Rendered speechless for a long moment, Emily met Katherine’s gaze. Stepping forward, Katherine took her hands and the two friends embraced.
“I am so sorry.” Katherine sniffed. “So very, very sorry.”
Emily squeezed her eyes shut. “You have nothing to be sorry for. If Nicholas wanted you as his mistress, you would have had little choice in the matter. You were barely more than a child.”
Katherine pulled back and tears streaked her face. “He threatened to hurt me so many times. He made me feel I was nothing without him. I didn’t know what to do.”
Brushing the tears from her friend’s face, Emily smiled. “You’ve found the strength now. That’s all that matters. Nicholas gave you Aimee. She’s precious, Katherine. Precious and deserves a better father. Find her one.”
Emily turned and faced the three women. “Thank you so much.” She touched each of their arms in turn. “I am not sure a thank you is enough, considering everything you are prepared to do. Please, tell me your names. Did Will bring you here?”
Smiling, their eyes glassy with tears, the women nodded. A beautiful woman of no more than two and twenty stepped forward.
“I’m Laura. Your Mr. Samson tracked me down like a bloodhound, determined that I’d testify against Nicholas and find others willing to do the same. This is Thelma and Meg.”
“I have also decided to testify against Nicholas,” Emily said. She smiled a hello to each of them, before laughing and brushing at her tears. “He’s not my Mr. Samson. In fact, the more I know Will, the more I realize he’s a free spirit and tied to no one.”
Laura shook her head. “Maybe once upon a time. But not so much anymore, not now he’s found you.”
Emily looked around the room at the smiling faces, hope and trepidation written there in equal measure. Who knew what the future held? Neither she nor Will could predict what would happen in the days to come. Could they have a future together? He had come back after all.
She spun around to face her father. “We must alert the authorities. We must tell them Will has gone after Nicholas and what Nicholas has done.”
His face was stern. “You must not go after him alone.” He turned to the woman named Laura. “Did you say you have spoken to a policeman? A policeman who believes everything you have told him?”
She stepped forward and smiled. “Yes, sir. A constable named Middleton.”
“Right. Then you must find him. He will track down Will.”
Emily’s heart picked up speed. “What if we’re too late? What if Will finds Nicholas and kills him? What then? He’ll be hanged.”
“Then there is no time to waste. God only knows I wish I could do something to help but I cannot. You must go. All of you. You split up and you each go a different way until you find this Middleton. Then and only then do you find Will. Do you understand me?”
Emily stared. She could not do that. She could not trawl the city looking for one policeman when there was one man who meant so much more to her than any justice system. She nodded. “I understand.”
“Good. Then go.”
Emily hurried from the room with Annie, Katherine, Laura, and the others close behind. Once they were out on the street, she whirled around to face them. “We will split up, but half of us look for Will, the other half the policeman.”
They all nodded their agreement, their faces flushed with enthusiasm, their eyes wide with determination.
Their unity flowed through Emily’s blood, making her feel anything was possible. “Good. Laura, you take the girls and find Middleton. Annie, Katherine, and I will track down Will. It’s the only way.”
Laura clutched her arm. “Godspeed, Miss Emily. Godspeed.” Her eyes widened. “Wait. Did you say Nicholas hit you after you told him about me? About visiting with me?”
Emily frowned. “Yes, why?”
“Oh, my God.” Laura’s hand slipped from hers and she teetered back on her heels. “He’s gone to the house. He’ll hurt Bette.” Her face turned pale. “I have to go. I have to protect her.”
Fear and loathing rose up in Emily’s chest. “Then we’ll all go.”
“I admire you, Miss Emily, I really do but where I live is no place for a lady.”
Emily pulled back her shoulders. “We all go. Come on, we are wasting time.”
The group of women turned as one and hurried along the Crescent as fast as their legs could carry them toward Laura’s house.
Will’s heart beat faster and faster, burning like a ball of fire behind his ribcage. Milne ducked into the alley like the caped criminal he was. His coat was inappropriate and heavy for the summer’s day and instinct rocketed through Will’s blood, knowing he concealed a weapon. A weapon meant for Laura.
Over Will’s dead body would Milne use it on anyone unfortunate enough to be in her house.
He drew in a long breath. “Milne. Stop.”
Milne halted and spun around. For a long moment, he said nothing and then his face broke with a manic smile. “Well, well, well. Mr. Samson is here to save the day.”
“You’re a dead man, Milne.” Will stepped closer, his hands curled into fists at his sides, his mind clear.
Milne would die. Will accepted it meant his own life would be spent languishing in jail but it did not matter. Emily would be free. The money would be hers and Milne would be six feet under.
“I don’t think so, Samson.” Milne opened his coat to reveal a claw hammer.
Will’s vision tinged red. He meant to kill Laura with a hammer. The man was an animal.
With a roar, Will ran at Milne and ducked his head, wrapping his arms firmly around his waist. Keeping his head down, Will pushed him to the ground as the whoosh from the hammer’s swing brushed his ear. With Milne on the ground, Will pulled back his arm and punched Milne full-force in the face, the sound of cracking bone filling the squalid alley.
The hammer left Milne’s fingers and Will pulled back and punched him again. His mother’s voice filled his ears and tried to break through his mania but nothing would stop him. Not now. Not ever.
“You’re scum, Milne.” He gripped his slack chin in his fingers and savored the bloody mess of his face. “Scum.”
Just as he closed his hands around Milne’s neck, he heard a scream. A feminine scream followed by another and another. Straddled over Milne’s unconscious body, he turned.
His eyes met Emily’s. He was vaguely aware of others but it was only her he saw.
“Emily.” Her name whispered from his lips.
She came slowly toward him, tears running in silver streaks down her face, her eyes wide and her hand trembling at her mouth. She shook her head over and over, her gaze not leaving him. Her eyes so very sad.
Slowly, Will pushed to his feet and stumbled toward her, his arms outstretched. She slumped into his embrace, her body shaking with her sobs.
“Is he dead? Am I too late?”
Will held her tighter. “No, no. He’s alive.”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “If he is found guilty, the inheritance will be mine. Let him live, Will. Let him know what he has lost. Please.”
Knowing there was nothing he would deny her, he dropped his mouth to hers and they kissed as Laura and her girls stood guard over Milne’s unconscious body and waited for the police.
Chapter Twenty
Emily pushed her arm through Will’s and their eyes locked. The chilly November breeze fluttered the feathers in her hair and blew the leaves across the steps at her feet. They stood at the front of the courthouse while Annie, Laura, and Katherine stood huddled in a circle to the side. Emily looked into the dark blue of Will’s eyes and her heart swelled with love.
“Nicholas is gone.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her cheek. “For the next five years or so anyway.”
“Will it be enough?”
He covered her hand with his and led her away from the doors and slowly down the steps. “It is enough for us to be married and to move away from here.�
��
She stopped. “Move away? But where? Father is buried here. I can’t leave him.”
“We have to if we are to be together. I have tried and failed to find work in Bath. Now that my past has come out because of the trial, it is doubtful anyone will employ me. I want to marry you more than I want anything in the world, but we cannot stay here without income.”
“Our future together is the most important thing, not how we pay the bills.”
He shook his head. “They are equally as important. We should have known Milne would want everything about me exposed. It was his last chance of kicking me where it hurts. He succeeded.”
“No, Will, he failed. You will find work and we will be happy in Bath.”
Emily looked out at the bustling street. People rushed back and forth, calling and shouting and talking. People came to Bath to make their fortunes; it was almost second to London in its popularity and possibility.
He touched his finger to her chin. “I promised your father I would look after you for the rest of my life and that’s exactly what I will do. I love you.”
Her stomach tightened. Fear and sadness shone in his eyes. They would do what they had to. She just wasn’t capable of saying good-bye to her father, not yet, not until they had exhausted every possibility of staying close to him.
“Miss Darson?”
“Yes?” Emily turned.
A man in his early fifties stood to her side, his face etched with concern. “How are you?”
“I am better than I have been for a long while.” She smiled. “I’m sorry, I do not know . . .”
He held out his hand. “Mr. Granger. Your father’s solicitor. Executor to his and Mr. Milne’s estate.”
Realization shot into her stomach and she raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh. Oh, with everything . . .” She looked into Will’s eyes and her face blurred with tears. “It’s mine.”
He frowned. “What is?”
“The money. The tobacco company.” She snapped her head to Mr. Granger. “That is why you’re here, isn’t it?”
His mouth curved into a grin and his eyes sparkled. He held out an envelope. “I had to wait until Mr. Milne was sentenced before I could give you this.”
Emily’s hand shook as she took the envelope; her gaze darted to Will’s and back to the envelope. She slid her finger under the seal. She looked down at the papers and urgently scanned the text. Her fingers curled around the papers until they crumpled. She looked into Mr. Granger’s eyes.
“Is this possible?”
He smiled. “Yes. It’s there in black and white . . . if you and Mr. Samson want it this way, of course.”
“But how?”
“The moment Mr. Milne was incarcerated, he become inept to carry on the business. Even when your father was on his deathbed, the man saw the love between you.” He beamed at Will. “So, if Mr. Samson wants to accept the position, it’s his.”
Will stepped forward and stole his hand around Emily’s waist. “What is it?”
Emily’s love for him swelled as she thrust the papers toward Will. “Read it. It’s ours. All of it.”
His smile slipped along with his hand from her waist. “But . . .”
He frowned as he read and a shot of fear swept through Emily’s blood. Will was his own man. A man used to sole survival, to living and working on the streets. What if he saw this as charity? Or control . . . worse, failure to provide for her himself? What if he was determined to move from Bath? Her father? His legacy?
“This is our future.” He turned and gripped her waist. He drew her close. “We can be together, Emily. Together.”
She met his eyes, her body trembling with hope and anticipation. “You mean . . .”
“As long as we are together, we can make this happen. I will not let you or your father down. I promise. I’ll work harder and straighter than any man ever has before.”
Emily laughed. “That’s good to hear, and Katherine and I want to help you as well as Laura, Thelma, and Meg to thank you for what you have done for Will and I—as well as to apologize for the pain Nicholas caused you.”
He grinned. “Well, there’s nothing else for it. If I am to learn the business and become a tobacco merchant, we need to join forces.”
She laughed. “We are already joined.”
“Not properly.”
He released her and dropped to one knee, taking her hand in his. “Emily Darson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Happiness soared through Emily’s blood, warming her heart and bringing her father’s face to her mind’s eye. She nodded, tears threatening to spill.
“Yes, Mr. Samson. Yes, yes, yes.”
Everyone burst into cheers when Will stood and lifted Emily off her feet, swinging her around and around until she had no idea where she ended and Will began.
eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2013 by Rachel Brimble
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
eKensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-6018-3087-6
First Electronic Edition: April 2013
Published in the United States of America
Rachel Brimble Page 25