Chapter 171

Some days, Adam wished he had died with the others. At least then, his wife would have been spared the burden of caring for a husband who couldn’t provide for the family anymore.

What sort of life was this? What was he supposed to do with the years he had left when he could not walk, could not work, and could not give his family the life they deserved?

He looked away, breathing hard through his nose.

Sebastian remained near the entrance, his attention fixed on the conversation, but he made no attempt to intervene.

"Even here, with my bed and my meals and whatever treatment the surgeons think they can offer, I know my life will never be what it was. I know I will never walk again. And now you come to tell me that I can help bring Lord Ashford to justice." His gaze returned to Cassandra, anger and disbelief mingling in his eyes. "Why should I care? How will his punishment give me back my legs? How will it return the years I have lost? How will it make my family whole again?"

There was no convenient answer to what he had asked. She could offer money, protection, and the means to secure a more comfortable life, but none of those things could undo the disaster or restore the man he had been before it.

"You are right," she said quietly. "I cannot give you back your former life. I cannot repair the damage to your legs, nor can I return the years you and your family have suffered. I wish I could offer you something that would do those things, but I cannot."

Adam’s anger did not vanish, but her words calmed him somewhat.

"What I can do is make certain that you and your family no longer have to live at the mercy of men who see your suffering as an opportunity. I can provide for your family, arrange for you to receive the care you need somewhere else, and ensure that you are treated with dignity. You will not have to spend the rest of your life wondering whether your wife can afford food or whether your sons will have a roof over their heads."

"And you expect me to accept all this from you?" He gave a sceptical shake of his head. "My family is already being provided for. Mr Ravenshire pays for the house where my wife and boy live. He has ensured that they have everything they need. You speak of taking me away from his influence, but what will become of them if I leave? I cannot have them cast out onto the streets because you and Mr Ravenshire have some quarrel with one another."

"That will not happen." Cassandra’s answer was firm. "I will arrange for your wife and son to be brought somewhere safe, and I will ensure that their needs are met. You will be reunited with them as soon as it can be arranged. I will not ask you to leave this place only to abandon the people you care about most."

Adam searched her face, looking for signs of deception. He found none.

"And if Mr Ravenshire objects?"

Her gaze was stern. "Then he will have to answer to me."

Adam was not persuaded, but he wasn’t quite as defensive as he was at the start of their conversation.

Life had made the man hard and jaded and Cassandra didn’t hold it against him. To persuade him, she chose the method most likely to yield positive results, gradually wearing down his defences.

"You say you want to protect my family," he said. "Yet you also want something else from me. What is it?"

Cassandra heaved a sigh.

"I want you to testify against my father." She admitted. Her motive for coming was finally out in the open. "When the matter comes before the proper authorities, I want you to tell them what happened at the mine. Your testimony could help establish what my father did and prevent him from dismissing the deaths of those men as an unfortunate misfortune. There are other people whose accounts we must gather, and evidence that must be presented, but your voice matters. You were there. You survived what the others did not."

His eyes hardened again.

"And you believe that will be enough to bring him down?"

"I believe it will help," she said with conviction. In truth, she expected it to do far more than that.

Cassandra watched him struggle with the possibility. She knew she was asking him to exchange one uncertain arrangement for another, and she could not expect a man in his position to make such a decision lightly.

Yet there was something else she needed him to understand.

"My father is living comfortably," she said. "He rises each morning in a house filled with servants, while you have spent ten years living with injuries he could have prevented. He eats at a table where food is never scarce, while the families of those forty-one men have struggled to survive their losses. He goes about his business without worrying whether he will be able to provide for those who depend upon him. He has enough money to purchase whatever he desires, and the influence to remove every hurdle in his way."

With every word she spoke, her anger grew, and she could see it mirrored in his eyes. Good. He should be angry. That was precisely what she wanted. He needed to feel it, to let the anger take hold of him until he could no longer dismiss what she had said.

"While your wife has been forced to depend upon another man’s charity to keep a roof over her head, my father has continued to enjoy every comfort his wealth affords him. His workers’ deaths mean nothing to him."

Adam gritted his teeth. He could picture it too easily: Nathaniel Ashford seated in his fine house, surrounded by all the things money could buy, while the families of the dead counted their dwindling coins and wondered how they would survive another month. The contrast was so cruel that it seemed almost impossible to believe it had been allowed to stand for so long.

Cassandra leaned forward slightly.

"Does that not make you angry, Mr Dawson? Does it not anger you that the man responsible for your suffering has been allowed to carry on as though nothing happened? That he can sleep comfortably each night while you live with pain and uncertainty."

Adam did not answer, but she could see her words already taking root in his mind and heart.

There was still one question she had not answered.

"What do you get out of all this?" Adam asked. "You are a duchess. You could live comfortably without concerning yourself with a man like me. Why risk your position and your family to bring Lord Ashford to justice?"

Cassandra regarded him for a moment, and the sternness in her face gave way to a small, knowing smirk.

"The same thing as you, of course," she replied. "Revenge. Unlike Mr. Ravenshire who undoubtedly wants to take advantage of you, what I’m offering you is an equal partnership."