Cassandra

Chapter Twenty One

Kit sat down beside Cassandra in his carriage after informing the driver where he had to take them. He was nervous, for her brother was suddenly scarier to him than other individual ever had been before.

They sat in happy silence next to each other, and Kit enveloped her hands in his, holding on for dear life until they came to a final stop outside Nate and Cassandra's familiar townhouse.

The driver opened the carriage door, but Kit made sure he was the one to help Cassandra out. He still couldn't believe she was now his fiancée. It was surreal, and too good to be true. Such lovely things did not happen to him, they only happened to others.

He walked with his hand on her back to the door, where they were greeted with some surprise by a footman, who certainly had not expected Cassandra to come home with only a man for company in an unfamiliar carriage. It wasn't proper and it wasn't the norm but Kit didn't care at all.

"Where is His Grace, Malcolm?" Cassandra asked in a clear voice, and Kit's hand tightened on her back. He suddenly felt a very real fear that Nathaniel would refuse to let Cassandra marry him.

"In his study, my lady." The footman replied, bowing his head. "Will you both be meeting with him?"

"Oh, there's no need to announce us, Malcolm." Cassandra brushed it aside, and Kit found himself trying very hard to ignore Malcolm's curious gaze. He felt odd and out of place but, when she smiled reassuringly at him, the world suddenly made sense to him again.

He let Cassandra lead him to her brother's study. "Wait here." She advised, before slipping into the room and he was all too willing to listen to her when it came to that. It was better for her to soften him up before Kit had to face him. Hopefully, he wouldn't be angry.

He leaned against the wall across from the door with a sigh, crossing his arms. He waited for ten minutes, and immediately straightened when Cassandra finally emerged. Her expression was unreadable and he found no reassurance in it when she said to him, "He wants to speak to you now."

"Alright." He said, and she squeezed his hand quickly before he knocked briefly and opened the door.

The first thing he saw when he entered was Nathaniel sitting relaxedly at his desk with his arms crossed but his eyes blazing with something Kit couldn't recognise.

"Take a seat, Christopher." He ordered, his tone hard to read. There was no emotion to it, nothing that would tell Kit what he was thinking.

Christopher opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by Nate raising his hand to make him halt.

"You know," he began, his tone hard, "When I escorted my sister to your home, I expected the two of you to sort things out, to talk and, perhaps, for you to ask her to court you. What I did not expect, however, was an instant proposal."

"I know it isn't right." Kit confessed humbly, gingerly meeting Nate's eyes. "But I love your sister more than anything else in this world and, I can promise you, I'll make her happy. I'll take care of her."

"The thing is, Christopher, I do not know you very well. That three month courting period would have been optimum as, then, I could gauge whether or not you are deserving of my little sister. I am not willing to part with her, to let her go, if the man to whom she is going is anything less than a perfect gentleman."

Kit m scrambled to come up with a fitting response, but he couldn't think of a single thing to say to Nate.

Finally, the other man said, "Cassandra loves you, though, and you are the first man she's ever wanted to get over her past for. I know she's a good judge of character, and she is someone who wouldn't pick the wrong sort. From what I've seen, you're a decent man. A good man, I'd say and, if she wants to marry you, who am I to keep her from what she desires?"