13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Cassandra arrived home in a better frame of mind than after parting with her sister, but with only just enough time to dress for dinner.

She hurried up the stairs to her room and rang the bell for her maid. She would need all the help she could get if she wasn’t going to be late. Perhaps Sally would come quickly today.

Cassandra started to unpin her hair to save time and was busy with the task when the door opened after a surprisingly short time.

“I’m glad to see you’ve improved your promptness, Sal—”

She broke off, because when she turned, it was not Sally but one of the chambermaids.

“What are you doing here, Mary Ann? Is Sally unwell?”

“No, madam.”

“Then fetch her at once. I’ve got no time to lose. I got rather distracted in the library and the hour is late.”

“If you please, madam, Mr Hunt said I was to help you.”

Cassandra shot her a curious look. “Why? Where’s Sally, if she is not ill? Has she played truant?”

Mary Ann shook her head. “She’s gone.”

“Gone?”

“Mr Hunt dismissed her.”

Annoyance flooded Cassandra’s body. How dare her husband dismiss her maid without so much as a word to her? Was she to have no say in anything? Wasn’t it enough that he spied on her? Did he need to manage her servants for her as well?

“Do you know why?”

The girl’s face whitened. Was she afraid of her—or afraid of getting into trouble? Did she fear dismissal, too, if she told her mistress what had happened?

Cassandra sympathised. It was hard to have your fate in someone else’s hands. To know they could let you go, if you displeased them. Was Jethro struggling with the fact that he couldn’t dismiss his wife in the same way as he had dismissed Sally?

Moved by sympathy, she pressed the girl’s hand. “It’s all right, Mary Ann. I won’t push you. My husband will no doubt explain what happened to me later. Now, please fetch the white crape evening dress Mrs Fisher sent over earlier, and pin up my hair so I can go down to dinner.”

The maid bobbed a curtsey and hurried into the dressing room to retrieve the gown.

Cassandra tried to ignore the feeling of helplessness that threatened to overwhelm her. She had been trapped in a life not of her own choosing by her father’s indisposition, and now she had plunged herself into another trap. But from this one, there was no escape.

While Mary Ann fussed around her, she dwelt on the underlying truth. However annoyed she felt at Jethro’s high-handedness, she must not complain. She had surrendered control of her life to another man, and now she must pay the price.

“You’re ready, madam.”

Mary Ann’s words broke into her reverie, and Cassandra looked into the mirror. She was pleasantly surprised to see that the girl was just as adept as her former maid had been. Perhaps Jethro had done her a favour, but what of poor Sally? Was her crime really so bad that she should be dismissed without a warning? Cassandra intended to find out.

She found Jethro waiting for her in the drawing room. If she hadn’t been so irritated with him, she might have been pleased to find him there before her. The look on his face was almost welcoming, but her need for answers was too great.

Hardly waiting for her husband to greet her, she blurted out, “Why did you dismiss Sally?”

Jethro’s expression hardened. “She was gossiping with the chambermaid. ”

Cassandra blinked hard and then again. “You dismissed her because you caught her chattering? Surely, a warning would have been more appropriate. If you had told me, I could have cautioned her and given her a chance to change. Wouldn’t that be a more Christian approach?”

Her words clearly made Jethro uncomfortable. He refused to meet her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it. Suffice it to say, I had a reason for letting her go.”

A reason that Cassandra was determined to find out.

“Please, tell me. I wish to understand what she did that required you to intervene, to dismiss my servant.”

He raised his gaze to hers, and Cassandra watched the struggle going on behind his eyes. Was it so unusual for anyone to challenge him?

At length, he spoke. “She was gossiping about you—about us.”

“And?”

The colour rose in Jethro’s cheeks, but Cassandra did not drop her gaze. Just what had the girl said?

“Very well. If you are determined to know, I will tell you. She hinted we had married in a rush because we needed to.”

She said what ? No wonder Jethro had been so reluctant to tell her. To judge from the way heat coursed up her neck and into her cheeks, Cassandra supposed she must look as flushed as her husband.

With an effort, she overcame her embarrassment for one final attempt to defend her maid. However much the girl’s words upset her, she knew they hurt more because of the ludicrousness of the accusation, as Jethro had not come near her bedchamber—before or after their marriage.

“Please give her another chance. Encourage her to repent of her folly and refrain from gossiping in the future.”

The tightness around Jethro’s mouth did not relax. “She will learn the lesson far quicker by her dismissal. You may write her a reference if you feel she deserves it, but she cannot stay here. I will not have such disloyalty in my house.”

He held out his arm to her. “Shall we go into dinner?”

Cassandra wilted under the severity of his tone. She had pleaded with him to reinstate Sally, but she had failed. It seemed her opinion meant nothing.

The man was insufferable. Not only was he spying on her, but he had refused to listen to her plea.

To think she had defended him, refusing to admit to her sister it had been a mistake to marry him .

She swallowed her chagrin and took his proffered arm, though she had no wish to feel it beneath her own.

As she did so, she said a silent prayer. God, give me grace to love this stubborn, opinionated man that I’ve married.

It was a desperate plea, and she wondered whether there was any hope of her prayer being answered.