Page 11 of Bite at First Sight

Cassandra frowned as she deciphered the cryptic statement. The frown deepened as she realized only one woman would dare. “Drat, you are right. I may as well get this over with.”

The woman awaiting her in the drawing room was completely unrecognizable due to her heavy cloak and the mask disguising her face. However, Cassandra’s dreaded suspicion was confirmed the moment the lady opened her mouth.

“So it is true, then!” her former mother-in-law exclaimed in outrage. “You have become the Spaniard’s mistress! Have you any idea how this will reflect upon our family? That you have chosen to live in sin is bad enough, but for it to be with a foreign, disfigured—”

“That’s enough, Agnatha!” Cassandra cut her off, outraged at the hypocrisy. “What I choose to do with my life is no one’s business but my own. I am a widow now. My days as an over-scrutinized debutante are long behind me, and I thank God for that every day.”

Agnatha gasped and yanked off her mask, revealing her beady, black eyes and almost nonexistent chin. “You do not understand. As long as you are a part of Society, what you do is everyone’s business. I beg you, come home now and perhaps we may be able to dissuade the gossips.” Her voice softened and grew more wheedling. “Thank heaven the Season is over. You can join me in the country and perhaps this dreadful scandal will blow over by the time everyone returns to Town in the spring.”

Cassandra could do nothing but stare in fascination. She’d never seen Agnatha beg before. Her mother-in-law had always commanded.

“Please.” Agnatha reached for Cassandra’s hand. “Do not dishonor my son’s memory.”

“I am sorry, but I must stay here.” She couldn’t hold back her jubilation at the statement.

Ever since Cassandra had married the late John Burton, Agnatha had been her constant tormentor, always ordering her about and scorning her for not living up to the family’s expectations. To be rid of the vexing woman once and for all was a great relief, despite the circumstances.

Squaring her thin shoulders as if to do battle, Agnatha surveyed Cassandra with piercing contempt. “So this is how it is to be? After I risk my own reputation coming to this den of iniquity to save your ungrateful hide? And at night, no less?” Her narrow face flushed as her beady eyes spat daggers. “I always knew you were unworthy of my Johnny. You couldn’t even provide him with an heir!”

Before Cassandra could reply, a shadow fell over them both.

“You should leave now, madam, before I throw you out,” Rafael Villar told her in a low voice. He leaned indolently in the doorway, apparently having witnessed the entire confrontation.

Agnatha’s miniscule chin quivered with outrage as she spluttered, but her venom was no match for the vampire’s fearsome scowl. Cassandra almost wished he’d bare his fangs at her ex-mother-in-law as well. Swallowing her vitriol, Agnatha donned her mask and departed without a by-your-leave.

Once Agnatha was gone, Rafael’s arched lips curved in a slight smile. “I gather your relationship with your late husband’s mother was less than amicable?”

She grinned. “Your assumption is correct. I’d thought that once John passed away, she’d leave me alone. Instead she’s determined to ensure that I’m an even more respectable widow than I was a wife. I am glad she thinks I am your mistress.” Her face heated at the implication of intimacy between them. “Perhaps now I shall at last be free of her.”

His smile faded as his brows drew together. “She thinks you are my mistress?”

“Oh yes, I’m perfectly ruined now,” she said cheerfully. “Perfectly ruined and perfectly free…well, except for my situation with you, of course.” Her smile wavered.

Rafael continued to frown as if he hadn’t heard her. “Perhaps I should marry you to put a better light on things, as the Duke of Burnrath did with his bride. Lord knows I don’t need any further attention from the human world.”

Men had only proposed to her to better their positions in life in one way or another. Coming from him, this sort of offer was all the more repugnant. She’d thought him nobler than that. Still, the suggestion made her heart flutter irrationally. She shook her head, avoiding his gaze. “That is hardly necessary. For one thing, it is too late. My reputation was blackened the moment my trunks were carried into this house. I never intended to remarry anyway. For another, it seems a silly inconvenience for you in the light of my as-yet-undecided fate.”

For a moment he appeared upset by her refusal, but it must have been a trick of light, for he began to laugh. “After all you have put me through, now you are concerned with inconveniencing me?”

His laughter stung.

Cassandra fixed him with an icy glare. “You inconvenienced yourself when you brought me here against my will.”

“Indeed, I did.” His expression sobered and he once more stepped closer, leaning in until his breath brushed across her lips. “Though perhaps you should take care not to exacerbate matters. Or else I may be tempted to wed you just for the legal right to take you over my knee.”

With that, he turned and headed out the door for his nightly hunt, leaving Cassandra trembling from his momentary closeness and outraged by his words.

Anthony’s form filled the doorway. “I see you’ve survived another encounter with His Surliness.”

Cassandra’s face flamed. “Good Lord, did you hear us?”

He shrugged. “I could lie, but somehow I do not think you would appreciate even the most well-intentioned deception.”

“So you were hovering by the door?” Her eyes narrowed.

The vampire shook his head emphatically. “Not at all. Our kind has superior hearing.” He held out an embossed envelope. “This arrived for you during your blessedly brief visit with that masked termagant. She was your mother-in-law?”

She took the envelope and nodded.

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