Daniel kept his eyes straight ahead, fixed on Swimmer, not venturing a look at either of his current companions. “I couldn’t say, madam.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fairbank give the woman a respectful bow. “If I may, duchess, I’d like to escort my daughter and her friends to another room.”
The duchess glanced at Emme, who looked pale and perhaps even unsteady on her feet. “The butler will show you to my sitting room down the hall.” She made eye contact with the servant across the room.
“Of course.” Fairbank gave a curt nod and slipped away from them, moving along the edge of the room and arriving at Lady Lucinda’s side in the space of a few heartbeats. After a brief word, he escorted her and Emme out of the room, followed by the Alcotts.
“Whatever do you suppose my son might have said to the earl that has made him go so quiet and still?” the duchess asked.
Just enough, Daniel hoped. Meriden, for his part, looked far from surprised. When the duke finished his long speech, he made a sweeping bow. The duchess touched Daniel’s arm.
“It appears we’re ready to move to the dining room, Mr. Hallsworth. Would you do me the honor of escorting me?”
“Of course, madam.”
Escorting the duchess meant, of course, waiting for the servants to inform the guests of the next event and corral them into position, then to take her arm as they proceeded through the stately halls of the duke’s London home. These duties didn’t afford him the opportunity to catch a glimpse of Emme with Fairbank and her friends.
As the guests filed into the dining room, gentlemen helped ladies into their seats, then waited for the rest of the party. Daniel played his gentlemanly part, but he fidgeted with impatience when Emme and her friends didn’t arrive with the other guests. When almost everyone had made it to their seats, Fairbank entered the room with Lady Lucinda on his arm. He seated his daughter, whispered something to one of the servants, and took his own seat far from the duchess. The servant reported to the duchess, who gave him whispered instructions. The servant then whispered something first to Emme’s mother, then to her father, while more servants hurried to the table and removed three place settings so efficiently, it was as though the duchess had never intended to entertain three more guests.
Daniel tried to catch the duchess’s eye, but she was ever the gracious hostess and had duties that didn’t include placating his curiosity. He ventured a glance at Swimmer, who widened his eyes as though to say he knew nothing more than Daniel. Only after the first course had been served did Lady Lucinda, who was across from Daniel and two seats down, catch his eye. She waved her hand at her face and rolled her eyes back, mimicking a faint. Daniel nearly jumped out of his seat, but Lady Lucinda shook her head firmly. If Emme had taken ill and neither of the Alcotts had joined them for dinner, it stood to reason they’d taken her home.
Daniel spent the entirety of dinner barely speaking, feeling he was taking ill himself. But his malady was borne of anger. Emme had been pale and flushed in turns, and had claimed she was too cold and then too warm. She’d been cavorting about town in her quest to save downtrodden women and their children, putting herself in jeopardy. Again. And the men of her family had done precious little to protect her. Again.
Over an hour later, Daniel finally saw his opportunity to leave. As the ladies and gentlemen separated for after-dinner drinks and tea, Daniel made his sincerest apologies to the duchess, who gave him her most concerned motherly look, and to Swimmer, who warned him to proceed carefully. He didn’t speak to anyone else in attendance, not owing any of them an explanation.
As he waited at the front door for his hat and coat and for his coach to be brought to the front of the house, one of the guests accosted him.
One look from Meriden had the duke’s servants receding from the front hall. When they were alone, Meriden turned to Daniel. “Tell me you don’t plan to go to my family’s home.”
“Who knows what disease she’s caught, gallivanting about on the wrong side of town?”
Meriden crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Your sister has fallen ill, and you don’t even give a toss. You don’t deserve her. None of you do.”
“Oh, and you do!” Meriden gave a mirthless laugh. “Stop being such an ass, Hallsworth, and leave her alone, as she’s asked you to do so many times.”
Daniel shook his head. “No, she hasn’t. You have, acting on your father’s behalf or your own, I don’t know or care, and then—”
“She’s fine.”
Daniel’s heart pounded. He crossed his arms over his chest to keep himself from grabbing hold of Meriden’s jacket. “You and your father, both of you just—”
“Hallsworth, she’s fine! Emmeline’s fine. She made a show of falling ill, quite like Swimmer’s show of inebriation.”
“It was a ruse?” He dropped his shoulders and unclenched his fists. It wasn’t difficult to fathom. After all, Emme had spent more than a week during the journey from Spain holed up in a small stateroom, feigning seasickness.
“When Swimmer, in all his drunken glory, informed our father he wouldn’t be seeking a new wife any time in the foreseeable future, he shattered a plan my sister had been concocting. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Daniel held his tongue.
“Of course you wouldn’t, because if you did, I’d have to suspect you orchestrated this whole charade just to thwart her. Now she fears she’s running out of options, and her heart is breaking. Surely you wouldn’t be so monstrous as to break her heart again.”
Meriden took a small step toward Daniel. Daniel held his ground. Part of him actually hoped Meriden would punch him. It would sting much less than his words, and if Meriden’s words were anywhere close to truth, if he’d caused her pain again, it was less than the thrashing he deserved.
“I have to see her.”
Meriden shook his head. “Leave it alone, Hallsworth.”
“I can’t. Just a word, a chance to apologize. Please.”
Meriden glared at him.
“If not for me, then for her. She deserves an apology.”
Meriden groaned and rubbed his hand across his jaw. “Fine, an apology, if she agrees to see you.”
Daniel held out his hand. Meriden hesitated, then finally shook it, declaring a temporary, if fragile, détente. The two former friends set off to find Emme together.
Chapter 13
Emme held tightly to Tessa’s hand as they sat side by side on a hard bench in King’s Cross Station. They were in a private waiting room with glass in the upper half of the walls, giving them a view of the few people waiting for late-night trains while protecting them from interacting with those of the lower classes. It wasn’t lost on Emme that she hoped to help people like those she now watched through glass—respectable, hardworking people like Mrs. Billings and Mrs. Carter—yet her position didn’t allow her to be among them in most circumstances.
“Shall I check whether the train is still on time?” Mr. Alcott asked. He stood by the wall at the back of the room, giving the women privacy, despite the fact that they’d sat in silence for the past quarter hour.
“Yes, please do.” Tessa glanced over her shoulder at her husband and smiled. As soon as he’d left the room and closed the door behind him, she sighed and leaned her shoulder against Emme. “All right, out with it. What is so pressing that you can’t even let us bring you back here tomorrow at a respectable hour to take a morning train to your aunt’s country house?”
“Respectable.” Emme snorted at the word. “That’s what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? Respectability. Every moment of our lives is dictated by it. What’s the point of leaving tomorrow morning, knowing I’ll arrive in Cambridge after dark, and oh how damaging that will be to my reputation!”
“I’d say you have a point, but I fear you might bite me.”
Emme sighed. “A rabid dog, now, am I?”
“Nonsense. You know what I
mean.” Tessa snapped her fan open and closed in quick succession, a sure sign she was annoyed. “You’re like a sister to me, and I had hoped I’m like one to you, as well. But you refuse to tell me the truth.”
“About?”
“About everything. About anything.” Tessa turned to Emme and took both her hands. “Emme, darling, I know you’re in love with him.”
Emme pulled her hands away and rubbed her palms on her skirt. “In love? With whom?”
“Don’t play coy with me.” Tessa took her hands again and held them firmly. “You love the man who asked you to marry him. Don’t deny it. James learned of it straight from the captain. But you refused him. Why?”
She couldn’t tell her friend the truth. Or she shouldn’t. She might lose Tessa, and probably Luci, too. And then she’d be alone. She’d have Aunt Juliana and her mother, and even the spinsters if she could get her dowry money, but none of them would ever be best friends. Like sisters. Like Eleanor.
“Stop that right now.” Tessa squeezed Emme’s hands hard. “Stop shutting me out of your conversations with yourself. Have some faith in me.”
Emme lifted her eyes to Tessa’s and saw tears.
“Trust that I might know much more than you think I do, and I love you just the same,” Tessa said.
Emme held her breath for a few heartbeats, then exhaled slowly. Her dear friend had stood by Emme through her siblings’ deaths and her ill-advised decisions and the brief run to Gretna Green. Her loyalty had earned her the right to the truth.
Emme nodded. “I’ll tell you. After all Daniel has been through—the scandal about his parentage while his mother lay dying, his uncle’s treachery of spreading gossip, the dispute over his right to inherit—he needs an upstanding, respectable wife. A woman above reproach.” Emme stared down at her hands clasped in Tessa’s. “I am not a respectable woman. I’m a fallen one.”
She lifted her eyes to meet Tessa’s gaze, ready to receive the harsh judgment she’d see there. Instead, she saw only tears and a slight nod of Tessa’s head. And all the while, Tessa never let go of Emme’s hands.
“Mr. Sanderson,” Tessa said. “The ill-fated trip to Gretna Green, when Edward arrived just in the nick of time.”
Emme took a deep breath to steady herself. “In truth, he arrived a few hours too late. So, I can never be the wife Daniel…a future marquess needs. I have to let him go so he can find a worthy woman who can give him back what his uncle and the society gossips took from him.”
Once again, she couldn’t share the whole truth, that the elopement had been her idea, not Sanderson’s, and that marriage hadn’t been part of her plan. She couldn’t bear for her friends to know the true depths of her depravity.
“Oh, my poor darling.” Tessa pulled Emme into her arms and held her like a mother comforting a small child. “My poor, poor darling.”
Emme let herself relax into the hug and willed the tears to come—tears of pain and shame and repentance. But once again, she could find no relief because she had no tears to cry.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for not hating me.”
“Of course not! I’ll always love you.” Tessa pulled out of the hug and took Emme’s hands. “I’ll take your secret to the grave with me, but if this is truly what is standing between you and Mr. Hallsworth… It’s been more than a year, Emme, and no one else knows.”
“Except Mr. Sanderson.”
“Who married well and moved away from London. You can’t let him haunt you this way.”
Emme looked down at her gloved hands, which were shaking. “There are others. The innkeeper, for instance. There were a few stray whispers among the ton at the time. If someone really wanted to find out the truth of that night…”
“The innkeeper would have nothing to gain by having his establishment associated with the story of a young lady’s misfortune. And why would anyone seek him out, anyway? You don’t have an enemy in this world.”
Emme shrugged, not wanting to rehash what she’d spent months sifting in her own mind, but needing to make her friend understand. “Because I’ve posed no threat to ambitious young ladies or marriage-minded parents.”
“If anyone ever asks questions, I’ll tell them you were with me. Together, our story will be stronger than theirs.”
“You’ll tell them I was with you at your father’s house? And will he and your brothers tell the same story?” Emme watched understanding dawn on her friend’s face. “I’ve turned this over and looked at it from every angle. I cannot see a way out of it. While I remain on the edges of society and do good works, no one will notice me enough to cause trouble. But if I were to become the marchioness…” She shook her head. “You know how it would go. Every detail of my life would be scrutinized by jealous women, or their irate mothers, perhaps even a business rival of the marquess. An opportunist might see a chance to exploit that. His reputation would never be safe with me. He might not even become the marquess if word got out.”
“Have you considered telling him what happened?”
“I have told him.”
Tessa’s eyes flew open wide. “What?! What did he say? He obviously doesn’t think any less of you, based on what James and I have observed.”
“No, I suppose he doesn’t. He wouldn’t have proposed if he held it against me.”
“He knew before he proposed? But don’t you see? He still wanted to marry you.”
“Because he thinks it can remain our secret,” Emme said. “That’s what he said when he proposed. But what if it doesn’t remain that way? He promised his mother he’d restore not only his title, but the family’s reputation. It means everything to him. I can’t take that away from him.”
Tessa hugged her again. “I can’t pretend to understand what you’re feeling, Emme, but I’ll stand by you, as will Luci.”
Emme clung to her friend. “Thank you.”
“Darling, I can see through the glass that James is returning.”
Emme pulled away from Tessa sat up straight, once again taking on the air of a self-possessed, respectable young lady.
“And he’s not alone,” Tessa said.
“Is it Edward? My father?” Emme knew from Tessa’s wistful smile that it was neither of them. She sighed and leaned against the hard back of the bench. “Daniel.”
* * *
Daniel and James stopped outside the small room where Emme sat with Lady Tessa.
“Hallsy, it’s not my place to say anything.” James glanced through the glass at his wife, who was hugging Emme.
Daniel’s heart sank to think how defeated she must be right now, and at his own hands. He rubbed his temples and groaned. “Say it, James. Whatever terrible things you think of me right now, they’re probably all true.”
James chuckled. “In that case, I wish I’d come prepared. I was just going to suggest you not try to talk her out of this. Tessa has tried, and if my wife can’t convince Lady Emmeline of something, I’m not sure who can. Her brother, perhaps, but I doubt even he can dissuade her from escaping to her aunt’s country house.”
Daniel watched the women through the glass, wishing he could see Emme’s face, but she was turned toward Tessa with her back to him. “It’s a safe place for her, full of childhood memories of her siblings, without the painful reminders of her sister’s death.”
“Terrible thing, that. Tessa says it changed Emme.” James shrugged a shoulder. “I always remember Meriden’s little sister being a headstrong tomboy, but Tessa says there’s something else now, a melancholy that hasn’t lifted.”
“Your wife is perceptive, and a good friend.” Daniel patted James’s shoulder. “As are you. Thank you for leaving the note for Meriden.”
Emme’s note to her brother had simply outlined her plan to take refuge at their aunt’s empty country house. James’s addendum had assured him, and by extension Daniel, that the Alcotts would keep watch over Emme, get her safely on the train, and send a message ahead to her aunt’s servants to prepare for the lad
y and to escort her from the train station. Whether Emme knew just how much information James had included, Daniel couldn’t say, but he was grateful for the breadcrumb trail that had led him here.
“Thank you, and thank your wife for me, too, for looking out for Lady Emme.”
“I’d have it no other way. She’s like a sister to my wife. And speaking of Mrs. Alcott, you can thank her yourself.”
Lady Tessa emerged from the waiting room, leaving Emme alone amongst the six rows of benches reserved for the better classes of British society. He could see her profile now as she turned to face straight ahead, looking out through the glass at the sparsely populated train platform. He longed to run to her side and kneel in front of her and beg her not to look so sad and lost, but he had no right. After all, he’d caused that pain etched into her lovely face.
“Lady Tessa.” Daniel extended his hand and she touched it briefly with her gloved fingers.
“Mr. Hallsworth, how good of you to come.” She smiled at him, revealing one charming dimple.
Her comment took him aback. “Is it? Good that I’ve come, I mean.”
His friend’s wife appraised him swiftly, then nodded. “James has said wonderful things about you, Mr. Hallsworth, and I very much look forward to making your acquaintance further, now that you’re back in London.” She glanced at her husband. “James is a fine judge of character, so I knew you were a good sort, even before.”
Daniel smiled as he waited for her to say more. When she didn’t, he raised his eyebrows. “I beg your pardon, my lady, before what?”
She smiled again and fluttered her fan, and Daniel could easily see how his friend had been so charmed by her. “Time can heal most anything,” she whispered, then turned to her husband and took his arm.
The newlyweds walked closely together and in perfect step, and disappeared around a corner, leaving Daniel alone to face Emme.
One Kiss From Ruin: Harrow’s Finest Five Book 1 Page 15