Chapter 2 #2
His admission swelled her heart. He had inquired about her affections before he came here.
She bit her lower lip. Well, he might have done but that still did not change what had happened between them ten years ago.
Within days of that fiasco, he had left for war and Spain.
She had suffered the nightmare of the ton’s scourge.
Courtesy, of course, of one of the witnesses of their madness, Lady Shackleford.
“I have no attachment, no tender feelings for any man.” Only you. Ever you have I valued. Near, far, here, not. “But you do not know how cruelly society cut me from their regard.”
“I did not know that.” He paused, somber as if ingesting its meanness. “Does it go on? After ten years? What folly is that?”
“The ton does not care for pranks. Not for jokes between friends. Especially not between male and female.”
“What I did that day was in jest, and I regret that it hurt you so badly. But that is over, done. Ten years ago. How many highwaymen are there in England? The antics of Dick Turpin and his ilk are gone. It was I who had taken you from that coach and kissed you in the glen.”
Tears burned her eyes. Her anger cooled to heartbreak, she saw him as she had that day. Awash in black, his body lithe and agile. His blond curls hanging from the bandana too loosely tied to his head. “I had to leave London. My come out was no more. I could not bear the whispers.”
“Oh, Em, if only I’d been here.” He went to his knees before her and circled his hands around her waist. “I would have helped—”
The sound of someone clearing their throat froze them both.
“Excuse me,” murmured Diana, eyeing the way Lance’s hands were still on Emma. “Jeffries asked me to come.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder and gave them a forced smile. “I—I can leave though.”
Emma pulled from Lance’s arms. “Stay. Do.”
The girl licked her lips and looked back into the dark of the house. “I left my embroidery in the morning room and I can get it if—”
“Don’t bother, Di. I’m certain you remember Lord Weatherby from Lady Trilling’s party. He is just leaving.”
“You’ll throw me out?” He arched a brow, partly shocked and partly humored as he rose to his feet.
Emma swallowed. “You’ve overstayed your welcome.”
“Have I?”
“Has he?”
“How?” He stared at Emma.
“I cannot see you, sir. Not anywhere. Not here. Not in public. People remember and they talk.”
“To hell with them!”
Diana clucked in agreement.
Emma shook her head at the girl and then at him. “I cannot allow it, Lance. You must leave off.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Yes, why?” Di persisted.
Her young cousin had too much pluck—but Em went on, “Diana and I have new opportunities. With Uncle George’s generosity, both of us can now see bright futures. But it means I’ll have no resurrection of the past. What you and I did on that road ten years ago ruined me.”
“What did you both—?” Di began.
Emma quashed the girl’s question with a scalding look. “I want a clean slate for Diana. I want her to be able to choose a good man who loves her. I want her to stand tall and proud among her peers. I will not do more than nod and pass a few words with you, Lance. I will not risk it.”
“Then allow me to tell you why I am here, my dear Emma. I regret the past and how you suffered for my actions. But I will make amends to you. I swear it.
“I do not care how you wish to escape me. I have come to see you again because for the first time in my life, I have something to offer. As of February, heaven help me, I am the proud possessor of hundreds of acres of prime farmland. I have twenty-five tenants. Forty head of prime cattle. Nine goats. Four mules, two elegant Arabians I find of no practical use to me, but four strong Percheron horses I ordered from a friend in Brittany and shipped home.”
He bent and snatched up Peaches from between his legs.
“I have no cats, but I welcome this one to join us. I have need of a good mouser.”
“Peaches is not a mouser.” Em reached to take the cat from his arms, but the animal batted her hands away.
He chuckled. “I dare say, she’ll give me a go, won’t you, Peaches?”
The cat snuggled up under his chin and gave him a good rub, purring loud as a beating drum.
Em could only marvel at how he’d commanded her garden, her cat, and destroyed so much of the past that had plagued her.
“I am rich, Em. In land, title, money and hope. I have spent my life, even after that disastrous comedy on that Derbyshire road, wanting only you. Needing only you.
“But you have changed. I see it. You’ve lost your funny bone. Become a grump—and a bit of a witch, too.”
“Oh, you dare…!” Where was her dignity? Gone with his charm, by Jove.
He grinned. “I do dare. I want you. And I will show you I am to be relied upon. I am a gentleman in very fine fettle. You’d do well to allow me to court you. But if you don’t, well…I will anyway. Do be prepared.
“The ton was cruel to cast you out. I could care less for any one of them. It’s you I want. So do stand at the ready, my darling. You cannot get rid of me.”
Then he turned on his heels.
As he dropped the affectionate Peaches into Diana’s arms and picked up his hat and gloves from an open-mouthed Jeffries, Di curtsied and wished him a very good day. “It took weeks for Peaches to like me. Do you think it is his lemon bath soap she likes?”