Chapter 333: v4 - 34: how get him alone? I

Chapter 333: v4 Chapter 34: how get him alone? I

The sixth day came quietly.

Marian woke beside Adrian and began the morning as she usually did.

He had another round of negotiations ahead of him, and she helped him prepare, fastening the clasp at his collar and straightening the front of his coat.

Before he left, Adrian adjusted his cuff.

"I’ll be back for lunch."

"All right."

He leaned down and kissed her before leaving.

Marian watched him disappear through the doors.

Only when they closed behind him did her expression change.

The warmth faded from her face.

Tomorrow.

The delegation would leave tomorrow.

And Marian had spent most of the previous night deciding that she would speak to Cassian today.

The problem was that she still had no idea how.

She crossed the room slowly, her thoughts already circling the same problem.

She could send him a letter.

Marian immediately dismissed the idea.

What if he simply pretended he had never received it?

She frowned.

That was entirely possible.

He had already spent nearly a week pretending not to know her.

A letter would give him yet another way to avoid her.

She could send someone to summon him.

No.

That would raise questions.

She could ask to speak with him during one of the day’s formal gatherings.

Also no.

Not publicly.

Especially not with Adrian nearby.

Marian stopped beside the window.

She knew her husband.

Adrian could be jealous.

Not irrationally.

Not without reason.

But he had always been possessive where she was concerned, and Marian knew perfectly well how he could interpret things when another man was involved.

And this was not just any man.

This was a man Marian was almost certain was Cassian.

A man Adrian did not recognize.

If she suddenly approached him herself, in full view of her husband, Adrian would notice.

He would wonder why.

And Marian had no desire to explain that she had spent the past several days watching a Milician marquess because she was almost certain he was the man she had once chosen over Adrian himself.

That conversation would be a disaster.

Marian exhaled sharply.

She was becoming more irritated by the minute.

She was angry with Cassian.

There was no point pretending otherwise.

He had seen her.

He had recognized her.

So there was definitely no amnesia he could claim, no convenient memory loss he could use to explain his silence.

She was almost certain of it.

Their eyes had met more than once.

She knew his face.

She knew his voice.

She knew him.

And yet he had not spoken to her.

Not once.

He had not even tried.

After everything that had happened, after six years of believing him dead, after spending days giving him perfectly reasonable chances to approach her, he still expected her to simply stand there and wait?

The thought made something hot and bitter rise in her chest.

How dare he?

She had mourned him.

She had broken herself over his death.

She had learned to live with an absence she had once believed would never stop hurting.

And now he was alive.

Alive—and choosing silence.

Marian’s fingers curled against her palms.

Or perhaps he thought she did not recognize him.

Perhaps that was more convenient for him.

Or perhaps he truly had nothing left to say to her.

Marian folded her arms.

Well, he might have nothing to say to her, but she certainly had a great deal to say to him.

She had been patient enough.

If he wanted to pretend to be Carlo of Valmere, that was his decision.

But he did not get to pretend she was a stranger forever.

She wanted to speak to him.

She wanted answers.

She wanted to know why he had disappeared.

Why he had allowed her to mourn him.

Why he had never returned.

And why, now that he was standing in front of her alive, he was refusing to say a word.

She needed to meet him.

Privately.

That was the only part she had not figured out.

Marian began walking again.

How?

She could not pull him aside during a gathering.

She could not summon him without attracting attention.

She could not simply walk up to him in front of Adrian.

And she certainly could not tell Adrian that she intended to seek Cassian out herself.

That thought made her pause.

No.

He did not need to know.

Not because she was doing anything wrong.

She wasn’t.

She was not meeting Cassian because she wanted anything from him.

She wanted an explanation.

Nothing more.

But Adrian did not know that.

And even if he did, he might not believe her.

Marian had no desire to watch his expression change when she told him she was going to have a private conversation with the man she had once loved and believed dead.

That would be unnecessarily cruel.

To him.

And, frankly, to herself.

So she needed to do this without Adrian knowing.

Marian stopped.

Then one thought occurred to her.

His room.

She stared into the distance.

No.

Absolutely not.

She could not possibly mean that.

She shook her head.

That was ridiculous.

Why would she go to his room?

What would she even say?

Hello, I know you’re pretending to be someone else, so I came to wait inside your bedroom?

Marian closed her eyes.

Ridiculous.

Completely ridiculous.

And yet...

Where else could she speak to him alone?

If she went there before he returned, she could wait for him.

No servants.

No delegation.

No Adrian.

No one watching them.

She would simply talk to him.

That was all.

Marian opened her eyes.

It was not as though she were planning anything improper.

She was not seeking a secret affair.

She was not going there because she wanted to rekindle anything.

She wanted closure.

That was it.

Closure.

She repeated the word silently.

Adrian had told her he would be back for lunch.

She had several hours before then.

Enough time to find out where Cassian was staying.

Enough time to make a plan.

And, most importantly, enough time to be back before Adrian returned.

--

Tbc