Page 22 of If I Loved You
“A hindrance?” Now her lovely arched brows rose, high into her forehead.
“She has developed atendrefor me,” he informed her in a level tone. Atendrewas putting it mildly. The insufferable lady gave new meaning to the word tenacious, had caused Zach several instances where he’d wished that he could somehow escape any disastrous consequence if he but begged her to close her mouth for five blessed minutes. “Her father has insinuated that he might well find his way to lending his favor to my bill if I could manage to return the...affection—presumably by way of a betrothal. Of course, I have no intention of selling myself to gain votes insidethe walls, so I thought—” He stopped as her darling lips began to curve in a mischievous smile.
“You want to bring me along, so the man thinks you have already formed an...attachment elsewhere,” she guessed. Correctly.
He imagined his returned grin might have appeared sheepish just then. Aiming for a more formal, foreboding mien, he straightened and rested his wrists on the edge of the table, reining in the grin. “You have the right of it, Miss Ainsley.” He hoped her seeming merriment over his predicament boded well for whatever her response might be. “I thought if I arrived with someone who seemed to have captured my...affection, it would remove that obstacle from gaining his support.”
She continued to grin, the blue of her eyes brightening as the smile widened. Then she bit her lips, attempting to contain her mirth just as Zach decided she might actually be laughing at him.
“Poor Lord Lindsey, the object of an unrequited affection,” she teased. “How very...pedestrian.”
He rolled his eyes at his, but without rancor, and allowed her to have her fun.
“Honestly, my lord, the idea of so formal a gathering, where I will no doubt stand out like a sore thumb, scares me half to death. Likely I will regret this, but I must say yes, simply because my very inquisitive nature demands that I meet this woman who has so befuddled your political aspirations with her untimely and lamentable fascination with you.”
Aside from the very obvious fact that she was finding great amusement in his predicament, Zach was realizing fantastic pleasure in her just now. He liked that she dropped the mien of suspicion and uneasiness usually worn in his presence, had teased him and smiled so spontaneously in front of him. With him. Heliked how her eyes brightened so amazingly with her smile. He liked tremendously her spirit, that this girl who so feared that she would be a fish out of water amongst thetonwas willing to accommodate him, because she thought it might prove entertaining and because, he knew, she wanted very much to be useful and necessary.
His gaze settled on her lips, still smiling so prettily, so damn temptingly.
He liked so many things about her.
THEY DEPARTED THE VERYnext day for London, Emma seated across from the earl in his fine carriage once again. She fidgeted nervously, plucking at invisible specks from her skirt, aligning the sleeves of her jacket so that they were the exact distance from her wrists, moving her bonnet so that the fringe visible across her forehead was equidistant from left to right.
Oh, but she had not thought this through. She’d agreed under some spell, intrigued by the earl’s near bashful attitude last evening at dinner, as if he’d never in his life asked a favor of another person. Charmed as well by the very idea that she might be of some assistance to him. However, this part was of a more dubious nature, as she couldn’t imagine how anyone might think the magnificent Earl of Lindsey might somehow have formed an attachment to a nobody such as herself.
And then, as if she’d not been nervous enough, as if she’d not already been considering she’d certainly bitten off more than she could ever chew, he’d let it be known today that Bethany wouldnot be able to travel with them, as his townhome hadn’t anyone to look after her while they were out and about. He’d said that his housekeeper there was not the ‘warm and fuzzy type’.
“Calm yourself, Miss Ainsley,” he said now.
Emma raised her gaze from the curled fists in her lap to his eyes, finding the gray to be softer today, the usual intensity lessened. Taking a deep breath, she smiled at him, or tried to. She had said she would help him, and so she would.
He looked incredibly handsome, or more so, in his brocade waistcoat and breeches of buckskin, covered with a claw hammer coat and finished with his usual Hessians. Next to him, and despite her fashionable gown and spencer which she thought unbearably lovely, Emma felt quite gauche, or at least, fraudulent.
“We might contrive to agree upon some back story,” he suggested, “as people may have questions, how we met, how long has it been going on, things of that nature.”
“A fake narrative to give credibility to our fake...attachment?”
He acknowledged her apt sarcasm with a tip of his head. “As it is, the simpler the tale, the easier it is to recall, and to pose as truth. Do not embellish—the less said the better. Let us just agree that we are cousins, of a sort, on my mother’s side. The Morrissey family is much less known than the Benedicts,” he explained. “And you’ve kept to the family home in Hertfordshire until just this year, caring for your ailing mother, which will explain why no one in London is familiar with you.”
“Do I use my own name?” Dear Lord, it sounded dangerously convoluted already.
He frowned. “Of course.”
Emma nodded.Cousins. Morrissey. Hertfordshire. Ailing mother. “All right.” It was here and now that she considered that this scheme seemed suddenly less like fun and more like true deception, and something woeful twisted in her belly.
Her anxiety was quelled somewhat as they neared and then entered the city, and Emma found she could not take it all in, the size and the scope and the height of London. She glanced out the left window and then the right, her gaze filled with wonder. Having never been to London, she truly hadn’t any idea what to expect, but reality gave no legitimacy to any of her previous imaginings. It was loud and big and bustling, as the carriage meandered down city streets, and drivers and pedestrians squawked and chattered, and the roads and sidewalks teemed with people, and the buildings were close and tall and so overwhelming. But she smiled as she soaked it all in. It was all just so fascinating.
As the carriage slowed, to accommodate for the crush of traffic, Emma’s gaze was captured by a couple outside walking upon the sidewalk. The gentleman sported a bright orange tailcoat and a hat longer than his head, while pushing forth a stick of shiny wood with each of his steps. The woman wore the most sumptuous long coat, held together with frog closures and being the exact shade of fresh spring grass. Atop her head sat the most amazing hat Emma had ever seen, being closed about her face with hard scalloped sides, and sporting what seemed like an entire garden at her brow and crown. Their walk was perfectly in tune, even as their garish color choices were not, his left leg and the stick moving at the same time as the woman’s right leg, their stride similar that it appeared almost rehearsed.
Emma pulled her eyes from the stunning couple and met the earl’s gaze, wondering if he’d witnessed so spectacular a sight, buthe was not looking out the window as she had been. He was watching her. And the storminess had returned to his gaze, as he watched her so intently.
“What is it?” She asked, believing surely something must have happened since their last words had been exchanged to have wrought such a severe change in him. Gone the affability, gone the near pleasantness, replaced by what she deemed a brooding and quite unnerving glare.
“What is what?” And just like that, his expression was shuttered. The darkness left his gaze, he unclenched his jaw, and he lifted a brow at her with his countering query.
Emma shook herself, loosened her own frown, and turned again to look out the window. She sat primly now, intent on being less the country girl come to town, presuming it was her animated fascination with all the sights and sounds that had instigated his sour countenance of a moment ago.
She nearly startled, only seconds later, when he rapped his walking stick upon the roof of the carriage. But this was only a notice to the driver to stop, and Emma leaned once more toward the window to see what their destination might be.
