The Wicked Wager (12 page)

He held up his hand when Emma would have
spoken,

“Hear me out. I know she is a gossipy,
vulgar woman, and you should normally ignore all she says. But in this instance
such talk could ruin your future prospects. Since you are so newly engaged, the
earl may not find such conduct agreeable in a wife.”

“I understand, uncle, but I assure you, the
earl would have nothing to be embarrassed about. I have behaved like a lady,
and it is not fair to say I cannot learn the nuances of planting flowers
because someone like her objects.”

“You may learn it after you are wed,” the
duke snapped, and then taking a deep breath, continued more gently, “I know why
you are here after such a short courtship. I guessed the earl was not happy
with the delay in the wedding plans. I did it for you so that you may not
regret marrying the man years later. I made the mistake of marrying the current
duchess too soon. We had known each other for only four months. The
constrictions of society never allowed us enough time together to get to know
each other properly. I still regret that decision. I did not want the same to
happen to you.”

“I am sorry, uncle, I confess I had been
angry with you, and I thank you for the explanation. I appreciate your concern
and understand your reasons better now. I do feel that you are right in your
thinking, but you do not know the earl. I have spent a lot of time with him
going on rides and picnics. One may spend years living with someone without
understanding them. At the same time, you can rightly judge a man within five
minutes of meeting him. Marriage is a risk, uncle, and I believe I know the
earl well enough to take that risk. I am so afraid he will be snatched away
from me that I do not want to wait.”

The duke leaned back in his chair, his face
thoughtful, “I did not want to tell you as it was to be a surprise. When I saw
you gardening with that man with not a care to propriety, I realised that
parting from your betrothed so soon was making you unhappy, and you were
seeking a diversion. With Mrs Barker making such vicious comments about how she
found you this morning, the situation is direr. She will let the word out, and
I do not want the earl, if he is a good man, to judge you wrongly. So I am
pleased that I have already written to the earl and invited him to visit us
here. He can see for himself what the source of gossip is like. I can meet the
man you have chosen, and if I find him worthy of you, then you have my
blessings to marry when you choose.”

Emma’s smile had grown bigger and bigger as
her uncle spoke, and now she leapt from her chair and rushed to hug him like
she used to as a child.

“Thank you! Thank you! You are the nicest,
kindest, most wonderful uncle in the whole wide world!”

The duke laughed and gently pushed her
away.

“Now go, I know you are dying to tell your
cousin the latest news. I hope he arrives soon enough for your sake.”

Laughing, Emma ran out and went not to look
for Catherine but once again, the head gardener.

She sneaked out the back, taking care to
avoid Pickering or anyone who could be watching. She knew the duke would not
expect her to go looking for the gardener, not after the talk they had just
had, but this was too exciting for her to keep to herself.

She found him smoking a pipe in the apple
orchard.

“I have news,” she panted.

“I need to talk to you,” he said at the
same time.

Because she was still catching her breath,
the earl decided to go first.

“Lady Babbage tried to blackmail me.”

Emma took one look at his face and sat
right where she stood. She patted the grass next to her, and the earl joined
her.

“She came to me yesterday after dropping
you back to the house.”

“To fetch her work basket?”

“That was just an excuse. She has guessed
that I am younger than I look, and she knows something is going on between us,
though she is still in the dark as to my identity. She wants me to do something
for her, and if I don’t, she has threatened to tell the duke or the earl.”

“But you must be mistaken. Why would she do
something like this? She lives in comfort, and what could she possibly gain?
She did hint her misgivings to me, but she said it was out of concern. It truly
did not sound as if she had some nefarious plan.”

“She wanted you to talk, and once you did,
she would blackmail you as well. I hope you did not confide in her.”

He continued after her reassurance that she
had kept it all to herself, “She will approach me when she has a job for me to
do. She said so clearly,
and if I do not comply, then she promised to
make me suffer, even if it means ruining your name. She dislikes you, she said,
for you have never heeded her advice and always neglected her … I do hope she
writes to the earl instead of going to the duke. Imagine me receiving my own
complaint. My reply would be colourful enough to set her right for good.”

“It is true, I never liked her, but I never
hated her or deliberately snubbed her. I was young, bound to break some rules
and disregard her presence, but resorting to blackmail seems a bit extreme. She
may have been bluffing, as I cannot imagine her being capable of such things.
She is a sweet old boring lady. She was trying to scare you into leaving me
alone.”

“Trust me, and stay away from her. That
sweet
old lady has tiny horns protruding from her head. I am sure she hides them in
that nest of dry brown hair. That woman has her own agenda. I don’t know what
it is yet, but I intend to ferret it out. Meanwhile, I want you to stay in your
room and no more searching the duke’s study. If she catches us, then we would
have a lot more to worry about than the duke discovering my identity. Searching
through his personal belongings is a far more serious matter.”

“That is why you left the note for me last
night. Well, what I have to tell you would throw water on Lady Babbage’s plans.
Put out that smelly pipe first. My poor nose cannot take it anymore.”

The earl took a long drag, and then
reluctantly put it away. Emma then proceeded to recount the morning events.

“I am not sure if this is good news,” he
replied.

“Whatever do you mean? You can give up this
entire charade and present yourself to the duke. You still get to live in the
same house but this time with all the comforts. I can meet you more frequently
and openly. How is that not a good thing?”

“The duke has had a hard marriage. He may
think I am a fine young man, but there is no guarantee he will admit it. He
will think of something else to delay the wedding. His main concern is your
behaviour, which he feels needs to be curtailed. You do not seem to listen to
his authority, so he hopes my presence will curb your wild ways and keep you
passive. He will then attempt to convince me to wait a little longer, and I
will have no decent counterargument. My instinct tells me that we are right for
each other, but that is not going to go down well with a practical man.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“I want to continue this charade. The main
reason being, I have spent almost a week sweating and labouring in this very
field. I do not want that to go waste and declare defeat. My wager still
stands, and I aim to see this thing through. My point was to fool the duke and
prove to you who was the better man. I still intend to do so, and I can hardly
undermine him as a guest in his own house.”

“Oh, forget this silly game. I concede
defeat, and you have won the wager. Now, please just come and stay as yourself.
I will even admit to being compromised, and there will be no reason to stall
the wedding after that.”

“It is the principle of things. I have to
win the wager fairly, not because my fiancée suddenly feels sorry that I have
to sleep on a flea infested mattress. No, Em, I am sorry, but it is just a
matter of another three weeks. I will see this entire thing through.”

“That’s all very well, but the duke expects
the earl to arrive any moment now. He sent the letter a few days ago. Remember,
we saw it. It would be rude not to answer his request with your presence.
Besides, a fiancée would be clamouring to be with his betrothed. You can’t
weasel out of it using a business excuse.”

The earl was silent for a moment. At
length, he brightened and said, “I know the perfect man for the job.”

“Job?”

“Yes, it’s brilliant. Another tweak in our
plan.”

“No”

“Yes”

“No!”

“Please, hear me out at least.”

“Fine,” she replied, crossing her arms.

“I can continue to be the head gardener,
and someone else can take my place as the earl. No one on the estate has met me
before. They will never know!”

“They will meet you on the wedding day.
Then what?”

“They will hardly stop the wedding over a
tiny bit of play acting.”

“Hardly tiny,” she muttered, and then more
loudly, “So now you mean to bring another actor into this entire façade? You
will continue impersonating the gardener while someone else will impersonate
you? This is giving me a headache! Is there anyone you can trust to such an
extent?”

“Yes, Em, it’s the perfect plan.”

“Not your Valet, Richard. You cannot be
thinking of
that
man! Why, he resembles a fat, overripe tomato!”

“No, I am not thinking of Burns. I am
thinking of the honourable marquis’s eldest son, Lord William Raikes.”

“You are funning me. That man hasn’t set
foot in England, why … since he turned eighteen.”

“He has recently returned to England, as
his father is ailing. I have been in touch with him over the years. We grew up
together. His estate adjoins mine. You are mistaken in your belief that he has
not visited England between his travels. He comes often, but he is a sort of
recluse, keeping to himself a lot. He is a writer and has made quite a name for
himself.”

“I remember reading a book by ‘W.S. Raikes’.
It’s in my father’s study. I wonder if he is the same?”

“That’s him alright, world renowned. He
owes me a favour, and I think I will call on it now. No one will remember him
from his youth, as he has changed a lot since then. He is a gentleman with a
similar background in education and aware of every part of my life. He is the
only man who could convincingly pull it off.”

“Is he a good actor?”

“I am not sure. He never played any roles
in our school productions, since he loathed large crowds. But he is
intelligent, so I am not worried.”

“I don’t like this. Your plan is getting
more and more complex. We are bound to be caught.”

“Isn’t that what you want, to win the wager
…
or would you rather lose it?”

“Oh, what does it matter, the result is the
same.” She heard the church bell peal in the distance and sprang up.

“I have to go.”

“Expect Raikes within a few days,” the earl
shouted after her

“Oh, where is he?”

“Catherine, stop peeking out of the window,
he may spot you. It will reflect badly on your cousin,” admonished Lady
Babbage.

How, Emma wondered, could a woman so
entrenched in propriety blackmail anyone?

Lord William Raikes had dropped all his
concerns to travel overnight in his well sprung carriage as soon as he received
his friend’s missive.

As a result, a note had arrived that
morning to warn the duke of the Earl of Hamilton’s arrival. The ladies had been
informed, and the news sent the feminine minds into a tizzy. They had
immediately thrown themselves into a tumult of planning and readying the house
for the guest. Now they sat demurely, pretending to have spent the hours
sewing, instead of having mucked about in dust and dirt.

“Tell us what he looks like again, Em?”
pleaded Prudence. The thought of a young man, even if engaged, had brought life
back into her face. He was, after all, an earl, and until he was married he was
fair game for all.

Emma, who would have loved to discourse on
the various attributes of the earl in the past, did not know how to reply.

This Lord Raikes was bound to look
different from Richard. He would surely not be as handsome, and how in the
world was she to recognise him when he did arrive? She could mistakenly point
to the valet, and then where would she be?

She remembered uneasily that she had spoken
at length about the earl’s looks to Catherine. She hoped her cousin would put
that down to a lover’s exaggeration.

Prudence admitted she had seen the Earl
twice. Both those times someone had pointed him out at a crowded ball, but she
had never been able to secure an introduction. Fortunately, she had never seen
him properly, the flitting bodies leaving an impression of a tall, handsome
man. But his face was vague in her mind. Emma was thankful for that bit of luck
at least.

The plan was developing even more holes.
Soon she would not be able to keep up with all the lies.