27. Chapter 27
When Andrew did not arrive for afternoon tea, Emma was thrown off balance.
Why couldn’t he see that it was foolish to care for her?
She set her teacup down with a rattle. She needed some fresh air to clear her head.
She hadn’t been outside in days. She found a pair of half boots and a wool shawl.
Calling for Fergus, she left to take a walk in the gardens.
It was a crisp, clear day with the sun shining down.
It warmed her as she and Fergus strolled through the manicured gardens.
Fergus had been very patient with her, but she could tell he needed a good run outside.
Eventually, she meandered over to the paddock, where several beautiful horses were grazing.
One mare noticed her and came over to say hello.
Emma petted her nose. “Sorry, I don’t have a treat for you,” she said to the horse as she nuzzled her hand.
“Next time, I will come better prepared. I promise.”
A clatter of hooves had her turning to find Jack and Vivian arriving on horseback.
Both were flushed and windblown from their ride.
Jack dismounted first and then helped his wife off her horse.
They gave the leads over to a stable hand and then walked over to where she stood.
Emma lifted her eyebrows high as Vivian approached wearing breeches and boots as opposed to a riding habit.
Vivian laughed out loud as they came to a stop in front of her. “See, I told you I was scandalous. I never did like to ride sidesaddle. And when we are here at Stoneleigh, I have the freedom to be myself.” She reached out a hand to her husband, who grasped it, brushing a kiss across her knuckles.
“How are you feeling, Miss Whittingham?” Jack asked.
“Please, call me Emma. After all you have seen and all of your help, Miss Whittingham seems too formal.” She smiled at them. “I’m feeling much better, thanks to Andrew’s coddling.”
“Where is my brother? I am surprised to see you out here without him.”
Emma turned away to pet the horse. “I don’t think Andrew is very happy with me right now.”
“I find that hard to believe. Why would you think so?”
Squaring her shoulders, she pivoted back to face the pair. “Because he asked me to marry him this morning, and I said no.”
“What!” Vivian gaped. “Why did you say no?”
Emma lowered her eyes. She didn’t wish to see the censure in their eyes. She tried to explain succinctly. “He deserves someone much better than me. It wouldn’t be right.”
When she summoned the courage to look up, she found, instead of condemnation, Jack wore a thoughtful expression.
“Actually, I know exactly how you feel.” He glanced over at his wife and then returned his gaze to Emma.
“I was once given a very good piece of advice by a wise lady. She said that there is always an opportunity to change the direction of our lives. I chose to be a better version of myself, but I had to let go of my past. It wasn’t easy, but with the right partner, it’s definitely possible.
” He leaned over and surprised Emma by brushing a kiss on her cheek.
“I’ll just go take care of the horses.” He strode over to the barn.
Emma stood there, stunned. “I don’t know what to say. It’s not that I don’t care for him. It’s just that he is so very kind and wonderful, and a duke, for goodness’ sake.” She waved her hands about, clearly doing a poor job of convincing Vivian of her unsuitability to be matched with Andrew.
Vivian gave her hand a squeeze. “Well, you have had a very rough week. You have a lot of thinking to do about your life. Come, let’s go do something diverting. Do you like to play cards?”
The next afternoon, Emma walked through the downstairs hallway to the library to find a book to read.
She hadn’t seen Andrew since yesterday morning.
Disappointment warred with boredom, so she decided a good book was exactly what she needed to distract her.
As she passed by the ballroom, clanking sounds and male grunting drifted out.
Curious, she approached the slightly ajar door. She peeked in.
Oh my. She drank in the sight of Andrew and his brother fencing.
Neither man wore a shirt. Sweat glistened across two sets of broad shoulders, but Emma could not take her eyes off Andrew.
The muscles in his back stretched and bunched as he pushed forward with his soft-tipped foil.
He was quick on his feet. The concentration on his handsome face made him look like a fierce warrior of old.
She sighed a little to think what it would be like to have a strong knight fighting in her defense.
Emma shook her head; what a silly schoolgirl fantasy.
The men paused, and servants ran up to offer them water.
Andrew took a deep swig, and Emma got a perfect view of his well-muscled chest and the planes of his hard stomach.
She remembered running her hands through the hair there.
How he groaned her name as she leaned over him to lick his flat nipples.
How he had tangled his fingers tightly in her hair.
She should walk away before they noticed her, but her feet were rooted to the spot.
Andrew lowered his drink; he spotted her in the doorway. Their gazes locked. Andrew’s eyes darkened with desire, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Embarrassed to have been caught ogling him, Emma turned and fled down the hallway to the library.
In the ballroom, Andrew attacked his brother, his foil whipping through the air.
It felt damn good to take his frustration with Emma out on Jack.
When they were younger, Andrew had always beaten Jack at fencing, being much lighter on his feet than his brother.
But in the years since, Jack had improved.
Instead of playing like a hothead, as he had in his youth, he handled his foil with lethal calm. Jack was currently trouncing him.
“You are much better than you used to be, little brother.”
“I have had a lot of practice. You can’t survive in the Caribbean without knowing how to defend yourself with a sword. Pirates fight dirty.”
The large round tip of his foil struck Andrew in the shoulder. That one would probably leave a bruise. They never wore protective padding when they fenced. It was too cumbersome, and Andrew trusted his brother not to harm him…too badly.
Andrew shuffled back and reset his stance. Two servants hurried over to offer water and towels as the men paused. He wiped sweat out of his eyes. Then he focused on Jack, foil at the ready. “Again.”
“All right.” Jack shrugged. “You are a glutton for punishment.” Their foils clashed as Andrew went on the offensive.
Jack nimbly backed away, turning lightning quick to one side.
“So does all this aggression have anything to do with the fact that your recent marriage proposal to Miss Whittingham was politely declined?”
“How did you hear about that?” Andrew asked. He blocked a jab of the foil.
“She told us. She seemed very upset you would be angry with her indefinitely.”
“I am angry, but only because she still doesn’t trust me. I am going to back away and let her think on it a while. I don’t know what else to do.”
“I think you have the wrong idea, Andrew. I recognized the misery on her face. She does not think she deserves happiness, that she is unworthy. I know because I felt the same way when I met Vivian. If you leave her to her own devices, she will continue to justify her own ideas that you are too good for her.” Jack paused, lowering his foil.
“Which we both know is bullocks.” He grinned devilishly.
“My advice would be to seduce her into your bed and keep her there until she says yes.”
“Are you actually suggesting I take the young lady hostage in bed until she agrees to marry me?”
“Like I said, sometimes you have to fight dirty.” While Andrew was distracted by thoughts of Emma naked in his bed, Jack neatly pushed him up against the wall, the long edge of his foil an inch from his throat.
“See?” Jack smiled, then stepped back. “Besides, if you have to take her hostage, big brother, then you’re definitely not doing it right. ”
Andrew shook his head and laughed. He moved back to the middle of the room and resumed his ready stance. “Again,” he said.
An hour later, Andrew found Emma in the library.
He hadn’t been able to concentrate after seeing her staring at him in the doorway with such raw desire in her eyes.
After finally accepting defeat in their last round, he’d gone upstairs to clean up and get properly dressed.
Andrew closed the library door behind him and crossed the room.
His intention was to take his brother’s advice, spend some time scrambling her wits with passion.
But now, Emma regarded him warily over her shoulder from where she sat on the rug in front of the fireplace.
Reading the apprehension written across her face, he decided on a different tack.
He crossed the room to settle behind her on the rug. Stretching his legs on either side of her, he bent to nuzzle her neck. “What are you reading?” He felt her release a breath.
“Macbeth,” she replied.
“Isn’t that a rather dark tale for an afternoon read?” Andrew was surprised at her choice.
“Perhaps. Macbeth thought he would be king, and life would be grand. But no matter who you are, life is hard. It does me good to remember that.” Emma leaned back against his chest. He wrapped one arm around her waist.
“Of this tenet, I am well aware. The trial of being stuck in an unhappy marriage is something I would have gladly continued to endure if only to spare my sons the unfairness of losing their mother so young. The guilt nearly consumed me.”
He paused. It wasn’t so hard to talk about it anymore.
“This past summer, I came to the conclusion I need to leave things from my past behind in order to look toward something better. I want to show my boys how to move forward after tragedy. I want to show them what hope looks like.” Andrew stared into the fire, remembering the anger and bitterness he had been mired in after his wife died.
How he had tried to drown those feelings in liquor.
“Your brother said something to that effect to me earlier. About leaving the past behind,” Emma murmured.
“Will you tell me more about what happened after your father’s death? How did you become a thief?” Andrew prodded gently.
Emma stiffened in his arms. He brushed another kiss to her neck.
“I suppose it’s best if you know all of it.
Then you will believe me when I say you can’t marry me.
” She turned in his arms so she leaned up against one of his knees.
Emma looked up at him. “After the will was read, I sat there in my father’s library, tears streaming down my face.
My uncle got up to leave, but I caught his arm and asked him to stay.
I don’t know if it was my tears or the desperation in my voice which pricked his conscience that day, but he did stay, for a little over a year.
He was the only adult willing to be totally honest with me about the dire financial situation we were in.
He himself was in no financial position to care for all of us.
He is what you would call a lothario. He moves from one lonely lady to the next, his ‘amours,’ he calls them. ”
She worried a thread on her skirt, wrapping it around her finger.
“In the end, he taught me the only thing he knew how to do well, to be a thief. You see, he was once a notorious thief, never once caught. But as he explained to me, it’s a young man’s game.
So, he trained me as his protégé. He sells the jewelry to his fence, a man he has worked with for many years.
I have been stealing from the rich ladies in Mayfair for almost four years now. ”
Andrew gazed down at her with pity for the young girl whose world had crumbled in one short day. To have everything you knew upended in such a violent fashion. And no one to properly care for you. Poor thing.
“Stop.” She held up a hand. “Don’t romanticize the tale. You’re feeling sorry for poor, desperate Emma. But the truth is, I enjoy the hunt, the freedom of being out at night, of taking what I want. Listen and see clearly who I really am.” She lifted her chin, defying him to argue.
She was right; he did think how fearless she must be to brave the night and earn a living for her family in such a difficult way. Her declaration of her enjoyment in her misdeeds struck him as a well-placed strike to scare him off. Not that it was going to work.
“Your uncle, does he take a cut from the sales?” Andrew asked.
“Of course, as does the fence.”
“And do you know what the size of his portion is when you hand him a piece of jewelry?”
Her brow wrinkled. “Well, no, it depends on what the fence says he can sell it for… Are you implying Charles is cheating me? He dotes on us! He gave me a way to pay the bills, to care for myself. I will always be indebted to him,” Emma protested, but the furrow between her eyebrows showed she was considering his words and did not like the implications.
“What I am suggesting is, like you said, Charles is not a young man anymore. He is using you to make a living for himself. He needs you just as much as you need him,” Andrew stated.
Had there been any man in her life who had not tried to use Emma to their own advantage?
Anyone who had put her needs ahead of their own?
After all that had happened to her, how did she still so easily find the humor and joy in the small things around her?
He admired her ability to bounce back from adversity so much.
Andrew knew better than to let her see how much her struggles affected him.
She would recoil from any sympathy. So he schooled his face into a bland smile.
“Why don’t you read to me? The part with the witches is a particular favorite of mine.”
Emma’s pensive expression cleared, and she smiled. “That is my favorite part as well. I do an excellent witch’s cackle.” Turning, she again rested her back against his chest. She began to read aloud.