Page 51 of Never a Bride
“Just go, dearest.”
Alex stood at Emmeline’s side and watched Blythe walk away, Maxwell trailing hesitantly behind her. Alex shook his head. The boy was hopeless. Surely Emmeline couldn’t prefer someone likehim.
“You overheard everything, didn’t you?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Then there’s nothing to discuss.”
He slung an arm about her shoulders, and she stiffened. “There’s plenty to discuss. So this is the tutor? He looks like a farmer now.”
“A gentleman farmer.”
“Don’t be defensive, love. Farming is a noble profession, and after all, I’m almost a farmer myself.”
“Oh, that’s amusing,” she scoffed.
“’Tis true. I oversee my own farmland. I simply employ men to do the actual labor.”
“As if you’d ever do such physical work.”
Now it was Alex’s turn to feel defensive. He brushed his fingers down her cheek, and she stiffened. “Do you doubt that I’ve worked my own fields? These are calluses you feel, my lady. If you touched other parts of me, you could feel my hard-earned strength.”
She blushed in that lovely way she had. “Alex, stop! You have no interest in farming. And it looks like Clifford had taken a very active interest, for his family looks healthy.”
“And happy,” he murmured near her ear.
She pushed him away.
“I’ve studied everything there is to know about farming, Em. If your poet’s farm is anything like my lands, by now he’s finished plowing his fields, and he’s taking a well-earned break today from putting in his barley and wheat. If he makes a good beer, he should be tending to his hops vines. Shall I go on?”
Her suspicion was still evident. “You read that in a book somewhere.”
He put a hand dramatically to his chest. “Are you admitting that I might be knowledgeable enough to read books?”
“I never said you were a fool, Alex.”
“No, but the implication is there,” he answered, leaning toward her until their foreheads almost touched. “Would I make you swoon if I admitted I studied agriculture the last few years? If I list all the books in my library, will you fall into my arms? Was that how Roswald won your affections?”
She shrugged out from under his arm, and Alex realized they’d attracted attention, two well-dressed members of the nobility entwined in public.
They’d attracted Clifford Roswald’s attention, too.
Alex looked down at Emmeline, who was straightening her gown and pulling her cloak about her to hide her magnificent curves. She was trembling.
Hellfire.
“Forgive me, Em, but your old suitor has noticed us.”
She couldn’t have stiffened any faster if she’d have been whipped.
“Alex, this is all your fault!” she hissed.
“Perhaps, but maybe this is a good thing. You need to see him again after all these years, and I’m frankly curious.”
Roswald laid the sleeping child on a blanket, said something to his wife, and began to walk toward them.
“Alex!” Emmeline whispered frantically. “Go away!”
