Chapter Eleven
Emily, stunned by Deo’s behavior, clutched at the back of a chair to keep her feet and tried to swallow the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks.
“Emily!”
She jumped and looked around to find Lord Bidenden standing in the doorway.
“I could not help overhearing!” he said, advancing on her. “You poor girl! You have been deceived, lured into a false trap!”
“What? No—”
“Hush.” He put his hands on her arms. “Your innocence does you credit, my dearest Emily.
You would not know—how could you—that there are men in this world who do not like women, whose intimate tastes veer toward men.
The fact that he did not consummate your marriage immediately tells me all I need to know.
This matter of the legality of your contract is just an excuse.
“He clearly regrets his decision and wishes to be free of you. He has given you a way out, my dear, and do not fear that I will spurn you after. We could be married quite swiftly, if your current alliance is proved invalid. I do not fear gossip from this household for I feel sure the duke wouldn’t allow ill rumor about his friend, Pendrell. ”
She gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Emily.” He contrived to get his arms round her.
“You cannot have failed to understand how much I adore you.” He made an attempt to kiss her, but she evaded him, pushing her hands against his chest. “My dearest little Emily,” he said thickly, crushing her to him.
“I was heartbroken when you rejected my suit!”
Since Emily could feel the heated bulge in his trousers, she was seriously frightened now.
She gave him a shove and, breaking his hold on her, stepped away.
“You are mistaken, Lord Bidenden. I ran away rather than marry you. I cannot understand why you are persisting in this fiction that you love me!”
His face took on a despairing expression. “Emily, I must prove my devotion to you.”
“To my fortune more like!” she snapped. “You must be desperate indeed for your own money. Does your father keep you on a tight leash?”
For a moment his expression flickered, but in the next he said, “You must be confusing me with someone else, Lannister perhaps. Everybody knows he hasn’t a feather to fly with.
I have no need of your money, my darling, and I shall prove it to you.
Just know that you have me to turn to when Pendrell cruelly spurns your sweet overtures of love.
A man such as he will not know what to do with a lovely, innocent girl like you. ”
He gave her a deep bow and left the room.
Emily sank into the chair, her legs giving out.
*
The men were getting ready to set out to lift the cross, all except Bidenden, which was a good thing or Deo might be tempted to punch him after all.
Emily joined them, putting on her hat. She must have gone upstairs to retrieve it.
Kester followed her, and Deo’s heart did an odd sort of thump to watch him come to a stop by her side and her hand go automatically to the dog’s head and stroke it.
She didn’t meet Deo’s eyes, and he couldn’t blame her after that conversation following luncheon.
He didn’t know what had possessed him to offer her the option to take Bidenden.
If she did—no, he would not contemplate such a possibility.
He dragged his eyes away from her as they set off across the lawns again.
The men were loaded with several lengths of rope looped around shoulders and a couple of spades and a pick borrowed from the duke’s gardener, Smiggens.
They arrived at the site, and Deo discussed with Robert his plan to flip the cross so that he and Emily could inspect the verso for markings, before dragging it off the mound altogether to make way for the dig, which they wouldn’t commence until tomorrow.
Emily listened to this plan but made no comment.
Nevertheless, he was highly aware of her presence.
Even if he wasn’t looking at her, he knew where she was as the men organized themselves to lift one arm of the cross sufficiently so that they could slip a loop of rope around it and lift and flip it.
With two of them on the rope and two to steady it via the head and base, they accomplished the flip easily enough.
Settling it back on the mulchy, worm-filled ground, the other men stepped back to allow him and Emily to look at the reverse side of the cross.
Brushing away the dirt and debris, they found only knot-work patterns on this side, no inscription.
Emily took a rubbing of the knotwork and sketched the flipped cross.
Then she stepped back to allow the men to carry the heavy object off the mound and deposit it on the ground at the base.
*
Bryson had spent the afternoon penning a letter to Emily’s mother to apprise her of her daughter’s whereabouts.
My dear Lady Efford,
I felt compelled to write to you and advise you that I am staying at the Duke of Troubridge’s Leicestershire estate and was surprised to find your daughter among the guests.
I was even more surprised to discover that she is here masquerading as the wife of the Earl of Pendrell.
How Pendrell has persuaded her to undertake this enterprise, I know not.
But I have it on excellent authority that their ostensible marriage is invalid, as it was contracted without Lord Efford’s permission.
It is also a sham. The earl himself claims the marriage has not been consummated.
If he is to be believed, Emily is not ruined entirely.
This is an extraordinary circumstance. I can only conclude that the earl is a man of certain appetites and has hoped to hide his proclivities from the ton by contracting a sham marriage.
If I am correct in my assumptions, Emily is in no danger from the earl, but neither will she ever give you grandchildren, should this sham marriage continue.
I hasten to assure you that you can rely on both my discretion and my assistance in bringing this lamentable affair to a satisfactory conclusion.
I propose that for a reasonable initial settlement, plus a generous allowance until such time as Emily should come into her full fortune, I will take Emily to wife and assist you to hush up the scandal.
I remain ever your humble servant to command,
Bryson Passmore, Viscount Bidenden
Satisfied, he took it into the nearest village to post.
Over dinner it was easy to see that the strife between Emily and Pendrell had not been resolved, and Bryson was emboldened in his plan, despite Emily’s rebuff.
Once her parents arrived, as they would no doubt set out for The Castle upon receipt of his letter, it would be a simple matter to have the marriage declared invalid.
Emily would then have no choice but to accept him.
Indeed, the poor girl would be grateful to him for his rescue, after the humiliation of Pendrell’s rejection.
Bryson knew Pendrell to be an antiquities scholar of some standing, as Bryson’s father had more than a passing interest in antiquities himself, and he had grown up in a house stuffed full of ancient artifacts from all over England and the world.
His father’s secret passion for such musty objects had been of no interest to Bryson until this moment.
But listening to the conversation over dinner, another means of obtaining money began to percolate through his brain.
A highly satisfactory one, too, if he could pull it off.
Assuming there was anything of value to be had in this burial mound they were discussing.
He smiled as he cut into his beef and listened attentively to the conversation.
The idea of getting money from his sire for valuable objects of this nature pleased him very much.
He would of course use a third party to do the deal.
He knew his father would pay well for something rare and would never know the money was going to his son, whom he had cut off without a penny.
If there was anything to be had, of course.
There may be nothing in the ground but old bones.