Page 36 of The Hellion and the Captain
“Interesting,” Emmaline said honestly. She appreciated her mother’s efforts and believed in them, but she had never quite overcome her mother preventing her from playing football with the women’s team, despite the extent she advocated for other women to chase any opportunity available to them. “But no, thank you. I am unavailable tomorrow.”
“Very well,” her mother said. “Do tell me if you change your mind. Oh, and Emmaline?”
“Yes?”
“Have a seat,” she said, waving to a chair in the middle of the room, taking a seat across from Emmaline. “I must speak to you about something.”
Emmaline obliged warily, for she was never quite certain what her mother could want to approach her about.
“Your father and I had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood last night.”
“How was that?” Emmaline said, even as she wondered how that involved her. Mr. Blackwood was the third partner in her grandfather’s shipping company, along with her grandfather and Minnie’s father.
“Lovely, of course. However, we had an idea.”
“Oh?”
“They have a son, Richard.”
“They do,” Emmaline said, narrowing her eyes, hoping her mother wasn’t going where she had promised to never go.
“I know that you have always been certain of what you want in life.”
“I most certainly have.”
“Perhaps you might consider meeting Richard?”
Emmaline had to work to prevent rolling her eyes.
“Mother, I have met him before.”
“Isn’t he lovely?”
“He’s fine, but…”
But he didn’t make her heart race. He didn’t challenge her. He didn’t excite her. He didn’t make her hold her breath as she waited for the next time she could see him again.
Not like Rhys did.
“But what?”
“But… I might have met someone else.”
Her mother dropped the pen she was holding and gasped.
“You have? Oh, Emmaline, that is wonderful!”
“Says the woman who is fighting for the empowerment of other women.”
“Oh, I know, Emmaline. It is just…” she looked off toward the far corner of the room as vulnerability showed on her face. “We do not want you to be alone. Your brothers have their own families, and now that Lily is married, well, who do you have?”
Emmaline opened her mouth to tell her that she was just fine, but was she? Her mother was echoing some of her own thoughts.
Emmaline had always prided herself on her independence, but lately, a gnawing loneliness had crept into her heart. The exhilaration of playing football, of being part of something greater than herself, had filled that void. But now that she’d had those stolen moments with Rhys...
Emmaline shook her head, dispelling the thought. Shecouldn’t afford to dwell on what could never be. Rhys had made his position clear. Kisses were one thing, but anything further between them would only complicate matters, both on and off the field.
“I appreciate your concern, Mother,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “But I am not ready to entertain the idea of marriage. Not yet. There are still so many things I want to do, to experience. And I can do those things by myself, or with others. It’s not as though Lily has disappeared, and I have other friends.”
