Page 28 of Never a Bride
“Make friendships while other people are around you, Blythe. Until you know these men well, you can’t trust them alone. You can’t trust the situations they might lead you into—like today.”
“Oh, it was a glorious ride, and such a peaceful place for my first kiss from a gentleman!”
“What?”
Emmeline buried her bewildered hurt beneath an anger the likes of which she’d never felt before.
“Oh, Emmy, he kisses divinely! I wonder how Lord Seabrook kisses.”
“What else did Sir Alexander do to you?” she demanded, gripping her sister’s hand in urgency.
“Nothing,” Blythe replied in a puzzled voice. “He’s always been a gentleman.”
“Perhaps so, but it is best not to push gentlemanly manners too far,” she warned, trying not to sound as angry as she felt. “Please promise me you’ll never again go off with a man alone. You are an heiress, and many a man would kidnap you for the chance to marry such wealth.”
She laughed. “Oh, Emmy, he does not want or need my money. He comes from a powerful family in his own right.”
“Do you see many women lining up to marry him?” Emmeline couldn’t believe how cold and cruel she sounded.
Blythe cupped Emmeline’s cheek in her hand. “You are just saying these things to scare me, and I appreciate your devotion. But look out there—does Alex look like a man who lacks female friendship?”
Emmeline turned her head, and across the lawn she could see that the dancing had resumed. Alex was in the thick of it, moving with an abandon that seemed forced. Couldn’t Blythe see that?
They returned to the gathering, and Emmeline allowed her to go off with her friends to the bridges between the ponds. Emmeline seated herself on a stool beside Lady Morley, who held court as if she were the queen herself. More and more, Emmeline was one of the elders, sitting off to the side while the young people danced.
“He looks so like his brother ’tis uncanny.”
Emmeline could not help listening to the conversation going on a few feet away from her. The speaker was an older woman she hadn’t met before, whose nose was so high in the air that it was amazing a bug had not flown in.
“But he’snotlike his brother,” cautioned a younger woman whose perpetual frown already marred her brow. “Do you remember that dreadful statue he presented to Her Majesty?”
Emmeline held her breath, fascinated despite herself.
“Yes, young lady, I do, though we should not be discussing it. Imagine sending a naked statue of oneself to your queen!”
Emmeline was so busy choking down a horrified laugh that she almost missed their next words.
The young woman leaned closer to her companion, and Emmeline unashamedly leaned nearer as well.
“Tell me truly, Lady Boxworth, did it honestly have wings, like an angel?”
“Or the very devil himself,” Lady Boxworth intoned. “After displaying it rather vulgarly, the queen gave it back to him. I understand he uses it to decorate his brother’s home.”
The two women turned to look at Alex, and Emmeline did the same. Oh, how she wished she’d known that the statue was at Thornton Manor, because she surely would have looked for it.
When Emmeline realized how improper her thoughts were becoming, she fanned herself vigorously to disguise her blush.
To make everything worse, Alex came over to the ladies and flopped down on his side on a blanket, propping his head in his hand. Those dark eyes were alive with such mischief that Emmeline braced herself for the worst as she allowed her anger to simmer. Even worse, his fingers casually rubbed the lace on her hem, and she could feel every tug of the material across her knees and up to her waist. Appalled, she wondered if anyone could see. She wanted to kick him, or step on those groping fingers, but such behavior would only call more attention to his antics.
Soon the other gentlemen joined them, and as the sun began to wane, Alex said, “Ladies, I fear we have not much time left of our lovely afternoon.”
Blythe came to sit beside him, holding her skirts down with her arms.
“What amusements can we poor gentlemen provide you?” he continued.
Emmeline straightened with sudden inspiration. “Sir Alexander, I have heard you say more than once that you are a gifted poet. I am quite certain we’d all enjoy hearing your work.”
Though the smile never left his face, Alex’s gaze was riveted to hers, and she barely withheld her own smile of glee. Ah, what a wicked repayment for treating her sister so lightly.
