The Beastkeeper's Redemption

Thirty-One

Thirty-One

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Kaede was woken not by the willing body of his heartmate as she curled into his chest, but by a loud cacophony of shrill voices from the landing outside Izzy's bedroom door.

He groaned, his body weary from his exertions over the course of the past few days. Light streamed in through the heavy, dusty velvet drapes Izzy had pulled over the singular window in the bare chamber, indicative that the time was late and he had spent the day abed. Which wasn't surprising considering both he and Izzy had spent most evenings awake of late.

But the tense tones of his girl and her sister made him suddenly alert, recognizing that something was amiss or at odds between them, and he threw off the thick coverlet of Izzy's bed with a groan. Naked, he moved from the warmth of the sheets, reluctant to leave it yet considering it smelt of her- sweet and floral and everything enticing- and padded towards the singular chair he had deposited his trousers on when both he and Iz had fallen into the room, exhausted.

He hopped inside each pant leg, manoeuvring his tail through the placard tailored to suit his body type, and loped quickly towards the exit of the bedchamber.

The door squeaked loudly when he pushed it open and stuck his head out into the passage, and he made a mental note to oil the hinges of not only Izzy's door, but any other door in the townhouse that had been neglected to this extent.

What he beheld, however, jolted his thoughts to the present with an immediacy that both amused and alarmed him.

Izzy stood bundled in a soft robe that she had belted at the waist as she stood outside her sister's chamber, her arms folded tightly around her middle. The tips of her bare toes stuck out from under the robe, her hair in riotous disarray- as if she had just arisen herself, which in all likelihood she had. Cassie, on the other hand, was fully clothed and made up, dressed in a cream day dress with billowing thick skirts and a pink pelisse, a reticule draped over her forearm.

"- you cannot possibly mean to call upon Miss Grant!" Izzy was ranting, her voice pitched with agitation, at Cassie. "Surely, Cassie, you mean-"

"She is my friend!" Cassie wailed, stomping her tiny foot and fisting her fingers into tight balls as she glared angrily at her sister. "My only and closest friend! Why will you deny me this?" Startling red highlighted the girl's cheeks, accompanied by the bluish welt that had been dolloped with a heavy amount of powder to hide most of the angry bruise that had begun to discolour her skin. "You said yourself that Miss Grant was an appropriate influence for my overall success!"

"That was... that was before!" Izzy shouted, throwing up her hands. "You must know that to enter that house after this altercation with her brother-"

"To not enter would be my social demise!" Cassie raged back. "If her brother informs Eloise of... of what you did, I'll be ruined! They'll know you are you and my sister, and not Miss Cotton my chaperone!" Tears bloomed and glistened in her eyes, her bottom lips trembling even as she glowered yet at Izzy.

"Oh my God, Cassie! Please, you must desist, I beg of you!" Izzy now begged, and Kaede stepped into the passage. He was reluctant to directly involve himself in the argument between siblings, but he wanted to support Izzy in her claims. For Cassie to insist upon calling on the Grants' presently would be dangerous- for all of them. Until they could be certain that Lord Grant wouldn't send the guards looking for him and Izzy, it was best the family bide their time within the townhouse walls, using discretion as their shield.

"Me? I must desist?" The younger Hawkins made a scoffing sound of disgust, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "And what of my sister? How is it that you are allowed to cavort as you please-" Her brilliant eyes cut to Kaede lurking behind Izzy, raking over his half-naked form with no small amount of disdain he felt sear through his hide. "-yet I am forbidden even the mildest of pleasures?"