The Seduction of Emily (22 page)

He reached up and cupped his hand to her jaw and brushed away her fallen tear with his thumb. “Emily, look at me.”

With her heart breaking for the friend she lost a long time ago, she turned.

He shook his head. “Don’t blame her. He forced her. She was little more than a child the first time.”

Revulsion dropped into her stomach and she tasted nausea bitter in her throat. His face blurred in her tears. “God, no. Please don’t tell me that.”

He closed his eyes. “There’s more.”

“More?” She stared, a beat aching at her temple. “What else could there possibly be?”

“There are other women.” He took her hand and grasped it. “There are prostitutes.”

“Pros . . .” Emily’s gaze locked on his and the remainder of her words extinguished in the flames of her anger. “You tell me everything you know about him. Everything.”

“I have found two other prostitutes so far. I’m sure there are more. He is a womanizer, Emily. A violent and malicious womanizer. I have tracked down a young woman he visits regularly and managed to persuade her to talk to others. I have asked them to testify against him. I want him in court—ultimately prison.”

She stared and clutched her free hand to her throat. “He sees this woman regularly? Is she his mistress? I thought Katherine—”

He shook his head. “The man is evil. I have much to tell you that I learned from these women.”

Emily’s inner tenacity rose up inside her. She tilted her chin. “Then tell me. Tell me everything.”

Her loyalty to everything and everyone apart from the man sitting in front of her, closed on her previous intention like a slamming door. Will’s voice filtered through her brain and each despicable word he spoke changed who Emily was forever.

The following morning, Emily glanced at her father as he spooned the last morsel of boiled egg into his mouth. Never before had their breakfast taken such a painfully slow time. Having placed her knife and fork side by side on her plate at least twenty minutes before, she now realized her nerves were stretched to breaking.

“Emily?”

She started. “Yes?”

“Will you stop tapping your foot up and down beneath the table? Otherwise I will be forced to call for Doctor Marshall and request it be surgically removed.”

“Sorry.”

“What has you in such a state of impatience?” He touched his napkin to his mouth and reached for his wineglass.

“I am not impatient for anything.”

He frowned. “I know you better than anyone. What is it?”

She forced a smile. “Fine. You do know me. I am itching to get outside. It’s such a beautiful day.”

He met her smile. “Well, I think that’s a splendid idea, my dear. What did you have in mind?”

Emily turned her gaze to her napkin and folded and refolded it. “I thought I might ask Will if he would escort me for a visit to Aunt Edith and Cousin Isabelle. I know they get dreadfully lonely being away from town.” She met his gaze.

He drained his glass. His eyes shone above its rim. “Is that so?”

The knowing glint in his eye brought a searing heat to Emily’s cheeks. “Do you not think it a good idea?”

He put his glass on the table. “Well, indeed. I’m sure they would love a visit from you, my dear . . . although, I have never known you to take such a task upon yourself without my encouragement before.”

She laughed. “I have too. Didn’t I take those muffins to them as a gift in the spring?”

“You did. What was it you said of my sister upon your return?” He glanced to the ceiling before meeting her eyes once more. “Oh, yes. If she deigned to smile, her face would splinter or something to that effect.”

Emily widened her eyes in mock innocence. “I said that but a single time. I was in an unforgivably bad mood after Aunt Edith spent the entirety of my visit suggesting I was obtuse for not getting my marriage to Nicholas over and done with.”

“She had a valid point. How has Nicholas been treating you these last few days? I have not heard you utter a single word against him, so I assume things are improving between you two? Is he treating you with the respect you deserve?”

A lump lodged in her throat to see him look without pain for a blessed moment. If she were to share with him what she now knew of Nicholas, it would surely bring his death closer. Her stomach knotted with the pain it brought her to keep things from him but she would not lay any further burden on his already stooping shoulders.

She forced a smile and laid her napkin on the table. “Nicholas has shown moderately more consideration toward me and my feelings over the last few days, I admit. He even apologized for his recent behavior.”

Her father gave an inelegant snort. “Apologize? Nicholas? I daren’t believe it. Sleep becomes more and more of an impossibility to me as the days to your wedding lessen. Nicholas is becoming worse with age rather than better.” He curled his hand into a fist on the table as he inhaled a wheezing breath. “Damn this disease I have growing inside me. I should be here for you, not leaving you in the hands of a man who is as capable of real love as a . . . a . . . oh, damnation!”

Emily leapt from her seat as a barrage of racking stole the breath from his blackened lungs. “Oh, Papa.”

She rushed toward him and laid her cheek to his head. She closed her eyes as the coughing jerked them time after time together as one. Emily held fast, absorbing the pain from his body. When the coughing abated enough for her to reach for a glass of water from the table, she held it to his lips.

After he’d swallowed a few sips, she set the glass down on the table and dropped to her haunches in front of him, taking his hands in hers. He looked into her eyes. “I have something I want to say to you. Something I’m sure you will not want to consider, but I think it for the best. For all of us.”

Emily frowned. “What is it?”

“I think we should release Nicholas’s hold on you and let him have the inheritance in its entirety.”

Emily’s breath caught. “Papa, no. Everything will be—”

“Everything will not be all right. But you will be free of him. You can go to Aunt Edith’s in the country and live there.”

“What? No.” Dread formed a tight knot in her stomach. She could not think of anything worse—apart from becoming Nicholas’s wife, of course. “I do not wish to live in the country any more than you would. We are city people, Bath people. We must not give up hope Nicholas will mellow in time.” She swallowed as further shame flooded her heart. The need for her father to only know what he did of Nicholas in that moment was paramount. “In fact . . .” She looked at him from beneath lowered lashes. “I believe the key to unlocking this confinement is right in front of us.”

Her father frowned. “Whatever do you mean?”

She met his gaze and grasped his hand, willing him to trust her to forge her future, her destiny. “Couldn’t the key quite possibly be in the form of a stranger who
happened
to make our acquaintance?”

“Whatever do you . . .” Comprehension emerged in his dark brown gaze and the soft lift of his lips. “You think Mr. Samson can do something about the contract? My dear, whatever would make you think such a thing? He is here for his nephew. With God’s good grace, he will soon find the boy and together they will return to Dorston.”

“I know but there’s something about him, Papa. As you’ve felt, he is to be trusted. I feel safe when he’s around, even though I have no idea why.” Emily grinned as her growing feelings for Will surfaced.

Her father’s brow creased with concern. “How could he possibly help with a marriage contract? An inheritance? It makes no sense to me why you would think such a thing.”

She took a shaky breath and exhaled. “He knew Nicholas before he knew us. Of that much I am certain, even though he has yet to admit it. They have a connection from the past and I will find out what it is if it’s the last thing I do.”

Their gazes locked and Emily’s heart swelled to see the light in her father’s eyes grow brighter. To catch even a glimpse of the man he was before his illness made her want to sing and dance, fight and never surrender. She took his hand.

“Well?”

He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a firm kiss to her knuckles. “We will talk to Samson, find out what he knows.”

Smiling, Emily stood. “That is exactly my intention. If you are happy for me to visit Aunt Edith, Will can accompany me and I will find a way to raise the subject with him.”

Her father smiled. “Excellent. The Darson father and daughter are a formidable team, are they not?”

Emily laughed as the blood binding them together pumped through her veins. She hurried to the fireplace and pulled the bell. Will had told her much of Nicholas’s infidelities, of his attitude and lust for violence, but still he had not told her of their connection before he arrived in Bath. Unable to press him when her stomach convulsed with the knowledge of Nicholas’s betrayals, Emily now felt ready to learn what Will knew of Nicholas’s past . . . for she was sure Will carried more knowledge than the insufferable news he had brought back with him yesterday, and she’d discover more of Will, too. Within seconds, Annie appeared in the doorway.

“Annie, my dear.” Emily’s father lifted his arm in greeting. “What a wonderful day it is! Could you ask Malcolm to prepare the driving gig for Miss Darson?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Have you any idea where Mr. Samson is this morning? Do you know if he has left for the day?”

“I believe not, sir. He was in the kitchen not twenty minutes ago. Would you like me to bring him to you?”

“No, no. Emily will find him. I would like him to accompany her on a little day trip. Just the two of them. Yes, indeed. Alone and unattended.”

Emily’s face heated. “Father, do not say it like that. Whatever will Annie think of me?”

Annie’s gaze lingered questioningly on Emily’s before her eyes bulged and her face erupted with a smile of girlish glee. Emily rolled her eyes. If she didn’t know better, Annie had more than likely already planned her mistress’s marriage to Will. Right down to the place settings and what tins to tie on the carriage as the guests bid them farewell when they set off on their honeymoon.

Emily widened her eyes in warning. If Annie were to give any indication to her father what was resident in her romantic mind, there was a possibility of him changing his decision about the trip. He might not want her to marry Nicholas, but that did not mean he would consent to her being involved with Will.

She pulled back her shoulders. “Off you go, Annie. Speak to Malcolm and if you see Mr. Samson on your travels, please mention I would like to see him forthwith.”

Annie curtsied, her smile wide. “Yes, Miss. Of course, Miss.”

She tipped Emily the most atrociously arduous wink before hurrying from the room. Emily pursed her lips together to stem her laughter at the girl’s silly and unsubstantiated enthusiasm. She turned to her father.

“I think maybe Annie sneaked some wine into her breakfast this morning.”

He laughed. “I think you may be right. Now, off you go.”

She kissed his cheek and hurried from the room. Once in the hallway, she looked left and right and was about to head for the kitchen in the hope of catching Will there when he appeared at the top of the staircase. Attraction struck her very core. Standing big and strong, he met her eyes. His handsome face grew alight with a smile as he closed the distance between them. Could she do this? Could she really lure him away in a bid to interrogate him?

Swallowing hard, Emily tilted her chin. The last thing she wanted was for him to detect her desperation for the two of them to be alone.

“Miss Darson, how are you today?”

She stepped back from the stairs as he came closer. “I am very well. In fact, I was looking for you in the hope I could have your company again today.”

He arched an eyebrow and stopped so close to her, the dark circles of blue surrounding his jet-black pupils momentarily mesmerized her.

She cleared her throat and fought to keep her gaze on his. “It is such a lovely day and you have been so many hours away from the house over the last few days, I thought we could take a drive into the country to visit with my aunt and cousin.”

He smiled. “It would be a pleasure.”

Excitement whirled in her stomach as the thrill of the unknown skittered along the surface of her skin, making her nipples tingle beneath the confines of her stays. She daren’t give in to the ardent temptation to inhale the subtle musky scent emanating from him. Her heart beat fast as she recognized the ultimate, age-old challenge in his gaze.

His phenomenal eyes languidly travelled over her face before gliding lower to her breasts and back again. He smiled and a sensation tugged high between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together. Her breathing turned harried as she thought of something . . . anything to say.

When her mind continued to hum with emptiness, she took two abrupt steps forward as a rush of power assaulted her senses. She lifted onto her toes so her lips brushed dangerously close to the side of his neck. His breath hitched and female satisfaction washed over her, enveloping her in its all-encompassing power. If she reached up and took his jaw in her hand, brushed her lips across his . . . he would be powerless to resist her.