Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
“ E mma, how much longer are you going to play pretend for?”
As she was on her way to bed, Cecilia had cornered her, following her all the way to her room and going so far as to enter it behind her.
“Cecilia, I am exhausted. Can we discuss this in the morning?”
“It is no surprise to me that you are tired after all of the walking you did this evening, by the Duke’s side at that. I thought you hated him?”
“I do! Well, I do not hate him, but it isn’t as though I searched for him deliberately. He was escaping Gretchen, you see.”
“Emma, for all of your intellect you certainly seem to forget the way things are. If he wanted to be rid of her, he would do so. He only asked that you stay with him because he wanted you around, and unless I mistake myself, you wanted that very same thing. Otherwise you would have fled as soon as you were decently able..”
“Then perhaps he considers me a friend. It is not a crime to enjoy the company of a gentleman but nothing more. You have enough gentlemen friends yourself.”
“Yes, but I do not then claim that I cannot stand them. Emma, I am not scolding you for befriending the Duke, but you must be honest with us, and with yourself.”
“I am,” she lied.
Cecilia raised an eyebrow at her, and Emma knew that she was not being very convincing at all.
“Well,” Emma sighed, “I am trying to be. I do not know how to feel. He is nice to me, and I am trying to tell myself that it is simply because he is a rake but I cannot make myself believe that.”
“Then it may well be that he is not the villain you thought he was. That is perfectly fine, but you cannot pretend that it is anything more than you wanting to know him.”
Emma nodded in defeat. She wanted to be angry with the Duke, resent him completely, but she didn’t have enough proof to satisfy herself as to whether he was or was not a hopeless rake.
Cecilia left the room, and Emma tried to sleep. Her day had been a confusing one, and it made for a fitful night.
She had found herself warming to the Duke of Lupton, but that did not mean she liked him at all. No matter what Cecilia said.
Granted, he was not the worst person that she had ever met, but he remained insufferable. He was nice to her, but she did not know why that was, especially when she had been so unkind to him in return until dinner the night prior. She had assumed it to be his rakish ways, but the way he had tried to avoid Gretchen had made her question that.
They were all spending the day near the nearby lake for a picnic, and in the quiet on one of the banks Emma had allowed herself to think. She did not like that she had done that, for her thoughts at once had turned to the very Duke that she did not wish to think about.
“Emma?” Sarah asked, sitting beside her. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, thank you,” she replied. “My apologies. I believe it is the heat that has me rather out of sorts.”
“And it had nothing to do with the gentleman that keeps stealing glances at you?”
“What do you mean?”
But she had already looked up and seen him. He was standing in a group of gentlemen that were playing Pall Mall, coincidentally including Lord Rosendale, and the pair of them glanced their way at that very moment.
“I see,” Emma nodded. “Perhaps they are looking at that streak of butter on your cheek?”
“ What? ” Sarah yelped, raising a hand to her cheek as Emma laughed.
“Fear not, you look lovely. I do not know why they are doing that, though. I can understand the Baron, but the Duke is another matter entirely.”
Emma reconsidered as Gretchen approached the gentlemen and seemed to speak with them. Had that been a pleading look she’d received from the Duke? She wished they were closer so that she could hear them, but as it was she had no idea at all.
What she could see, though, was the lack of enthusiasm in his eyes. He did not seem at all interested in her, and that made Emma feel quite at peace. If he was indeed being honest with her, and he had no interest in Gretchen, then perhaps she had ambushed him after all.
“The others are nearby,” Sarah said gently. “We could join them, if you wish for company.”
“It would be nice, yes. I was going to join you all, but…”
“I understand, Sister. There has been a lot of changes of late. I have met a potential suitor, and you have made a lovely enemy for yourself.”
“Yes, Gretchen seems to loathe me entirely.”
Sarah blinked at her.
“I meant the Duke of Lupton, Emma.”
“Oh! Yes, of course.”
“Although you are right. Gretchen looked disgusted with you this morning. She has never liked me, but I did not think it was this bad.”
“It has nothing to do with you,” she explained. “I saw her doing something that she should not have been, and I believe she expects me to bury her in scandal because of it. I would never do something so dishonorable, but I don’t believe she understands that.”
“No, she would not. In any case, you shan’t feel any better about it by sitting alone. Join us!”
Sarah rose to her feet before pulling Emma to hers, and they joined her friends. They were sharing sandwiches and watching the stillness of the lake. It was precisely what Emma had been doing, but the addition of the food was welcomed and it was nice not to feel alone.
It still felt strange between herself and Cecilia, but she tried not to think too much of it. Her friend was right, and she had to be honest with herself, but she did not want to be. It frightened her, for one, to accept that she had met her match in the Duke, but it was even worse to accept that she had been wrong. She had always been able to pick out the wrong sort, and she did not want him to be the first time she had made an error, as if Sarah married the Baron and Emma left for the country, he would have been her last judgment.
It was juvenile of her, but she did not want her final one to be wrong.
After a while, a Pall Mall ball rolled their way. Sarah looked up as the Baron approached and excitedly scrambled to her feet to greet him.
“I hadn’t thought you’d lose a game just to see me,” she giggled.
“Perhaps the game was simply an excuse to find a way over here?”
“Considering your goal is in the opposite direction entirely, I would have to believe that.”
“Astute as always,” he chuckled. “You know, you could always join the next game. It is a perfectly decent sport for a young lady.”
“I have never played. I would hate for you to think my skills were so very awful that you couldn’t look me in the eye again.”
“Then perhaps I could teach you? I assure you, I do not always hit the ball perfectly away from where I intend to.”
Sarah turned to Emma, and Emma noted how wide her eyes were in hope.
“Of course,” she nodded, “But, if you are going to play, you must also win. I shall accept second, actually, as it is your first time.”
Sarah practically fizzed in excitement, clapping and thanking her profusely. Emma was not nervous for her; in spite of her sister’s memory, Sarah had played Pall Mall once, and she was brilliant at it.
When she looked up, however, she noticed that the size of the group had decreased. Looking more closely, she noticed that Gretchen had left.
As had the Duke of Lupton.
At first, she chastised herself for having searched for him again, but then she had another thought entirely, a far more frightening one. They had both disappeared, and there was no sign of them anywhere.
“I shall only be a moment,” she said quickly, leaving in the first direction she thought of.
She did not know quite where she was going, but she had to find them. Nothing would be happening that was untoward, she reasoned, but she had to find them in order to be certain of that. She wanted to trust the Duke, and so she would have to do so until he gave her proof that she couldn’t.
Then she found it.
She heard that same giggle from the first night. She followed it right to the carriages, which had been left to escort the guests back to the Duke of Pridefield’s home. There, to her shock, she found the two of them behind one, and when they saw her the Duke turned pale and Gretchen turned scarlet.
“Gretchen, what are you doing?” Emma demanded. “I have already told you of the danger of this. You are risking your reputation for this, and it is not something I can allow.”
“I am not asking you to allow it.”
“I do not care what you are asking of me. You do not understand what could happen. You are fortunate that I have no intention of ruining you, but had I been someone else it could have been very different indeed. You are playing with fire.”
“You do not have any idea of what you are talking about. I will not listen to the instruction of a glorified maid who could never find a match for herself. It is you who does not understand.”
“You say that because you are naive. You will one day thank me for this.”
“I will not!” she thundered. “I will never thank you for storming over to me and talking to me as though I am a child. You do not know a thing.”
“Gretchen–”
“You are not worth it,” Gretchen said coldly, straightening herself and walking away without another word.
Emma watched the girl leave, wondering just what she had been doing. It was foolish of her to think that the Duke had wanted anything to do with her other than–
She whipped around to face the Duke.
“And as for you, ” she scowled, “I cannot believe you would lie to me the way you did! I am the fool for believing you, but I won’t be making that mistake again.”
“Miss Kendall, I have already told you that I know what I am doing, and that my intentions are honorable.”
“Yes, how very honorable of you to hide away with a young lady, alone at that. You might think that every lady is a pretty little fool, but I am not. I know precisely what you are doing, and I will not stand for it.”
“Well, you are certainly pretty, but you are not little at all. You are, in fact, very tall. As for being a fool, I cannot claim whether you are or are not. It depends entirely on what you believe me to be doing.”
“You are going to ruin her,” she said, her voice shaking. “You are selfish, and you do not care for her at all. I should have known better than to trust a rake, and so in that respect you are right. I am a fool.”
She turned to leave, but he took her wrist. It was not a tight hold, but she felt trapped all the same.
“I am not lying to you,” he said firmly. “I am doing what is necessary for the moment. You must understand that I would not do this if I did not need to.”
“Of course, that is why you are as prolific as you are. You care only for the ladies in your vicinity, especially the unmarried ones. Truly, how chivalrous of you.”
He had not let go of her wrist, and after a moment of silence a smirk spread across his face.
“Miss Kendall,” he said slowly, “you are not jealous of her, are you?”
The words could have sent her into a fury, and they would have if she were not aware of the fact that others would have heard.
“Of course not,” she snapped. “There is nothing I want less than to chance ruin with you.”
“Is that so? In that case, why did you so readily take Miss Winston’s place?”
Emma wondered what he meant by that, but only for a minute as it quickly became apparent that she was now the unmarried lady with a known rake, and she was very close to him. Granted, that was partly because he was holding her there, a fact that would only compromise her all the more.
“If I were you, Miss Kendall,” he continued, “I would refrain from spending all this time chasing other young ladies and trying to keep them in line, and focus your attention on yourself. It is unwise to attract such advances. As you said, it is chancing ruin, playing with fire.”
He looked at her intensely for a moment before laughing slightly, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear and leaning in close. She felt his breath on her neck, hot as if he were burning her, and smiled into her ear.
“Be careful,” he whispered. “Even spinsters are not immune from such dreadful scandal.”
As he pulled away, he took the liberty of kissing her cheek. With a final smirk, his head turned to one side, he left her standing there.
She felt positively scandalized, and she struggled to regain her composure. She tried to think about why he had changed so suddenly, but it quickly became all too clear to her.
This Duke, the one that had made her feel so infuriated, was the real one. The other, the kind man that was nice to her and treated her respectfully, was an act, one designed to wear her down so she wouldn’t dare question him. What made her feel worse than anything he had done, however, was how easily she had fallen for it. She was not wise, not as much as she thought at least, and he had won in an instant.
Straightening her spine, she set her shoulders back and wiped her cheek. The duke had not left a mark, but she did not like the thought of his touch lingering somehow. She fixed a smile on her face and returned, the others looking at her expectantly.
“Where were you?” Beatrice asked. “Are you alright?”
“I am perfectly fine. I was simply wondering if we would be returning soon, and if I could do so sooner, and so I spoke to the footmen. I am afraid I am unwell.”
“You have certainly been out of sorts,” Sarah nodded. “I can accompany you home, if you wish.”
“No, it is perfectly fine. You have a baron to play Pall Mall with.”
“He will understand. I would much rather ensure you are well. Besides, if you are not here then Father will have to chaperone, and we both know he will not be happy with that.”
“I shall chaperone you,” Cecilia offered. “Emma will only feel worse if she knows she has ruined your afternoon. Is that not right, Emma?”
“Yes, quite.”
And so, after an apologetic look from Sarah, she returned alone. The Duke of Pridefield was happy for her to do so, and instructed the footmen to find a maid for her so that she could be taken care of. Rake he might be, but he knew how to follow the rules of civil society.
If only she could say the same of the Duke of Lupton.