Page 49 of An Arranged Marriage with a Cruel Earl
“Thank you,” he murmured, as they both stepped through the door together. “Your presence is comforting to my mother. I am grateful you are here.”
“I did nothing,” Emmeline said, blushing furiously. “I am glad to sit with her.”
“And I am glad that you did,” Andrew said, lips lifting in a smile.
Emmeline smiled back and for a moment they stood together in the hallway, not speaking. Emmeline’s heart pounded.
“I am glad I bumped into you,” Andrew said consideringly. “I hoped you might have some time.”
“I do,” Emmeline said at once. Aside from sitting with Lady Rilendale, she had no plans.
“Good.” His gaze darted shyly to the floor and back. “I wanted to show you around the manor, if I may. My cousins are walking about the grounds, and we have the house to ourselves for an hour.”
“Oh.” Emmeline’s heart pounded. Her fingers twisted her skirt, a habit when she was excited. She made them be still. “I would like that.”
“Good,” he repeated. He looked at her hesitantly, as though not sure how to start.
“I know all of the bottom floor,” Emmeline said with a small smile.
“Quite so. Especially the library,” he agreed.
They shared a smile.
“I will show you the gallery,” he began. “And... some other things,” he added mysteriously.
Emmeline’s heart lifted and she followed him as he walked up the hallway.
“This is where Grandma fell,” Andrew warned her as they went up a short flight of stairs that led from the second floor to a third. The stairs were wooden, and Emmeline winced as a board wobbled under her. Repairs were already underway in the dining room, but the craftsmen had yet to reach the upper floors of the house. They reached a long room where portraits lined the walls. Andrew went to the window at the end and drew back the velvet curtain, letting daylight pour into the dark space. She gazed around. Ten paces away, where Andrew stood, hung big oil portraits in gilded frames, showing faces strikingly like Andrew’s own on dark backgrounds. Closer to her were more recent paintings, the backgrounds lighter and showing scenery, such as Rilendale Manor, at the back. One of those showed two people. One was the image of Andrew but with a softer face and the dark hair and dark eyes of his cousins. The other was a woman with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Her heart twisted. Sheknew they were Andrew’s parents. He was looking at a painting beside them.
“That’s Uncle Jasper. He was my father’s younger brother. He’s Ambrose and Lydia’s papa. I never knew him. He and Papa were not on speaking terms when I was born.” He drew a breath. “It’s a pity. He passed away a few years after Papa and Mama.”
“Oh. I can see the resemblance,” she said softly. The man in the picture looked just like his children, with the same dark hair and eyes and the same oval face as Lydia. He was handsome, but he reminded her of Ambrose, and he repelled her in the same way—there was something hard about his expression, something she could not bring herself to like despite his evident good looks.
“Mm. I suppose so,” Andrew agreed.
Emmeline sensed he was uncomfortable, and she went towards another painting.
“Who is that?” she asked. It showed a woman with a soft oval face and hazel eyes. She had a serene, gentle face and wore her soft honey-brown hair in an elaborate, padded bun on her head, some ringlets loose about her face as women had worn their hair forty or fifty years before.
“It is Grandma,” Andrew said with a smile.
“No!” Emmeline exclaimed delightedly.
“It is,” Andrew said, clearly pleased. “She was famously beautiful.”
“I can see that,” Emmeline said warmly.
She glanced at Andrew. He looked most like his father, but the shape of his eyes could have been from his mother or his grandma, she could not be sure.
“Come,” he said, going to the door. “There is one more thing I wish to show you.”
“Oh?” Emmeline hurried to keep up with him.
He took her down the hallway and paused at a door.
“This room has been locked for years,” he explained as he reached into his pocket and took out a key. “So, it might be quite dusty.”
Emmeline’s heart pounded as he unlocked the room. She stepped forward as he stood back for her and breathed in, smelling a dusty smell, but no worse than she had expected. Her eyes widened. It was fairly dark, a rosy light filtering through the thick velvet curtains. Andrew went to open one and she gasped in delight.
