“I wanted to say … It’s come to my attention…” Cassandra blushed beautifully and glanced away.

“Yes?” he prompted.

“It’s come to my attention that, well, there’s no easy way to say it…” Her words fell from her mouth in a mad rush. “It appears that Jane is madly in love with you.”

Garrett’s jaw dropped. All he could do was blink. “Jane is— Pardon?”

Cassandra didn’t meet his gaze. Her hands remained unmoving in her lap. “Yes. She is.”

Garrett stood and scrubbed his hands through his hair. He strode to the fireplace. “That is preposterous. That is ludicrous. Why, that is—”

“Impossible?” Cassandra supplied.

He turned to face her. “Yes. Impossible.”

Cassandra’s deep blue eyes rose to meet his. “I’m afraid it’s quite possible and we, Lucy and I, thought you should know.”

Garrett narrowed his gaze on her. “Lucy is often wrong about these things, Cassandra. You know she was convinced I was in love with you until recently.”

Cassandra fluttered a hand in the air. “I know. And it’s not like that. This is different. It’s quite confirmed.”

“Confirmed, how?” His eyes remained narrowed.

Cassandra cleared her throat. Her voice went up a notch. “By Jane.”

His hand dropped like a leaden weight to his side. “Jane said that? She said she loves me?”

Cassandra bit her lip and nodded. “As I said, Lucy and I thought you should know.”

Garrett leaned back against the window frame; the air rushed from his lungs. It was as if he’d been slammed to the earth. He struggled to breathe. It couldn’t be true. Could not be true. It made no sense.

But if Jane had told Cassandra …

He stared unseeing into the fireplace and rubbed a hand roughly across his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut. “Thank you for telling me, Cassandra.” Not that he knew what the hell to do with the information.

*   *   *

Cass hurried out of the library, wringing her hands.

“Psst.” Lucy motioned to her from behind a potted palm at the far end of the corridor. “Over here.”

Cass peeked over both shoulders to ensure no one would see her before picking up her skirts and hurrying to join her friend behind the tree.

“Did you do it?” Lucy asked, her multicolored eyes sparkling.

“Yes. I did it.” Cass groaned. “Heaven knows I shall be struck dead by a lightning bolt for being such a fibber. I deserve this red spot on my nose. I deserve another for what I’ve done. I deserve an entire face full of them. I detest lying.”

Lucy’s dark eyebrow rose in a semblance of skepticism. “Oh, really? You detest lying? After pretending to be Patience Bunbury last autumn? If that didn’t cause a face full of red spots, nothing will.”

Cass scowled at her fiercely. “Point taken, but we should have asked Derek or Julian to tell Garrett that awful lie instead of me.”