Chapter Seventeen #3
“I am fine,” she insisted, forcing a smile on her face as she wiped away the last of her tears.
“You are not fine,” he took a step towards her again. “Who was it?”
“I do not know.”
Nathaniel’s eyes darkened, something Emilia was beginning to grow accustomed to, though this time it was as though the shadows rose from the smoke of a blazing fire burning somewhere within him.
“Someone not only insulted you, but they also addressed you without introducing themselves?”
Emilia gave a slight shrug. “They did not introduce themselves because they were not speaking to me. I simply overheard something I should not have.”
“What did they say?”
Emilia turned her head, no longer able to hold his gaze. “It does not matter what they said.”
“It does if it distressed you to the point of tears!” Nathaniel turned to look back towards the open ballroom doors. “Point them out to me.”
Emilia gave a soft laugh, “Nathaniel, they were ladies.”
“You use the term loosely,” he muttered under his breath, still scanning the small portion of the guests that he could see.
“You are going to brawl a group of women?”
Nathaniel turned to face her again, his brow furrowed. “How many were there?”
Emilia’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “I truly can not tell when you are serious.”
Nathaniel moved even closer, taking her hands in his. His grip was soft, but his hold was firm, his thumb drawing light circles along the inside of her wrists.
“I am serious when I say I never want you to hide your tears from me. Regardless of how trivial you believe the reason to be, I do not want you to ever think I do not care about the things that bring you pain. Even if I am the one who caused it.”
Emilia’s heart caught in her throat, and she felt fresh tears pressing against her eyes. “There is something else I need to tell you,” she said quickly before she could think better of it. “I did not simply overhear them; I confronted them…and I was very unkind.”
“Oh.” Nathaniel’s mouth dropped in surprise, but Emilia thought she saw the corners quirk up before she dropped her gaze to the floor in shame.
“I am so sorry, I know you are ashamed of me.”
Nathaniel released her hand, lightly gripping her chin to raise her face back to him. “My dear, why would I be ashamed of you?”
“Because I am an embarrassment!” Emilia cried.
“Emilia, the only thing I am embarrassed about is the fact that you were put in a position where you needed to defend your own honor alone. I never should have left your side.”
Emilia winced. He did not know that it was his honor she had been defending.
“I handled it,” she said, her arms crossing over her chest involuntarily, as though her body were trying to hold the truth back from him.
“You should not have had to.” Nathaniel’s voice was soft, but she could see the suspicion growing in his eyes. “Emilia, will you not tell me what they said?”
Emilia shook her head, no longer able to look at him squarely. She heard his resolved sigh before he dropped his hand from her face.
“The comments you overheard were not about you, were they?”
“No,” she admitted.
She expected him to demand to know their words or storm off in anger, but Nathaniel’s shoulders simply dropped in resignation. “I knew people would be careless with their words, but I hoped they would not be so cruel.”
He raked a hand through his hair, undoing its careful arrangement until dark waves fell across his brow. “This is why I wanted to wait for you to rejoin society.”
“You are not upset?” Emilia asked in surprise.
He gave her a soft smile. “I do not pay much attention to the things people say about me. I am quite used to their critical assessments.”
“Well, I am not!” Emilia nearly jumped at the sound of her own voice.
She could not understand what it was that continued to take hold of her.
Every emotion she had was knotted so tightly together she could barely distinguish one from the other.
She had begun the evening properly perturbed at Nathaniel, but now she could hardly remember why.
He looked at her, his expression soft as his eyes brightened. “I am not ashamed of you, Emilia, and if you are agreeable, I would very much like to dance with you.”
Emilia could barely breathe around the lump forming in her throat. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to take his arm and allow him to lead her back into the ballroom with her head held high, but the little pride she possessed had been too brutally wounded.
“I do not know if I can face them.”
He placed his hands on the back of her arms, squeezing them gently as though he could give her some of his strength.
“You will not face them alone, not ever again.”
“I am sorry, Nathaniel.” Emilia shook her head slowly. “I think I would like to go home.”
She watched his face, waiting for disappointment to show, but it never did. Instead, something surprisingly close to pride flickered in his weary eyes.
Nathaniel pulled her close to his chest once more and pressed his lips lightly against her hair.
“Then I shall take you home.”