The Seduction of Emily (16 page)

Will couldn’t have agreed more but he forced a scowl on his face. When he spoke, his tone was laced with anger. “How have you seen her?”

He frowned. “I don’t live in a bloody cave, mister. I venture into town every now and then. Those toffs can be generous with their donations to a lad on the street once they’ve got the liquor in ’em.”

“You’ve seen her with him?”

“Yep, her and the mistress at the same time sometimes.”

“What?” Shock kicked Will in the stomach.

“Yep. He gets off on it, I reckon. That beautiful woman ain’t got a clue her future husband goes out dancing with both her and his whore in the same damn room.”

Will tossed the second coin and the boy snatched it in the air.

“Cheers, mister. Good doing business with you.”

He moved to walk away and Will caught his wrist. “You don’t tell anyone I was here asking questions, you hear?”

The boy shrugged. “No problem.”

“I mean it.”

The boy winked. “So do I.”

Will released him and his informant walked toward the town center, whistling loud enough to shake the soot from the chimneys. Will struggled to hear anything above the fury burning like a fireball behind his ribcage. Milne was exposing Emily time and again to public humiliation and she had absolutely no idea. She might have told him there was no love between them—but he couldn’t imagine for one minute, she would ignore the risk of public ridicule.

The woman’s demeanor screamed of self-respect. The fire in her eyes alone told of her inner need to prevail against what life threw at her. Will’s heart twisted. It was that, more than any other, which drew him to her. Kindred spirits. He squeezed his eyes shut. Damn, he could not think of her that way. Not now, not ever.

He turned and joined the throng of people milling along the town’s streets. Whatever happened from then on, Will possessed another vital weapon in a budding arsenal. Soon he would be equipped with the means to obliterate Milne. Expose the man for all of society to see. To strip him down and let the vultures pick him bare to the bone. He grinned. A few more bits of evidence and the contract of marriage to Emily, and Milne’s succeeding fortune, would be washed clean away.

Surely, if he could prove Milne’s adultery, the inheritance would be Emily’s in full.

Emily stared at her father across the breakfast table. The morning sunlight lit the dining room and her mood. Overly buoyant since her and Will’s kiss, she had struggled to keep her face devoid of happiness for the past week. It wasn’t right that she was this happy about kissing a man other than her fiancé, but she couldn’t contain the thrill of it.

It made her feel alive that she had so carelessly exposed herself to risk. In that moment, she wouldn’t have cared if Her Majesty Queen Victoria had seen them. She bit back a giggle. Deep inside she was alive—truly alive. The kiss meant that for now her entire being was not made up of preparing to sacrifice her life for her children’s future.

Her smile slipped as she dipped her spoon into her boiled egg. For all the happiness Will brought her, she needed to ensure he didn’t accompany her into town today. She lifted her fingers to her lips as she had a million times since their kiss. She’d avoided him and suspected he avoided her. She’d not left the house so there was no reason for his company before now.

Today she needed to go to town. She hadn’t seen her friend Katherine for so long and neglecting their friendship was a bad thing when soon she would need her friend’s company to fortify her once she was married. She shivered.

“Emily? Are you cold?”

She blinked. Her father frowned. She forced a wide smile. “Not at all, Papa.”

Emily took a bite of egg as her father turned to his buttered toast. After a moment, she took a deep breath. “I need to go into town today, Papa.”

“Ah, well in that case, I need Will to purchase me some cigars. I don’t like the thought of a lady in a tobacco shop.”

She slowly lowered her spoon to her plate. “I was hoping you’d let Annie and me go alone today. I’d like to go to the haberdashery for some ribbons and then meet Katherine for tea. She’ll hardly relax with a strange man at the table.”

He met her gaze. “No.”

Emily frowned. “Why ever not? I will not be alone. The three of us will be perfectly safe.”

“No.”

“Papa, please. You are being entirely unreasonable.”

He glared. “You know the rules. I will not risk you to further assault. My mind is made up. My physicality is faltering and I want Will with you.”

“This is madness. I will be quite safe.”

“Are you arguing with me?”

Determination pulled back her shoulders. “Not arguing but asking. Please. This trust you have in Will is based on nothing more . . . Papa?”

Her father sucked in a loud breath and his fork clattered onto his plate.

Emily leapt to her feet, her heart beating fast, panic a boulder in her throat. “Papa!”

Her father’s arms flailed outward, sending his teacup spilling across the table. His face grew dark red and a vein bulged at his temple. She rushed forward, sending her plate and egg toppling to the floor unheeded.

Her father started to choke in earnest.

“Papa! Oh, no. I’m so sorry. Papa, please.” She slapped him on the back, again and again. “Why do you insist on eating and shouting at me at the same time?” Her attempt at humor did nothing to lessen her panic. She couldn’t lose him. Not like this.

Emily darted her gaze to the closed dining room door. “Annie! Annie, help me. Someone help me!”

Grasping her father’s arm, she yanked and pulled him from the chair to his feet, her arms trembling from the strain and perspiration breaking out on her skin, like ice-cold needle pricks. What was she to do? Tears burned and threatened as her father’s coughing halted and the skin around his mouth turned blue.

Tears broke from Emily’s eyes. “Help me. Please. Somebody!”

The doors crashed open and Will came rushing in. “Emily?”

She looked up and their gazes locked. “Will, help me. He’s not breathing.”

He strode forward and yanked her father from her arms. He whirled him around and slapped him hard on the back. Her father’s lips grew darker. Emily could hardly bear to watch.

“Will, please. Do something.”

He ignored her, his face shone white with concentration. Emily lifted her hand to her mouth as he pulled her father’s ailing frame against his muscular one and counted to three. Will lifted his hand and brought it down hard between her father’s shoulder blades. She cried out.

Her father’s eyes bulged from their sockets.

With his gaze locked on hers, Will spoke to her father. “Come now, Mr. Darson, be a gentleman. One, two, three.”

He slapped his back again, this time so hard her father stumbled forward violently but Will held him fast. A lodged chunk of bacon shot from her father’s mouth. Emily watched in horrified silence as it flew through the air before ricocheting from the mirror above the fireplace with a resounding
ping.

Her father’s gasps of breath and hacking cough filled the room. Will guided him to his chair and grasped his bony shoulder. “Not the best way to start the day, if you don’t mind me saying so, sir.”

Her father dabbed a napkin to his mouth as the coughing subsided. “That was quite a trick you performed there. I feel like such a fool.”

Will swiped a trembling hand over his face. “Would now be a good time to confess I had no idea what I was doing?”

Her father managed a small laugh. “Indeed not. I am grateful all the same.”

With her hysteria back under control, Emily came forward and threw her arms around her beloved father’s neck. “I thought I’d lost you.”

He pressed his lips to her temple. “Now, now, my dear. Didn’t I tell you I will not be leaving this earth until I see you in your wedding dress, eh?”

Emily’s stomach lurched. Her wedding day to Nicholas loomed less than two months away and the prospect became ever more unpleasant. She painted on a smile and turned to Will. “Thank . . .”

Her gratitude froze on her tongue. She had been so blinded with panic when he came bounding into the dining room, Emily hadn’t noticed how he was dressed. Heat assaulted her cheeks. Clearly, he’d returned from riding. Had she shouted loud enough for him to hear her in the guest room upstairs where he’d been changing? She jerked her gaze back to her father in order to think straight. “I don’t know how I will ever repay you.”

Even with her back turned, the sight of Will’s bare, muscular chest and torso shone bright in Emily’s mind. Add his bronzed shoulders and dark smattering of hair at his navel which disappeared behind the buttons of his riding breeches and she was entirely lost. The familiar and insufferable pull at her center gave another untimely tug.

She cleared her throat. “I’ll summon Annie and get you straight to bed, Papa. You need to rest.”

“Rubbish.” He gave a dismissive wave. “I choked, nothing more. Now I would like everything to return to normal. Let the event be forgotten. Now about you and Annie going into town today—”

Emily waved her hand. “I am not leaving you after what just happened.”

His steely gaze met hers. “Yes, my dear, you are.”

“But—”

“As I almost died, you can concede to my wish of having Will accompany you.” His eyes gleamed with triumph.

Emily’s mouth drained dry. Now what was she to do? Her father had her exactly where he wanted her. She shot him a glare. “That’s emotional blackmail.”

He laughed. “Indeed it is.”

Her father looked over her shoulder and beamed at Will. His eyes so soft with fondness, he might have been looking at his son. “I insist you take the morning off from scouring the streets for your nephew, Mr. Samson, and take Emily into town. I will send Malcolm out asking questions about the boy. Who knows? Another person asking after the fellow might nudge people into taking his absence seriously.”

Emily turned, helplessness curling into a ball inside her. She stared at Will as his brow furrowed.

“I really don’t think I can do that, sir. Every hour that passes is another hour when he could’ve been found.”

Her father shook his head and Emily scowled. The man was struggling not to smile. He was intolerable. Yet her heart swelled with love for him. If she ever doubted from whom she inherited her cunning . . .

“Nonsense.” Her father waved his hand once more. “As long as someone is looking for the boy, what does a couple of hours of your dedication matter? I insist. Every day you’ve been here, we’ve hardly seen you. Now you will take Emily out or else I might have to reconsider our arrangement.”

Trepidation—or anticipation—crept up Emily’s spine and she resisted the urge to bolt from the room. She and Will hadn’t been alone since their kiss. What if it happened again? The fact she didn’t trust herself to resist him spoke volumes. She forcibly locked her gaze on Will’s. “Today could be the day you find the boy. Isn’t that right, Will?”

He stared for a long moment before the frown left his brow and his eyes shone with enjoyment—a look she was beginning to love as much as detest. Her stomach executed a loop-the-loop that weakened her knees. Damn him.

He exhaled a heavy breath. “On the contrary, I have exhausted every avenue I can think of and taking a day to reflect might be just what I need to evoke some new ideas.”

Emily swallowed her scream. The man was dressed like a rough and ready cad and now expected to escort her into town. Her lips tingled with the memory of his kiss.

Her father slapped his knee, making her jump. “Excellent. Emily wishes to purchase some ribbons and such for the wedding, isn’t that so, dear?”

Her eyes remained locked with Will’s. “I wish to pay a visit to the haberdashery and then on to see my friend who works at the milliner’s on Milsom Street. The excursion will undoubtedly bore you to tears but if Papa insists—”

“The milliner’s?” Will’s soft smile dissolved and the humor in his gaze became avid interest.

Emily frowned. “Yes. Is there something wrong?”

The skin of his neck shifted rapidly two or three times before he spoke. “No, of course not.”

Suspicion lit like a spark in her mind. What in the world was he up to now? If there was ever a time she doubted Will’s story about a missing nephew, it became ten times stronger.

She smiled. “I will see you out front in half an hour. If that gives you enough time to get properly dressed, of course.”

He grinned before giving a slight bow. “It most certainly will.”

“Very well then.” She brushed past him.

If the man thought her afraid of being alone with him again, he was sorely mistaken. Furthermore, if he thought she would swoon if he touched her again, he was wrong about that too. Emily was completely aware of how her days for living and laughter were numbered.

Excitement and daring rushed through her and she turned. “Do you know, I’ve quite changed my mind. Time is of the essence after father’s upset. I’d like to get into town and back as soon as possible. So there is no need to change from those breeches and boots, I find them . . . quite acceptable.” She stared openly at his chest. “However, a shirt might be a good idea to save Mrs. Cambridge’s heart if we should see her.”