it for her. She painted there. It was the perfect spot, she said. She could see everything—all the way down the glen to the village, and up to the top of Ben Fennon.”
“I see.” He waited for her to go on.
“I used to go there, too, to sew at Mama’s feet. And after she died, I continued. It was my haven. I did almost all my sewing there. Papa would come in, too, and sit and write occasionally. The place reminded us both of my mother.” She took a breath. “One night, I was sewing late, and I must have left a candle burning—”
She hesitated again, and he saw her jaw work even more.
“It’s all right,” he said. “You don’t need to talk about it. And you mustn’t blame yourself. It was an accident.”
She looked up at him then with the most mournful eyes he’d ever seen. “I know,” she whispered. “It was a terrible accident.”
He wanted to take her into his arms then and assuage her grief. But he daren’t. No doubt Cassandra and Perdita were watching them from the castle windows. And she didn’t want him to get close, did she?
Not an hour before, she’d let him know very clearly that their intimacy couldn’t continue.
“At least Jinx is safe,” he reminded her.
She gave him a wobbly smile. “Yes, that’s true. It would have broken Hester’s heart if she’d been hurt. Mine, too.”
They began a slow walk toward the sheep pasture.
Daisy allowed her mouth to quirk up on one side. “I long for the day when Castle Vandemere is ours again.”
Her home had slipped out of sight. They were beyond the byre now, with only fields before them and the long, curving road that wended its way down the slope of Ben Fennon to the village below.
“Ours?” he asked.
“Mine, Hester’s, and Joe’s.” She bit her lip and was silent a moment. “That’s the way it needs to be,” she said eventually. “The castle will be ours. Not my stepmother’s nor my stepsisters’. Because unless a miracle occurs and they change in the near future, I’m—I’m going to kick them out.” She looked up at Charlie, almost as if she were fearful. Or would faint.
He took her upper arms and braced her. “It’s all right.”
“I never thought I’d say that,” she whispered, staring at his chest. “But today is the last straw. I can’t wait to see them go.” Her voice gained more strength. “I don’t even care where. My stepmother will land on her feet, without a doubt.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not just saying this, either. I mean it.”
Her gaze was unwavering.
“I believe you.” He sensed she needed reassurance, and he had it for her. In spades.
“Do you?” Her expression was more determined than he’d ever seen it, yet he saw a bit of desperation there, as well.
“I think it’s a very good thing.” He longed to caress her. “You deserve better treatment than what you receive from your stepmother and your stepsisters.”
“I never really thought about what I deserve.” She began to pace in a tight circle. “I’ve always thought about what I wanted, however. I wanted freedom from Stepmother’s vitriol and Cassandra’s disrespect—Perdita’s, too—but I’ve been so busy trying to survive their lobs, jabs, and outright attacks, it simply didn’t occur to me that I don’t have to live with it. With them .”
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