Chapter 21
While Michael’s estate manager organized the staff into search parties to find any evidence of how the thieves gained access to the library, Michael’s parents led Emmeline and Louisa on a guided tour of the Ravenshollow gardens.
Michael’s mother had an intimate knowledge of the plants, having planted many of them herself over the years with help from the estate’s groundskeeper.
Emmeline was impressed by the older woman’s knowledge and passion. Michael walked with him, but his eyes were on the ground, not the plants. Emmeline held herself back and fell into step beside him.
“I am sorry about your paintings,” she stated, believing his forlorn look to be that of loss over his prized possessions.
“They are only paintings, not people. Your loss is far greater than mine. I am only disappointed that we did not find more usable information to guide our inquiries in the right direction,” he explained.
They walked along together behind Louisa and his parents, listening to them chatter with one another. Michael’s father was a most attentive husband to his wife, and it caused a pang of sadness in Emmeline’s heart.
“Your mother is a fortunate woman,” she murmured, not intending to speak her thoughts aloud.
Michael gave her a questioning look. “How so?”
“Your father treats her with kindness, dignity, and love. He is a most attentive husband and father. Not all women are given such a privilege in marriage,” Emmeline explained.
Michael gave her a sympathetic look. “And you did not have that in your marriage?”
Emmeline looked at him in surprise. It was the first time that he had made an actual, genuine inquiry into her marriage to Norman. “No,” she replied. “I did not.”
His eyes darkened, and Emmeline could not tell what he was thinking. It made her nervous.
“I am sorry for that,” he said at long last.
“You are?” Emmeline was truly confounded. The last that she had known of his feelings, Michael resented her for marrying another man. She had assumed that he would not care one jot about her marital happiness or lack thereof.
“I am.” He nodded in confirmation. “I would never wish unhappiness upon you, Emmeline.”
Tears sprang to Emmeline’s eyes, slipping silently down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she breathed, brushing them away so that the others would not see her weeping.
“I did not intend to upset you,” he apologized, handing her another of his handkerchiefs.
“It is quite all right.” Emmeline brushed his apology aside. “It is good to speak thusly with one another.”
“Tell me,” Michael requested, his tone leaving the choice entirely up to her but letting her know that he was interested in her life if she wished to share.
Taking a deep breath, Emmeline attempted to steady her emotions. “My marriage to Norman was a cold and distant affair. There was never any love between us.”
They looked at one another, their eyes holding in the most intimate moment, when suddenly, as if out of nowhere, the skies opened up and a heavy rain began to fall.
As one, the five of them raced for the manor house. Emmeline and Michael stood on the threshold, dripping water on the floor as they watched the rain wash away any possible evidence that might have remained as to how the thieves had gained access to the library.
“My lord,” the estate manager greeted Michael at the door. “I have assembled the staff for questioning.”
Michael nodded, then turned his eyes to Emmeline. “Do you wish to join me?”
Emmeline shook her head. “I trust that you will get any information that might be needed. I do not wish for your staff to suffer the indignity of having an outsider question their loyalty.”
“As you wish.” Michael smiled softly at her consideration, inclined his head in respectful departure, then followed his estate manager toward the kitchens below.
Emmeline watched him walk away, the rest of their party having already retired to change out of their wet clothes; then she turned and walked back out into the rain. Concern for her father’s treasure drove her forward through the torrential storm.
While she and Louisa had not dug it up yet, they had marked the location to come back to when everyone else was asleep. Now the rain was going to wash away the sign, and she would have to start all over again to find the exact spot in the daylight, delaying her digging efforts.
I should have used something more than a pile of dirt and a stick to mark the spot!
The rain had seemed to come out of nowhere and was now pouring down with fierce fury. Lighting flashed across the sky, causing Emmeline to crouch down to the ground so as not to be the tallest thing around.
God, do not strike me down before I am able to save my sister!
Emmeline scurried along the ground, staying low until she reached the area where she thought she had left the marker. The dirt pile had already turned into mud and was quickly washing away. The stick had fallen from its perch and was being beaten into the mud.
Emmeline grabbed the stick and drove it down hard into the ground.
She took another stick and did the same, gathering as many sticks as she could reach from her kneeling position beside the place where the map had led her to, and drove stick after stick into the ground, until it encircled the spot where she intended to dig.
Soaked through to the bone, Emmeline scurried beneath a grove of trees, taking refuge beneath the leaf-covered branches.
Shivering, she stared out at the tiny wooden fort to make certain that the storm did not decimate it.
When she was certain that it would hold, she ran back out through the rain toward the manor house.
As she reentered the garden, she was not paying attention to what lay ahead of her, focusing more on where she placed her feet so that she did not trip and fall.
Suddenly, she found herself slamming into something warm, wet, and solid.
She looked up to find Michael, standing in the rain, dripping wet, concern in his eyes.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, examining her face as if she had lost her mind with fever.
“I was not ready to be inside just yet,” she muttered, the unexpected encounter throwing her off balance.
Michael reached out and held her up so that she did not fall into the mud at their feet. They stood there, holding one another, soaked through, rain dripping down their skin.
“Why?” Michael breathed, just barely loud enough for her to hear him.
“I like it outside. Being here reminds me of our childhood days running about and playing together,” she answered, frowning up at him in confusion. Does he suspect what I was doing? Does he know where I was?
Michael shook his head. “No, I am not referring to your being out of doors. I am asking, why did you forsake our love and marry another man?”
Emmeline’s heart felt as if it had dropped down to her stomach. “Michael, I…” she began, shaking her head and pulling away, but Michael held her firm.
“Why, Emmeline? I need to know. It is time.” His eyes bore into hers with such an intensity that Emmeline felt she might melt away with the rain and flow away.
Somehow, Emmeline summoned the courage to face the conversation that she had been avoiding for over five years.
“My parents arranged the marriage without my knowledge or consent.
I did not know that I was going to be wed until I stood at the altar.
It was the most unsettling turn of events that I had ever experienced up to that point in my life.
I was in such a state of shock that all I could do was obey when my parents told me that I must marry the Marquess of Worthington or that our family would be ruined.
If I refused, they were going to marry Rebecca to him.
I saw the cold, hard heart of the man before me, and I could not consign my sister to such a fate. ”
“You sacrificed yourself, your own happiness, for the sake of your family, for the sake of your sister?” Michael’s voice held awe mixed with sorrow.
“It was the only thing that I could do. Father’s business had taken a great loss, and we were mere days away from becoming destitute. He owed the marquess money, and Norman said that he would forgive the debt if Father provided him with a bride.”
“I had no notion as to your father’s struggles. Why did he not reach out to my family for help?”
“He was too embarrassed. Your grandfather trusted him explicitly. Father could not bear to break that trust.”
“Grandfather would not have judged him for the loss of a shipment. There is nothing that one can do when nature intervenes.”
“I am certain that he wished that he had done something differently by the end of his life, as he paid me a visit toward the end and behaved quite melancholic upon the issue.”
“And you? How do you feel about it after so much time?”
There was something behind Michael’s eyes that Emmeline could not quite read.
“I hated every moment of it, but Norman’s title opened doors for my father that had been hitherto closed to him.
I could not begrudge my family the financial stability that my marriage brought to them.
Once we were married, I began to suspect Norman of far worse things than simply being a cold fish of a man. ”
“Did he hurt you?” Michael’s eyes flickered with rage at the thought.
Emmeline shook her head. “He never physically harmed me. My concerns were more of a criminal nature. I have no proof, but I cannot shake the feeling that his demise was caused by some, perhaps, unlawful dealings that he had been involved with when he was abroad.
Unfortunately, I never had enough evidence to go to the magistrate. It appears to have all been for naught, however. In spite of all of his financial dealings, he still left me with nothing but the title of marchioness.”
“You are a brave woman, Emmeline Frampton,” Michael informed her, his eyes that had once been filled with anger over her choice now held respect. “I am sorry that I misjudged you.”
“You had every right to think the worst of me, given the circumstances.”
“I should have known that you would not have betrayed our love for anything less than survival.”
Hearing his admission broke something within Emmeline, and she collapsed to the ground, sobbing.
All of the years of blame and pain sliding down her cheeks, mixing with the rain.
Lighting crashed overhead as Michael lifted her into his arms and carried her under a leafy canopy provided by a prolific arbor.
“You understand?” she sobbed, unable to control her emotions. “You forgive me?”
Michael drew in a deep breath and set her back down on her feet. “While I did misjudge your motives and am truly sorry for having done so, it does not remove the years of pain, of not knowing what had happened.
While I do understand that you were trying to save your family, I do not understand why you did not tell me.
I do not understand why it has taken you five years to explain your actions.
I may forgive you for your parents’ actions, but I am not ready to forgive you for the pain that your own silence caused. ”
Emmeline stood before him, feeling as if someone had taken a dagger out of her heart, only to plunge it back in deeper. “Michael,” she choked out, staggering back away from him. “I…” She did not know what to say to such a confession.
“Did you attempt to write to me? Did your husband or family destroy the letters?” Michael asked, giving her the opportunity to offer an explanation. “Were you forbidden to write me and feared that violence would befall you if you did so?”
Emmeline shook her head. “No,” she breathed in shame.
Michael’s eyes shuttered as he straightened his posture, placing the walls firmly back around his heart. “Then, no, Emmeline, I cannot at this time forgive you.” Turning away from her, he walked to the edge of the arbor.
“Michael, please,” Emmeline whispered, breaking her rule to never beg a man for anything.
He shook his head, never turning back to face her. “We should return to the house. Louisa, Mother, and Father will be worried. We should get out of these wet clothes before we catch an auge.”
Not waiting for her acknowledgement, he stepped back out into the rain and walked across the garden to the house. Emmeline, left with no other choice, followed behind him. With every step, all hope of forgiveness and reconciliation drained from her heart.