A Loving Spirit Read Free Page B

1320, by the first Earl of Royce..."
    "I believe she is more interested in Lady Lettice, the knight, and Louisa, dear," interrupted Lady Royce.
    That dark brow rose again. "Is that what you are interested in, Miss Richards? The so-called ghosts?"
    Cassie frowned, but before she could reply, Antoinette said, "You are a disbeliever, Lord Royce."
    "I suppose I am," answered Lord Royce. "I prefer the logic and rationality of ancient Greece to spooks and haunts."
    "Hmm," Antoinette murmured, surveying him through narrowed ebony eyes.
    Lord Royce fidgeted a bit under her steady gaze, and turned away to address a question to Aunt Chat.
    Cassie studied him over the rim of her teacup. Well, he might be handsome as a poet, but he was obviously quite as obnoxiously logical as she had feared he might be.

 
     
     
    Chapter 4

     
    "I liked Lady Royce, didn't you, Cassie?" Antoinette asked. The two of them were in Cassie's room before they retired, to brush each other's hair and talk over the day. After they had convinced some rather snooty upper servants that Antoinette was Cassie's friend and not her maid, she had been given the chamber next door to Cassie's. Just like at the house in Jamaica.
    "Yes, very much," Cassie answered, reaching for a strand of her freshly brushed hair to braid. "She was all that was charming. And she agreed to give us a tour of the castle tomorrow. That should be most interesting."
    "Perhaps we can find Lady Lettice!"
    "Perhaps so. And Louisa and the armored knight. I don't think Lady Royce's son would very much appreciate us going on a ghost hunt, though," Cassie murmured. She thought of Lord Royce, of his poet's hair and his mysterious gray eyes, of the smoky roughness of his voice.
    Of that obnoxious raised brow, proclaiming how silly he thought her.
    She frowned.
    "Oh, yes. Lord Royce," Antoinette said. "He does not believe. He does not sense all that is around him. It is very sad."
    Cassie felt a strange urge to defend Lord Royce, even with the memory of his scoffing in her mind. "Not everyone is as sensitive as you, Antoinette. Not everyone can so easily believe in things they cannot touch or see. Or read in dusty books, as Lord Royce does."
    "You believe."
    "I am different from most of the English we have met. I lived in Jamaica, where things are very—different." Cassie turned her head to look out the uncurtained window, where all the autumn stars shimmered.
    Usually she was happy enough here in England. Her aunt had been all that was kind, and life at Chat's house in Bath was very comfortable. But sometimes, especially in unguarded moments like these, she felt like such an outsider. Like she could never possibly understand the people around her, nor they her. She did not understand the things they took for granted, and they often thought her an oddity.
    Just as Lord Royce had.
    She would feel completely alone all the time, were it not for Antoinette. But she sometimes felt guilty for bringing her here, where, if Cassie felt like an oddity, Antoinette must feel ten times more so. She had faced shocked looks and fierce whispers ever since they reached England.
    She turned to Antoinette, and asked, as she had a dozen times before, "Do you not miss home?"
    Antoinette paused in braiding her thick mane of wavy hair, and gave the same answer she always gave. "Of course I do. Just as you do, Cassie. It is the only home I have ever known. But I would have missed you far more, if you had left without me."
    "Truly?"
    "What did I have left in Jamaica? My mother is dead. Since I grew up with you and was educated, I do not fit in with my own people. You are like a sister to me. How could I let you go off into the world alone?"
    Cassie blinked at the sudden prickle of tears at her eyes. She wiped at them with the sleeve of her dressing gown. "Just as you are like my sister! I only hope you will never be sorry for your decision."
    Antoinette dabbed at her own tears. "I will not. But if I do, I can always go back.