The Seduction of Emily (30 page)

Annie pulled back her shoulders. “I’ll come with you.”

Emily smiled and touched her palm to her cheek. “There’s no need. I will be quite safe.”

“Please, Miss. Let me. Mr. Darson does not wish you to go out alone so there is no use in trying to dissuade me. Mr. Milne would not dare attempt to strike you again if I am there. A coward like him would never risk your father’s or Mr. Samson’s wrath.”

Emily frowned and slipped her hand from her maid’s cheek. “Mr. Samson is not coming back. We must move on.”

Annie’s expression broached no debate.

Emily rolled her eyes. “Fine. You can come but please, no more talk about Mr. Samson’s return. My heart cannot take it.” Taking out a sheet of writing parchment, Emily turned from Annie’s unwavering gaze.

Hope for Will’s return threatened to bloom inside her. She could not let Annie sway her acceptance of his rebuff. Emily considered herself a woman of fortitude and she would take whatever Nicholas threw at her alone and without Will. Nicholas did not scare her. His attack in the carriage had shocked and frightened her, but he would never get close enough to her to be able to do something like that again.

Even if they married. Nicholas would never sleep with her or even eat with her. They would tell the world she was barren. Emily’s eyes smarted with tears. Did that mean without a child her fight for her father’s legacy was wasted? She shook her head. She would find a way then as she would now.

While Annie busied herself with other duties, Emily wrote a clear and decisive letter to her fiancé. The last time she’d seen Nicholas, he’d been enveloped in a cloud of dust. The next time she saw him, he would be cleaned up and undoubtedly angry enough to beat her as he had Will’s mother. The only difference was, Emily was forewarned and if he so much as laid a finger on her, she would give him as good a fight as any man.

In case anything happened to him during his investigation—God only knew whom Milne would pay to have Will’s head in a box—he preferred she thought him a cad than dead.

The lie he was returning home for money stuck like a jagged rock in his throat. When he told her the truth about Milne, he hoped the end of the lies came with it. It just hurt too much to see the hope in her eyes. The hope they would one day be together, come what may. He prayed it would happen but until he was certain . . .

With each hour that passed, Will’s need to return to her grew. Today he would.

Pride swelled behind his ribcage as Laura and the other ladies spoke to Sergeant Middleton in front of him. One by one they told him their truth and he wrote it all down on his notepad. Will’s heart beat like a drum. Admiration and respect for each of the prostitutes ran through his blood, filling him with the promise of vengeance for his mother.

The world was in for a change bigger than Will ever imagined. Women were shining supreme. He was honored to be in the presence of such courage. Despite Emily’s confidence that things would be different for the next generation, his belief in that wavered. How could the dreams of the women surviving in poverty come to fruition, when he saw time and again how they struggled with daily abuse? Their confidence was shaken, their optimism crushed with each blow of their lovers’ fists.

Yet here. Now. This was how things changed. He smiled. Fire pulsed in his belly to see how stupid he was to doubt the combined power of a group of women on a mission. Something bigger than he could have ever hoped for when he arrived in Bath was unfolding right in front of his eyes. All he’d wanted was Milne dead or begging for mercy at his feet. What happened now was a million times better.

Katherine Carter stood shoulder to shoulder with Laura and two other women Milne had paid money to in exchange for sex. Katherine, in her tailored clothes and beribboned hat, wore the same expression as Laura and the poorer, if not more elaborately dressed, women of the street. Disgust twisted their lips, anger flashed in their eyes, and determination turned their cheeks rosy. Nothing separated them. Wealth, class, and creed vanished when you suffered a man’s fist at your temple.

Having found a man of the law willing to listen, the rest was up to them. Middleton was a respected and upstanding copper who believed in a woman’s voice being heard as much as Will and Emily did. This was all the vengeance Will needed. The very women Milne used would be the ones to slam the bolt on his prison door. A perfect circle ending.

“Each of you is willing to testify against Mr. Milne in court?” Sergeant Middleton looked at each woman in turn. His steel-gray eyes invited no leeway or doubt. “If I am going after a man of Milne’s stature for physical assault, rape, and attempted murder, I need to be sure I have your backing. Anything less and I risk my professional position . . . and pride.”

“I want him dead but if this is the only way . . .” One of the prostitutes shrugged. “He tried to strangle me, sir. If my son hadn’t been in the other room—”

“He stamped on my hand and broke four fingers.” Another woman raised her hand. The bones were healed but horribly misshapen.

Will’s gut twisted with anger. They could not fail.

“He deserves everything coming to him.” Laura fisted her hands on slender hips. “This has gone on for too long. I don’t want to hear about a girl being killed by him when I could have done something to prevent it.”

“And you?” The sergeant looked at Katherine. “You don’t seem as vocal about this as the rest of these ladies.”

Putting his hands behind his back, Will clenched them together. As unjust as it was, he needed Katherine more than the others. She was the golden ticket to sealing Milne’s future in prison. A lady who owned a business, kept herself and her child well-dressed and respectable was their only real chance of a judge making the decision to retain Milne indefinitely. If she balked, Will doubted Laura’s and the others’ testimony would be enough to ensure Milne served time behind bars.

Katherine’s gaze darted from each woman to Will and back to the sergeant.

Will’s stretched nerves got the better of him and he stepped forward. “Katherine?” He gently touched her arm.

She started. “Yes?”

“The sergeant asked if you are willing to testify in court against Nicholas. Are you?”

She stared at him, her eyes as sad as any he’d ever seen. “Does Emily know?”

“About you and him?”

She nodded.

Will swallowed. “Yes. And that he is little Aimee’s father.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “God, how I wish that wasn’t true.”

“Emily doesn’t blame you. She knows what Nicholas is capable of now. She knows poison runs through the very marrow of his bones.”

“And yet she has to marry him.”

“If you don’t testify, yes.” It was a low shot. Even without her testimony he would find another way. There wasn’t a hell’s chance of Emily marrying Milne. This might be the only way to harness Katherine’s strength.

Tilting her chin, she faced the sergeant. “Yes, sir. I am willing to testify and tell the world everything he made me do, say, and put up with over the last ten years. Nicholas Milne may be the father of my child, but he is also the reason I’ve little of my own and the reason my best friend risks spending the rest of her life in misery.”

The sergeant’s lips tilted upward in a near smile. “Then, in that case, I will take this to my superior and unless I am completely inept at my job, we have reason enough to get this piece of. . . this man put under arrest.”

All four women turned to Will, their faces and eyes alight with triumph.

Will grinned. “Well, thank you, Sergeant. We look forward to hearing news of that over the next few days.”

“Indeed, Mr. Samson. Indeed.” With a click of his heels, the sergeant walked away.

Will faced his new best friends. “Right then, ladies. Who is coming with me to tell our good news to Miss Darson before she goes ahead with the stupidity of marrying a man not fit to clean her shoes?”

The women laughed and linked arms. Laura pulled Will onto the end of the chain. Together, they walked toward Royal Crescent looking like the strangest group of justice victors ever to grace the cobblestones of Bath.

Emily glanced at Nicholas from beneath lowered lashes. A business associate intercepted their departure from the Pump Rooms and now they spoke in earnest. The late afternoon sun was still high in the sky and the Abbey cast its shadow across the flagstones at their feet. Enduring tea with Nicholas had been arduous. The increasingly fraught atmosphere bore down on Emily’s chest, making it hard for her to breathe. The conversation was forced at best, veiled in accusation at worst. Annie sat beside her, silent and straight-backed, her face drawn into a permanent scowl.

Neither Emily nor Nicholas made mention of her night away with Will or the ensuing tussle between them. The signed marriage contract hung between him and her like a death warrant. Any chance of Nicholas having a modicum of genuine feelings for her was now well and truly quashed. The weight of obligation threatened to crush her. Now deeply in love with another man, Emily understood wounds to the heart were apt to bleed for a long while—possibly forever.

Blinking back the sting of tears, she glanced again at Nicholas’s profile. She’d seen no hint of lust or possession in his eyes as she had before, only contempt and disdain. He suspected she’d given Will her maidenhead and thus meant no more to him than a streetwalker. Nerves and apprehension tumbled like falling rocks in her abdomen.

He finished his conversation and returned to her side. She curved her lips into a polite smile and he offered his elbow. “Shall we?”

Emily slid her hand into its crook and lifted her chin. The axe would fall; it was just a question of when. They strolled from the Pump Rooms to the courtyard at the side of the Abbey. Thankful for Annie’s presence a few feet behind, Emily forced the rapid beat of her heart to slow. As long as they remained in public view, Nicholas would not harm her. He would not risk losing face in society. His status was his only power—he had nothing else to give.

“We’ll take a walk along Pulteney Bridge, I think.” He stared ahead, his jaw tight.

“That would be lovely.” Emily forced a smile into her voice.

He huffed out a laugh. “And her charade goes on.”

Emily turned. His lips were bent into a tight smile as he slowly moved his head from side to side. Impending danger screamed along her nerve endings. The battle had commenced.

She inhaled a long breath. “If you have something to say to me, please say it.”

Arm in arm, they continued forward before Nicholas cleared his throat. “You act as though I have forgotten what happened.”

He tightened his fingers around her hand as it lay on his arm and Emily sucked in a breath at the wretched and purposeful pain. She glanced around her. “Let go of me.”

“Let go of you? It’s taking all my strength not to throw you to the floor.”

Her stomach lurched. “Release me, Nicholas. Now.”

“You are mine, Emily. Mine. From now on you will do as I say or so help me God, you will end up dead.”

Terror clutched her heart in a fist and Emily halted, yanking her hand with all her might from his arm. Adrenaline thundered through her body. He might as well strike her dead right then if he thought she would submit to his every demand.

His eyes flashed with venom and violent hatred. She would not be his next victim.

“You cannot threaten me like that. What you say is not law.”

His expression flushed. His manic glare darted over her face.

Emily’s heart picked up speed. She was so thankful Annie stood not a foot away from them. She trusted her maid’s loyalty and Nicholas would undoubtedly know, together the two of them would be a force to reckon with.

He clenched his teeth. “You will do exactly as I tell you.”

“No. My father is dying and I am fighting my love for another man. You do not control me, nor do I care what you say or do anymore. We are bound under a business arrangement, nothing more.”

Nicholas slowly smiled. “Is that so?”

Emily tilted her chin, confidence building like a smoldering volcano inside her. “When I think of you sitting alone counting my father’s money, I cannot walk away from you. I cannot let you have everything he worked for.”

His smile widened. “Oh, dear. Well, you’re stuck with me then, aren’t you? Once we are married, as your husband, it is my right to expect you to perform every
wifely
duty.”

The insinuation was rife and nausea burned hot and sour in Emily’s throat. She stared into the eyes of the devil. With full and sudden clarity, she saw how to permanently sever his sexual pursuit of her.

“I will never be yours mentally, emotionally, or physically.” Pride swelled in her chest. “Will Samson took it all.”