Chapter 11 - Emily
Emily
Darkness had fallen when Theo finally drove into the stable yard of a small coaching inn situated on a crossroads in the middle of nowhere.
Some miles back they’d come across the mangled remains of the pony trap and a pile of poorly kept harness.
With no sign of the horse or the passengers, they’d assumed the three must be together.
The horse could hardly have unharnessed itself, after all, and although Theo searched while Emily watched, he found no sign of any bodies, dead or otherwise, in any of the ditches.
From then on they’d gone slowly, checking any houses they came to in case they were sheltering the fugitives. As this involved explaining their mission every time, both were soon fed up with it.
However, it had served to bring them closer, and Emily had long since requested that Theo should address her by her first name. “After all, if we’re not in time, we might end up as in-laws, might we not?”
And he’d actually managed to laugh at this.
“If we do, then I’ll be more than happy to call you by your given name, for it’s a very pretty one.
And perhaps in return you should call me Theo.
For a start I’m not quite used to being addressed as ‘Your Grace,’ for that, in my head, was my father’s title.
And I confess I don’t feel myself to have taken on the mantle of the duke quite yet.
” A distinct softening in his attitude to their mission which pleased her no end.
She nodded. “For a young man, the death of his father is a momentous occasion. For Rupert it was very hard, for he was only thirteen years old when he became viscount, and my mother insisted that he shouldn’t go away to school for fear of what might befall him.
He was very much a cossetted and spoiled boy then young man, I fear, and the blame for that lies on me and my sisters.
And Mama, of course. He is her only son and very precious. ”
Theo shrugged his wide shoulders. “I can’t blame your mother for her wish to keep him safe. It’s how I feel about Juliet. She’s a full seventeen years younger than me and was only eight when our mother died. To all of us brothers she’s always been in need of care and protection.”
“It’s only natural to want to keep a sister safe.”
He sighed. “I do, but I want her to be happy as well. I’m not the ogre you might think.”
No, he certainly wasn’t, and the more they talked the more this became evident.
He might project a gruff and grumpy exterior, but the glimpse he was allowing her of his true self told another story.
Why was he not yet married? He seemed an ideal candidate for all the ambitious mamas who prowled the London Season. She suppressed a chuckle.
He glanced at her. “What is it? What’s so funny?”
She smiled. “I’m sorry, but I was trying to imagine you in a ballroom in London surrounded by all the old hens who would be trying to win you for their daughters.
I must own to only having attended one such ball, as the death of my papa put paid to my first and only Season, and after that things at home at Semington rather took over.
But I do recall all those enthusiastic, and terrifying, mothers. ”
He chuckled too. “It is not a situation I ever want to put myself in again. Before I became duke, when I was just Marquis of Broughton, I attracted much attention, and I would not repeat that for the world now I’m an actual duke. It would be torture.”
“So that is why you are not married?”
He pulled a face. “In part. The truth is, though, that I have never yet found a lady who interests me enough for me to want to spend my life with her. Girls straight out of the schoolroom and onto the dance floor are an insipid lot.” He fixed her with a penetrating stare. “It’s a woman I’m after.”
Emily felt heat rising to her cheeks and was glad of the gathering gloom of twilight. “We are quite a pair—you an ageing bachelor and me an old maid. Young love has passed us by, perhaps.” She was trying to lighten the moment and sound offhand, but could feel it not working.
He was still looking at her, his eyes dark pools. “Perhaps.”
She forced herself to look away. Up ahead the lights of some kind of hostelry showed through the trees. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Aha. I’d like to bet we’re going to find our runaways quite soon.”
Theo, thankfully distracted, clicked at the horses and they speeded up their trot. In a few moments they were both dismounting from the phaeton as a couple of ostlers came running out. Theo turned away from them and with Emily by his side, pushed open the door of the inn.