To Love A Duke

The Lady In Brown

Song Recommendation: Hello by Adele

The past is better left in the past, wouldn’t you agree mi Lord?

She was throwing a ball and didn’t feel the need to let him in on it? Quite the cut direct Duchess mine- Ah! Surely he would need to grovel and beg for an invitation to said event, he scoffed, irritated at her actions. He rode in a carriage to see a fencing match at abarque, he was to go with Rourke but his friend had called in sick and he was left to represent them both. He could have sent his regrets as well, seeing as he most truly was not interested in the event in any matter but he wanted to get out of the thick walls of the mansion and the even thicker tension that lurked the walls within. As the carriage rocked and moved he saw for a brief moment a familiar face and figure in brown through the blinds which were pulled back, he blinked and ordered the carriage to stop, jumping down immediately

“Cassandra?!”

The lady in brown turned abruptly at her name and her eyes widened, Orion walked to her and tugged on her sleeve, she looked around receiving stares from curious onlookers and not wanting to cause a scene she quietly followed him into the carriage.

“You disappeared” Orion said more to himself than to the lady sitting across from him. They had sat in silence for long time, and he figured she had no intention to say something if he didn’t. He had told himself numerous times that she must have understood his heart was never in what they were doing, but deep down he knew she felt a fondness for him, she had never said anything so he hadn’t. She looked at him almost sadly

“ You got married” she said cooly, he knew he had hurt her when he had simply up and married Artemis, cutting their liaison of a year without a word of notice to her, but it hadn’t really been a hard decision, he had just done it, it was Artemis and he would make the decision to wed her over and over but he owed Cassie an apology. More than that. She was dressed in her signature color. Brown. dark brown her brown hair tucked behind her ears she hadn’t changed in the few months he hasn’t seen her, she had never accepted funds from him, she had never asked for anything really. Not even him.

“I- I never meant to hurt you Cassandra” he said his voice constricting, she reached to him and touched his cheeks,

“I know Orion, I know” she said to him, her hands were cold and worn out, from toiling and working so hard. He wanted to take her hand in his his but he didn’t. She had never let him take care of her when they were together and now they weren’t and he still felt like he owed her. Like he had some sort of responsibility to her. He did.

He cleared his throat so it wouldn’t sound as hoarse as he felt

“You look well enough I suppose” He said searching her eyes for the slightest hint that she wasn’t.

She nodded “I am” withdrawing her hands and folding it in her lap, she often did that.

He wasn’t sure if he should be glad she didn’t despise him or mad that she had moved on so quickly. He didn’t have the right to be angry or feel anything towards her at all. He had wronged her gravely. Something he could never take back.

“I looked for you- after.. after the wedding I looked for you”

“Why?” She asked

He shrugged. “I needed to know you were okay” he had sent someone around to her house but she hadn’t been there three days in a row. He had thought he would run into her when he had gone in to the village with Artemis but he hadn’t either.

“If only things had been different-” he started not sure what he was blabbing on about.

“You mean if only we lived in a world where Artemis Beckett didn’t exist?”