Page 103 of His Scandal
She stared at him, wishing she could ask whatthis all meant to him, hoping he knew what it meant to her.
When the coachman threw open the door and helped her down, she looked back up at him.
“I can’t come out,” he said with regret in his voice.
“I know.” She blinked the rain out of her eyes and asked, “Will you come to visit me?”
He grinned. “Nothing could keep me away.”
The coachman closed the door, then climbed up above to take up the reins. As they headed back for the gate, Emmeline linked her hands behind her back and went around the mansion, avoiding the front entrance. Her legs felt wobbly and she was getting wet—but she needed to think.
Heading down the sloping gravel path toward the Thames, she breathed deeply of the spring flowers and tried to plan what to do next. She couldn’t keep giving in to Alex, or “The Seduction of Emmeline” would turn into “The Ruination of Emmeline.” How could she convince him they belonged together, that he’d be happy married to her?
She felt a hand on her arm and she turned, expecting her sister. Instead she looked up into the faces of the Langston brothers. Stunned, she opened her mouth to scream, and they stuffed a gag in instead.
After Alex had changed, he and Edmund rode their horses to Langston House to confront LadyElizabeth and her brothers once and for all. A maidservant graciously showed them into the great hall, with its old black-beamed ceiling and stone walls. When the girl reappeared, her plump face had taken on a decidedly hesitant demeanor.
“My lady is not feeling well, my lords. She requests that you visit another day.”
“That won’t do,” Edmund said, walking toward the door the girl had just come from.
Alex stayed at his side, brushing off the maid’s distress. “We won’t harm your mistress, girl, we just need to speak with her.”
A woman was trying to escape out the glass doors into the garden when they entered the room.
“Elizabeth!” Edmund called, running to catch her arm and haul her back inside.
“Let me go!”
Her pink cheeks were flushed, and blond tendrils of hair framed her lovely face. Alex could see why Edmund had allowed himself to be swept away.
“All we need you to do is answer our questions,” Edmund said gruffly. “I know I’ve wronged you—and I promise to make it right—but that is no reason to send your brothers after my friend. And only you could have told them such a thing. Why did you do it?”
She pulled away from him and stood with her head held high. “I had no choice!” she said coldly.“I had already dishonored myself. The only way I could atone to my family was by offering them a husband more suitable to them.”
Edmund’s face reddened. “I was good enough to pleasure you, but not to marry?”
She whirled to face him. “That is a crude thing to say!”
“But ’tis the truth, isn’t it?”
Alex stepped between them. “You both have much to discuss, but right now we need to tell your brothers the truth. Where are they?”
Lady Elizabeth stiffened. “I don’t know.”
“You’re lying,” Alex said flatly, advancing on her. She backed up step by step. “I have done nothing to you, but you’ve made sure your brothers stalked me, robbed me, and kidnapped me. Last night they took my brother in my place. I will have this done, my lady, and it won’t be in marriage to you! Tell me where they are!” he shouted.
She looked away. “I don’t know what they mean to do. All I heard them say was that they planned to hurt you in any way that they could until you agreed to marry me.”
“In any way that they…” Alex’s words faded as a chill of foreboding seeped through him. There was only one real way to hurt him now.Hellfire.“Edmund, they’re after Emmeline.” He grabbed the stunned girl by the shoulders. “Where have they taken her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she cried, her wide eyes frightened.
Edmund gripped him from behind. “I believe her, Alex. Let her go and listen to me.”
Alex was stunned by the blind rage that had seized him. But he released her and she ran out of the room.
“I just left her at Kent Hall,” he said slowly. “I didn’t even see her to the door. All I could think about was my problems with Spencer.”
