Page 27 of Never a Bride
“No.” After glaring at her shame-faced servant, she looked about for a mounting stool.
“Allow me.”
Suddenly Sir Edmund’s big hands were on her waist, and he lifted her up into the saddle. Giving him a brief nod, she kicked her mare into a gallop.
As the gardens fell away behind her and the meadows took on a wilder, more natural appearance, all Emmeline could think about was how much wine Alex had imbibed, and how she had failed to keep her sister safe. If anything happened, she could only blame herself.
As she rounded a corner of the riding trail, she saw their two horses left to graze in the grass. She flung herself from the saddle and marched past the animals, only to draw up in shock at what she saw.
On the bank of a little stream, in the shade of draping willow trees, Alex and Blythe stood in each other’s arms, staring at one another.
Emmeline could make no sound, so heartsick was she. She leaned against a tree and watched Alex smile at her sister, a girl barely out of childhood, who didn’t know what a man was capable of.
And then Alex looked up and saw her.
Chapter 9
Alex froze when he saw Emmeline, her eyes wide and anguished as she clutched the tree. Something inside him almost snapped with pain. He didn’t want to be affected by her, but he was. He was luring away her little sister for no good reason, at the same time as he flirted shamelessly with Emmeline herself.
And his conscience began to roar back to life.
He released Blythe, who looked up at him so innocently.
“Your sister just arrived,” he said.
The girl didn’t look guilty, just turned a smile on Emmeline. “She must be upset I didn’t tell her where I was going. I’ll go speak with her. But don’t worry,” she added in a lower voice. “I won’t tell her about our wonderful kiss just yet.”
Alex wanted to wince as he watched Blythe run to her sister, catch her by the arm, and draw her toward the horses.
Their kiss.
He could hardly call it one. Blythe’s tightly closed lips had touched his for a brief moment, and he hadn’t even wanted to make it last longer. He had felt nothing, not even the arousal of holding a beautiful woman in his arms.
All he could think about was Emmeline, and how it would feel to hold her in his arms, with her mouth beneath his.
Could he not control his own thoughts anymore? he wondered darkly. Even his dreams were dwelling on her with startling regularity. Afterward, he awoke aroused and perspiring and unsatisfied.
Now he watched Emmeline help her sister into the saddle, then she stepped on a rotting log to mount her own horse with graceful athleticism. She glanced at him only briefly, and in her eyes he saw anger and the promise of retaliation, not the hurt he thought he’d glimpsed a moment before.
As the two sisters rode away, Blythe looked back and waved for him to follow. He mounted his horse, no longer so eager for the rest of the afternoon.
When he returned to Lady Morley’s garden, the first thing he did after dismounting was drain a goblet of wine and ask for another. He told himself not to look for Emmeline. He had done nothing to be ashamed of. Men were bound to kiss her beautiful sister; why shouldn’t he be the first? Why couldn’t Emmeline understand harmless flirtation for what it was? He had spent his life flirting with women—he certainly wasn’t going to stop now.
Emmeline watched Alex swallow another mouthful of wine and shook her head in disgust. She stood beside Blythe, who was chatting with a friend. It was obvious Blythe was waiting for the perfect moment to tell her what had happened with Alex.
Just what she wanted to hear: her sister’s romantic moment with a drunken libertine.
Too soon, Blythe drew her beneath a vine-covered arbor and leaned close.
“Emmy, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going.”
Emmeline looked into her sister’s sincere eyes and worried that some day Blythe would be hurt by a man—maybe this one. “’Twas a foolish thing to do. You don’t know Sir Alexander well, nor do you know his motives.”
“We’re becoming acquainted,” Blythe said in obvious delight. “That’s a good motive.”
“And what about Lord Seabrook?”
“I’m becoming friends with him, too.”
