Page 82 of Never a Bride
Emmeline watched him, barely daring to breathe, knowing that even as he made light of his situation, there was a lingering bitterness he thought hidden from her. “Did the plan succeed?”
“Oh yes, Spencer returned quite the hero, England was saved, and I was released from the drudgery of estate management.”
“Perhaps your brother had all the glory, but your efforts were just as noble,” she said softly.
He laughed. “Emmeline, how kind you are, but the danger was all Spencer’s. I had nothing more dangerous than three mistresses and too much money to spend.”
She ignored her painful spasm of jealousy. “But without you, Spencer couldn’t have succeeded as a spy for so long. It was over a year, wasn’t it? Questions would have been asked, threatening his life. You prevented that.”
The coach rumbled over another hole in the road, and she held onto her bench lest she be tossed into Alex’s lap.
As the silence continued, she asked, “What was it like, pretending to be someone else for so long?”
He hesitated, then said simply, “I almost forgot who I was.”
She forced away the sting of tears, knowing he’d hate her sympathy. His smile spread wide, and he leaned forward to rub one finger over her skirt-covered knee.
“I’m teasing, of course. Can you imagine me as a viscount, with all those responsibilities, all that money to manage? I had to give Spencer some of my personality, for how else could I repay him for such a sacrifice?”
“Hence the mistresses,” she said dryly. “The naked statue given to Queen Elizabeth.”
He laughed. “You know about that, do you?”
She studied him, knowing that perhaps there was a deeper reason he felt the need to add his own behavior to Alex’s. Hadn’t he said before that no one ever recognized him? Which meant that, somehow, he wanted desperately to be seen for himself.
“Oh please, do not think Spencer was ever a saint,” Alex continued. “He cut a swath through London that I had a hard time following. After Roselyn left him—”
“She left him?” she interrupted, intrigued.
He shook his head. “Too long a story. But suffice it to say, my brother set quite the example. And I continued it, giving him more of a personality than he deserved.”
“But surely there’s more to the life of a viscount than women and scandal.”
“Sad to say, but yes, the drudgery did take up a good part of my day.”
“What drudgery?”
“The estates, of course, the many people who depended on the Thornton name for their livelihood.”
“I heard of no mass starvation from the Thornton households,” she said in a teasing voice.
She knew he wanted to withhold a smile, but couldn’t.
“True. I didn’t quite manage to ruin everything.”
“Ruin everything? I seem to recall a comment my father made a year or so ago. He was quite grudging in his praise of how well the Thornton estates were managed. And it wasn’t Spencer managing them, but you.”
He remained still, watching her. “And how would you know if I had employed a very capable steward?”
“I’m sure you had one, for you cannot be everywhere at once. But your conversation with Clifford about farming—it was not the talk of a man uninterested, uninvolved. I seem to recall…” She lifted his hand from her knee and turned it over, spreading his fingers wide. “…calluses.” She ran her finger over the hard bumps at the base of each finger. “You did not get these from dancing.”
She stared at his large hand resting in hers, afraid to look up and meet his eyes. There was such a discrepancy between what Alex truly was, and what he showed the world. Why? Why did playing his brother seem to damage him somehow? And did he lodge away from Thornton manor because he couldn’t bear to watch his brother take back what had given Alex so much pride?
She was afraid if she looked into his eyes right now, she’d gladly surrender to his embrace, melt against this man she was growing to care too much for. And then it would truly be “The Seduction of Emmeline.”
“We’ve been traveling too long,” Alex finally said, his hoarse voice making her shiver.
She let go of his hand.
