Lord Kane's Keepsake
Page 24
Emma had taken hesitant steps toward them, and now was close enough to hear what he said. Tears filled her eyes, and she longed to ran to Gerald, but he hadn’t finished with Lord Avenley yet.
“Proclaim her innocence, my friend, or I may yet put an end to you,” he breathed, his fingers still gripping Lord Avenley’s hair.
“I swear she is virtuous and free of all complicity!” Lord Avenley cried. “I acted out of malice, and I sought to ruin her because of Margot. I swear it upon my honor, Kane!”
“Honor? You have no honor!” Gerald replied, his voice filled with loathing; then he tossed the other man aside so that he fell to the grass.
Lord Avenley looked fearfully up at him, still not sure if he would be finally spared. “I will not transgress again, Kane. I promise you!”
“I know you will not, my friend, for I expect you to see the merit of leaving the country for a while. A little self-imposed exile will prove the making of you, don’t you agree?”
“If that is what you wish.”
“It is what I’m telling you you’ll do,” Gerald snapped. “I am also telling you to return Stephen Rutherford’s lOU’s immediately, and to see to it that you undo any other mischief you may have put in motion. You had better leave with a clean slate, Avenley, or I promise you I’ll come after you and finish what I started today.”
“I will do as you say, Kane.”
Gerald glanced toward Francis Teggerton’s carriage, which was beginning to drive slowly away; then he looked at Lord Avenley again. “I suggest you hurry after him, my friend, unless you wish to walk all the way home.”
Lord Avenley did not wait to be prompted again, but scrambled ignominiously to his feet and ran stumbling away after the departing carriage. He did not pause to retrieve his clothes, but ran in his shirt and breeches.
The surgeon stepped forward to shake Gerald by the hand. “That was splendidly done, my lord. The act of a true gentleman.”
“The last thing I feel right now is gentlemanly, for it was all I could do not to tear his venomous throat out,” Gerald replied, tossing his pistol aside.
As the surgeon walked away to his own carriage, Lord Castlereagh grinned at Gerald. “A convincing victory, I think.”
“A hollow one, Robert, for I have still lost the one thing that matters in all this.”
“Have you?” Lord Castlereagh pointed behind him, to where Emma stood.
Gerald whirled about, his lips parting in surprise. “Emma?”
She ran to him, flinging her arms around him and holding him close. He closed his eyes, his lips moving against her hair as he embraced her. “Oh, Emma, my darling …” he whispered.
She raised her lips to meet his, and he kissed her long and sweet, tasting her tears. He could feel her body quivering against his as he twined his fingers richly in the warm hair at the nape of her neck.
Then he looked into her eyes. “I love you, Emma, and I think I have done so from the first day I saw you in the library at Foxley Hall.”
“I’ve loved you since then as well,” she whispered in reply, “but I was so afraid that Margot still meant everything to you.”
“She meant nothing, and if I wore my wedding ring, it was to remind me never again to rush into a marriage because I fancied myself in love. I do not fancy myself in love with you, my dearest Emma, I adore you with all my heart, and when I thought I’d lost you forever—”
“You will never lose me.”
“If you still doubt me because of Raine—”
“I don’t care about her, I only care about you,’’ she replied, smiling up into his eyes.
He drew back for a moment, pausing to take something from the pocket of his breeches. It was the Keepsake, its diamonds flashing brilliantly even though the skies were lowering.
“This belongs to you, Emma,” he said, pinning it carefully to the shoulder of her cloak. “I gave it to you because I loved you, even though I did not tell you that was why. I asked for it back because I was a fool, but now I give it to you again, because I’ve regained my senses, never to lose them or you again.”
Her eyes shone with tears, and his name was a whisper on her lips as he pulled her close to kiss her again. They were oblivious of everything except each other, and they did not see Lord Castlereagh smiling to himself as he turned to go to his wife, who had observed everything from the slope above, and whose glad smile at the outcome of everything was visible even at that distance.
For Vicki
Copyright © 1992 by Sandra Heath
Originally published by Signet (ISBN 9780451172266)
Electronically published in 2017
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.