Chapter Twenty
Bryson toyed with his wine glass as the servants cleared the last of the meal away and Pendrell and Emily announced they were retiring immediately.
When the ladies also withdrew, the duke offered to show his brother, Ashford, and Bryson the new finds, which had dominated the conversation over dinner.
“Sure, why not?” said Kenrick. Bryson, whose ears pricked up when told of the treasures that had been recovered from the tomb, followed them to the library. Perhaps my insurance policy will pay off after all.
The duke led the way. “It was most exciting to see each item revealed from the dirt. They don’t look like much at the moment, but I am assured by Deo that when they are properly cleaned and displayed, they will look quite spectacular.
Aberdeen will want them for the museum, of course, as is proper. ”
“You won’t keep anything for yourself, Your Grace?” asked Bryson, closing the library door behind him as he was the last to enter.
“Deo and I agree they belong in the museum. Although I’m a little surprised he doesn’t want to keep anything for his own collection.”
“The items were found on your land, Your Grace. Don’t they belong, by rights, to you?”
The duke shrugged. “Technically, but I’m a firm believer that our heritage should be shared in the public domain. If the body belonged to an ancestor, it might be different, but this fellow seemingly predates the Layne occupation of this land by several hundred years.”
“Deo and Emily have tentatively dated him to the sixth century, I believe,” said Ashford, who had accompanied them.
The duke turned to the large trestle table set up in the middle of the room upon which rested a number of boxes and crates.
He took the lid off one box and invited them to look at the contents.
Nestled in the cloth within was an elegant gold goblet that would not look out of place on a modern dining table.
“This is probably the piece that will draw the most attention.”
“The Holy Grail, eh?” said Kenrick with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, it could be, for all we know,” said the duke with a smile that indicated he didn’t for a minute think it was.
“The fellow was buried under a Celtic cross, was he not?” asked Bryson, betraying he had been paying more attention than he was wont to show.
“Aye,” said Ashford. “I’m fascinated to hear what theories Deo and Emily are going to put forward about this burial and its occupant.
My wife has a few of her own. You can take the governess out of the schoolroom, but you can’t take the schoolroom out of the governess!
” He smiled with a peculiar pride. Bryson couldn’t see that admitting your wife was a former governess was anything to boast about.
The duke put the lid back on the goblet and moved onto the other items. The shield and the drinking horn seemed to Bryson to be potentially the most interesting items historically.
Unless of course the goblet really was a candidate for the Holy Grail?
Could I manufacture a tale to give that credence?
If so, the goblet would become almost priceless . . . Something to consider there.
The other items of interest included a square-armed cross in gold and rubies and a silver brooch with sapphires.
There was also a belt buckle in bronze, tarnished like the shield, but it should clean up nicely.
The rest were of less interest. A set of green glass cups, three iron daggers and the remains of an iron sword, two wooden buckets identified only by their surviving corroded metal rings and handles.
Leaving the treasures to join the ladies, Bryson pondered what his next move would be.
Best to leave the treasures where they were for the moment, at least until they had been cleaned and fresh drawings done of them.
With the sketches, he could send off a letter to his broker to approach his father for an offer on the items. Then it would be a simple matter to appropriate them and disappear.
But not before Emily’s parents arrived. He wanted to wait and see if he had any hope of snatching her from Pendrell.
If he was to remove the items before he left, where would he put them? He needed somewhere secure that no one would find, and which no one would associate with him if they did, by some mischance, find them.
*
Emerging from the dressing room in his nightshirt and robe, Deo expected to see Em curled up in bed, but there was no sign of her. He went through to the sitting room and found her bent over the rubbing of the cross spread out on the desk.
“I thought you’d be in bed; you were yawning so much earlier.”
“I got to thinking about this rubbing,” she said. “I was sure I remembered there being a fragment of another line of text, and I was right. Look,” she pointed to the bottom of the rubbing. “The cross is broken off at an angle; there must be another piece. Do you think we can find it?”
“We can certainly look,” he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her back against him. “But not tonight. I’m exhausted, and so are you.”
“Yes, but I’m so excited I don’t know how I will sleep.”
“I can think of one way,” he said, husky voiced, kissing her neck.
He had been conscious of her all day, even throughout all the excitement of the finds, but trying not to think about it.
Her rosewater scent reminded him of how delicious she was.
Yes, it was unwise to continue their bed games, but the temptation was more than he could withstand.
Today’s events had consolidated in his mind the certainty that Em was his partner for life. He couldn’t imagine going forward now without her by his side. She was his perfect match, and he adored her.
He nuzzled her neck, and she said with faint delight, “Deo.”
He scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom, deposited her gently on the bed, shed his robe, and climbed in with her.
There was still the matter of their actual marital status to work out, but that was hard to remember when she was here in his arms. Kes jumped up on the bed and made himself comfortable on their feet.
“Em, today would not have been anywhere near as wonderful without you,” he said, sliding his arms round her.
“Oh, Deo, I feel the same. You made the day wonderful for me,” she said, snuggling into his chest. A warm satisfaction and contentment spread through his body, making his normally tense muscles relax.
He let out a faint sigh and settled back into the pillows. “Em, there is something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said hesitantly.
“Yes?” she looked up at him.
“I understood your reluctance to go home when you explained how you were treated, but I wanted to ask if your parents made a practice of that sort of thing?”
“Starving me, you mean?” asked Em, with a quirk of her lips.
“Well, yes, that is an outrageous example. But I meant any disproportionate punishment.”
“Oh yes, starving me was one of Mama’s favorite tactics, although she had never imposed it for that long before, or so ruthlessly.
Generally, it was just missing a meal or two.
But in this case, the servants were forbidden to speak to me or help me on pain of dismissal without a reference. ” She said this quite matter-of-factly.
He was appalled. “Em, that is outrageous. The worst kind of abuse!”
“It’s no worse than the way you were treated, Deo. In fact, I think it is far less dreadful. I did receive some affection, you know. It was just conditional on doing what Mama wanted.”
“What about your father? Was he kind to you?”
She shrugged. “He is far too afraid of Mama to stand up to her for me. He wanted a son, you see. He needed an heir, and he was stuck with me, a useless girl, instead.”
“You are not useless!” he said fiercely and squeezed her tight.
She squeaked and giggled. “Well, no, I don’t feel useless after today, but I used to feel—oh, I don’t know!
As if I didn’t fit anywhere. Mama was forever nagging me to be something I’m not—sit up straight, smile, curtsy, dance, converse on the stupidest topics, try to be pretty and desirable to gentlemen—when all I wanted to do was read and study antiquities. And talk to someone who understood!”
“Exactly!” He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. “That is exactly how I felt.”
She burst into giggles. “Deo, I cannot imagine you curtsying!”
He stared at her for a moment and then his lips twitched, and he burst out laughing. Which made her laugh harder until there were tears streaming down her cheeks and she collapsed on him, gasping for breath. “Oh, please, stop, my ribs hurt!” she said, going into another fit of giggles.
“Emily Frances, you are delightful!” he kissed her forehead and wiped at the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs.
“Mama only called me Emily Frances when she was angry with me,” she said with a sigh. “Which was a lot of the time.”
“I cannot wait to make your mother’s acquaintance,” he said a little grimly. “I shall disabuse her of the notion that you are anything less than perfect.”
“Oh, Deo!” She flung her arms round his neck and kissed him. Which put paid to conversation for a while as he forgot all his vows of continence and pushed her back into the pillows for a thorough kissing.
*
Emily squirmed beneath him, her body set alight instantly by his kisses.
Will he make me his wife indeed tonight?
It would be the perfect cap to a perfect day.
She wanted him quite desperately, she had come to realize over the previous days, and she was a little puzzled by his insistence that they wait on the solicitor’s letter.
What difference did it make? He had already said they would repeat their vows if necessary, and if he took her, then Bidenden would stop this nonsense of trying to claim her as his.
She had felt sorry for him when he was injured by the falling tree, but she had no interest in him compared to Deo.