Page 80 of The Lady and the Footballer
They were well aware that Lord Nathaniel would not ruin his father’s party, and they pushed their way through the throng of people gathered around the ballroom doors.
“You go and meet Colin,” Emmaline said, urging Lily along. “I shall make our excuses.”
“To my mother?” Lily said, lifting a brow.
“She introduced you to the gentlemen as discussed,” Emmaline said. “I’ll tell her you are feeling ill and that my mother and I will take you home in our carriage.”
“She will never believe it.”
“Does it matter?” Emmaline asked, and Lily paused as she considered Emmaline’s question.
“No,” she said with some surprise at her answer. “It does not. But Emmaline, I will not leave you, not after all that just occurred. We will go together.”
As much as she wanted to run out and meet Colin, she couldn’t leave Emmaline to face any consequences alone, especially after all Emmaline had done for her. They were as quick as possible as they entered the ballroom, found their parents, and made their excuses.
Lily could tell that her mother was suspicious, but fortunately, while she doubted Lily’s excuse of feeling ill, her only suspicion was that Lily was faking it so she could avoid dancing.
She wasn’t wrong about that, but little did she realize just what – or who – Lily was running to.
Emmaline’s mother agreed to accompany them home, which Lily’s mother obviously appreciated as she wasn’t ready to leave the festivities so early.
“I’m not sure I understand the urgency,” Lady Daughtry said as Emmaline and Lily tried to encourage her outside as quickly as possible, “but I was also becoming rather bored with that crowd. Always going on and on about the silliest things. Why, do you know—my goodness, what is happening over there?”
They turned to follow her pointed finger across the front of the manicured gardens lit by gas lamps. The two men who had previously accompanied Lord Montgomery were striding up the garden path, escorting a man between them.
“Colin!” Lily cried out, louder than she had meant, for all of their heads turned toward her. Lord Montgomery approached from the shadows, his fingertips tapping together gleefully.
“Miss Evans, I see you are acquainted with our thief.”
“Thief?” she said, her eyes widening.
“Why yes,” he said as Lord Nathaniel joined his father, his smug grin stretching across his face. “For what other reason could a man like Mr. Thornton here have for wandering around my grounds?”
“He was here for me,” Lily said, standing up straight, despite Lady Daughtry’s gasp, although it wasn’t one of shock but more surprise. “I asked him to meet me.”
“You admit you were both part of the theft?” Lord Montgomery said with a tsk. “My, my, Miss Evans. Your parents will be so disappointed.”
“She had nothing to do with this,” Colin called out. “Allow her to leave.”
“I cannot,” Lily insisted. “For no one stole anything. You are placing the blame on everyone else, Lord Montgomery, just as you have been for months now.”
“Nothing was stolen?” Lord Montgomery said. “Nothing from my study, Miss Evans?”
He fixed her with a look that told her he knew exactly what she had stolen.
“Go, Lily,” Colin called out. “I’ll be fine.”
“I cannot,” she repeated, trying to read Colin’s expression, but he was too far in the dim light for her to get any sense of what he was planning, even as Lady Daughtry prodded her in the back.
“Come, Lily,” she said with a gentle voice. “We will be no help to him here.”
“Lady Daughtry, I cannot.”
But both Emmaline and her mother pushed her along the path, away from Colin, away from the smug expressions of Lord Montgomery and Lord Nathaniel.
The ladies were almost in the carriage when they heard a shout behind them, and they turned in time to see that Colin had evaded his captors and was making a break for it.
“After him!” one man shouted to the other as they tried to chase him down, but Colin’s football training was to his advantage. He leaped over a hedgerow, pivoted around a statue, and careened down a small slope, his legs gathering speed that the other men just couldn’t match.
