Shackles of Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

nonchalantly ate his muffin in two swift bites. “Still…if you can find it in your heart, Miss Shea…shall we say…if your abilities…no, no, no. Let us say , if your gifts…if one of your gifts of this life proves to be abundant fertility…then perhaps we will make it a round baker’s dozen. What say you to that?”
    “Your manner is entirely insolent, sir!” Cassidy’s father growled, leaping to his feet.
    Mason Carlisle rose from his chair and , leaning across the table, met him face - to -face, glare - to - glare.   “ My manner? Am I not to be considered a guest in your home? Yet I arrive at my first stomachable meal here only to find myself the despised topic of slanderous conversation. Your own son’s mirthful comments fly hither and yon through the air touching whatever ears they may, and you laugh, mirthful and delighted at his wit,” he growled.
    “Your very words condemn you, sir! For you are a guest alone! Not a…” Calvert began.
    “Not a member of the family,” Mason finished for him. Mason straightened himself and stood tall, proud , and looming. “Would you have my family treat your daughter as such? Would you send her into the lair of such resentful, hateful harpies as I now find myself?”
    “No,” Calvert admitted defeatedly. “No. Nor would your good father and dear mother treat her as you’ve been treated here. You are right, my boy. You are right.”
    Cassidy looked about her, at her mother’s moist , brimming eyes, her father’s humility, and even Ellis’ s silent expressive admission that they had treated the young man badly indeed. And thus panic began to grip her. Had he won them over? Would she be the sole person left with enough sanity to see her situation for what it was?
    “You must understand, Carlisle ,” Ellis began. “It’s our protective nature that causes our understandable reaction to this…this revelation of life’s path for Cassidy.”
    “Protective nature? Yes,” Mason mumbled , and something akin to sympathy passed briefly over his face. “It’s the same that I would feel were it my sister and not yours.”
    Ellis nodded and put a strong hand of truce at the man’s shoulder. Mason took Ellis’ s free hand and shook it firmly. “If we are to be brothers, then we must find common ground,” Ellis told him.
    Cassidy was astonished. Horridly astonished!
    “Ellis! How could you turn from me like this? I — ”
    “He turns not from you. Rather he endeavors to support you,” came Mason’s unwelcome explanation.
    “Support me?” she nearly shrieked.
    “Would it be easier for you to bear this decision that indeed you agreed to of free will…if your family were as angry and antagonistic as you are? Or will it ease better to have them comfort and understand you?”
    “Do not assume to educate me, Mr. Carlisle, in matters of my family!” Cassidy argued.
    “I mean to educate you in many venues, Miss Shea,” he said quietly.
    Cassidy was horrified when Ellis allowed a quiet chuckle to escape his lungs.
    “Ellis! Enough!” Cylia scolded sharply. “Please! Please, let us sit in a friendly manner to eat this morning. Let this be a new beginning . W e must find peace with each other,” she added in her most pleasant of voices.
    Forsaken , Cassidy thought. Forsaken . Her family would side with the enemy, so to speak. Forsaken. As she defeatedly sat back in her chair, her eyes met her father’s across the table. His own eyes were full of sorrow and stricken guilt. It was so deeply evident in his eyes that it frightened Cassidy. Somehow her father was at the center of her fate involving Mason Carlisle. Her soul recognized the certainty of it even though she did not understand how.
    Forsaken . The word echoed through her mind over and over. Forsaken . Even when Ellis and Mason left the table together, however awkwardly, to go for a midmorning ride over the main properties, the word screamed in her mind. Forsaken . Her father left the room without