Becket's Last Stand Read Online Free PDF Page A

would never leave England. I know, because we've discussed it. We want our children to grow up here. Are you asking to come live with us rather than relocating to America? Because you're most definitely welcome, unless you want to live with Fanny and Valentine, or stay here with Elly and Jack and— oh." She sat back on the couch, grinned at Mariah. "It's Court, isn't it? You're lining up all your ducks, but you don't know where Court fits in that line, do you? And you think we know?"
     
     
Cassandra put down the candy dish and twined her fingers together in her lap. "I don't think he'll stay here, that's all. Becket Hall doesn't need so many masters, or it won't once we're free to travel anywhere. Jack and Elly love this house, love Romney Marsh, and Papa would want someone to live here in any case. Fanny's settled, Chance and Morgan are settled. Rian and Lisette will go somewhere else, they really have no choice, do they? You and Spence are already planning your own move to Hampton Roads."
     
     
"Which, counting to eight on my fingers, leaves Court, and you," Mariah said, nodding her head. "Oh where or where will you go? I imagine Ainsley assumes you'll go where he goes. But will Court be equally happy to go there, as well? Especially when offered the opportunity to at last rid himself of his shadow?"
     
     
"I'm not his shadow!" Cassandra said, knowing that wasn't true.
     
     
"Ah, Callie," Julia said, leaning over to kiss Cassandra's cheek. "You've been nowhere but here. You know so little of life, of men. And you're young, too young to be thinking of marriage to anyone."
     
     
Cassandra looked above the fireplace, at the portrait of her mother. "Mama wasn't any older than me when she married Papa. He was at least a dozen years her senior. I know, because Court told me."
     
     
"And now we'll tell you something you already know," Julia added quietly. "Court sees you as his sister. Perhaps, some day, he'll change his mind, see what the rest of us see. But not now. There's too much going on now, with Beales out there somewhere. This isn't…this isn't a happy time. Truly the wrong time."
     
     
"But it has to be now, Julia, don't you see?" Cassandra explained tightly. "Edmund Beales will be gone soon, out of our lives, and everyone will scatter to the four winds, I just know it. We won't all be held here anymore, in this limbo Odette calls our lives all these years. If Papa leaves— if Court and I end up on opposite sides of the ocean before he admits to himself that he can't live without me? What will I do? Whatever will I do?"
     
     
Morgan's voice came at them from the doorway. "Oh, alas. Alas and alack! What will I do? Whatever will I do? Poor Court, poor me! " She crossed the room in her usual graceful, long-legged strides, a raven-haired beauty of lush proportions, and then plopped herself down next to Julia. "Callie, I never thought you were such a dolt. You want him, then you go get him, that's what you do."
     
     
"That's what you'd do, Morgan. Oh, wait, that's what you did, isn't it? Poor Ethan is still trying to figure out what happened," Julia said, laughing.
     
     
"I crossed an ocean to get to Spence," Mariah said. "Of course, I mostly wanted to box his ears for him, but that's neither here nor there, is it?"
     
     
"The whys don't matter," Morgan said, rubbing her hands together, clearly eager to enter into a conspiracy. "It's the how we're concerned with, if Callie really wants to bring Court to heel."
     
     
"Yes, how? I've tried almost everything, and he still refuses to think of me as anything but a baby," Cassandra asked, leaning forward on the couch.
     
     
"True, true. And you're all grown-up now, aren't you? We just need Court to finally accept that delightful change. This might take some serious thinking, although I am already entertaining one possible idea, and it will take our minds off this tense waiting, waiting for Beales to show himself," Morgan said, reaching for the depleted