by Laura Landon
“I don’t believe this,” he muttered beneath his breath, then snatched the paper from Jonah’s hand and studied it. “You bitch!” he bellowed in a voice as hostile and vile as she’d ever heard from him. “You cunning bitch! You said you’d never marry! You swore it!”
Her stepbrother wadded the marriage license in his fist and threw it across the room. Then, before Jonah could react, Gerald lunged at Emma with a wild slash of the knife.
In a flash she understood his next move. If she were alive, marriage was the key to unlocking her wealth. But in the case of her premature death?
Emma darted backward just in time, even as Jonah leaped forward to protect her. The tip of the blade sliced through Jonah’s jacket and reached the flesh of his chest.
“Run, Emma!” Jonah yelled as he fell to his knees and clutched his hand to his chest. “Run,” he gasped.
Emma froze momentarily when she saw the look of shock and pain on Jonah’s face. It was the terror she heard in his voice that jolted her into action.
“Jonah!” she yelled. Deep red blood streamed through her husband’s fingers.
Fear grabbed hold of her and refused to release her. She wanted to run to Jonah, but knew it was useless to interfere. She was no match against Gerald.
Just when she thought that Gerald was satisfied with only wounding Jonah, he lifted his arm again to stab a final blow into Jonah’s chest.
“No, Gerald! No!”
Her cry stayed his arm for the moment she needed to draw the pistol from its leather pocket. Her trembling fingers grasped frantically at it, finally losing their hold and letting the weapon tumble to the floor. She stared in horror as the gun skittered across the rug, just out of her reach.
“You may have been married for a few days, woman, but you’ll be a widow the rest of your life.”
Emma saw the knife in Gerald’s hand begin its downward thrust and knew she had no time to consider what she had to do. She lunged forward, landing on her knees as she swept up the small handgun and fumbled it into both hands. Instead of weakening her position it seemed to give her an even more secure stance. Using both thumbs, she drew back the hammer and fired.
Her stepbrother’s eyes opened wide in disbelief as he lowered his gaze to the scarlet blossom on his waistcoat. “What have you done!” he whispered, and clamped his hand over the wound. “What—” he muttered, then fell to the floor.
Emma trembled with shock as she saw the man who had tormented her so relentlessly suddenly collapse. The knife tumbled from his hand and lay harmlessly on the floor, no longer a threat to anyone.
The man who had wielded it a moment earlier was dead.
Emma rushed to Jonah and knelt beside him. “My love, are you alright?”
“Yes, Em. I’m fine.”
But Emma knew he wasn’t. She placed his head in her lap and brushed the hair from his forehead. “Go for a doctor!” she yelled when Carter tumbled into the room. “And find someone to carry his lordship to our chambers.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Emma clutched at Jonah and focused on his alarming loss of blood.
“Don’t worry so, Em. I’m fine. It’s only a flesh wound.”
“Don’t you dare leave me,” she ordered through the tears that filled her eyes.
“I have no intention of…leaving you. I just…found you.”
Emma leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “I killed him,” she moaned.
“To save my life,” Jonah answered, which, when he put it in those terms, made her actions seem less horrific.
Emma gave him up reluctantly when Carter arrived with help to carry Jonah up the stairs. He helped her remove Jonah’s jacket and blood-stained shirt. A knot clenched in her stomach when she saw the wound. Jonah’s flesh was torn for several inches and would need to be stitched.
The doctor came shortly after, and when he finished sewing Jonah’s flesh and left, Emma was at last alone with her husband.
“Here,” she said, refilling Jonah’s glass and handing it to him. He drank most of the liquor, then closed his eyes.
“Are the authorities here?”
“No, my love.”
Jonah finished the liquor in his glass. “Then what’s all that noise?”
“Um,” Emma said, “the, um, guests. I’ll send them away, Jonah. You need to sleep.”
Half the countryside had responded to her invitation and were now assembled in the formal drawing room. On any other day she would have been thrilled with the success of their first reception. But not today.
As she watched her husband, she realized he could barely keep his eyes open. “Rest now, Jonah. I’ll go down to make sure our guests are greeted and sent on their way.”
Emma rose and walked to the door.
“Wait,” Jonah said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I’ll need a clean shirt, waistcoat and jacket.”
“But you can’t—”
Jonah reached out and captured her hand. “I can. And I will.” He drew her to him. “What I will not do is wait one day longer to introduce the world to my beautiful wife. Now be a good girl and get my clothes.”
Chapter 12
The days following the reception were surreal. Emma made a point of asserting herself in the community, and in no time was receiving invitations to afternoon tea. When the first invitation for the two of them arrived, Emma knew it was the beginning of a new and wonderful life for her reclusive husband.
Jonah was slower to believe their welcome would last, but when the men at the Pig and Ale drank a round to him and his new bride, he began to allow himself a degree of hope.
Three weeks after the Sunday reception, Emma wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him good morning. “I received a letter from Mr. Jordan yesterday.”
“Mr. Jordan?”
“My father’s solicitor. He congratulated me on our marriage and informed me that according to my father’s will, I am now in possession of the money Father left me in trust.”
Jonah huffed in surprise.
“I didn’t think you would receive your dowry until you reached the age of twenty-one.”
“Twenty-one, or when I married. Whichever came first. Since I never intended to marry, I thought I would be forced to wait until my birthday finally arrived. But now we are set, aren’t we, my love?”
“The money is yours, Em. I’ve told you before, I don’t want it.”
“I know you don’t.” She kissed his cheek. “And I love you for that. But a certain portion of it is yours.”
“Emma, you know I can’t—”
She pressed two fingers against his lips to silence him.
“Until now that money has been a beacon for every rogue in the country to make my life a living hell. But now,” she felt her face soften and welcomed the peace that flooded her. “—now it has a chance to work for good. For you, for me, for us, for everyone who makes Glassborough their home. You must see that Jonah. You really must.”
She tightened her hold on him and he held her closer, pressing his silence between them.
“I’ve seen your plans, Jonah. You intend to fix the tenant homes on the estate and bring in even more tenants. You’ve figured out how to make Glassborough a profitable farm. You’re going to plant crops on any lands that will grow them, and place cattle and sheep on any pastures that won’t. You’re going to raise barley that you’ll sell to the brewery that makes such fine wine and ale, and see what would have to be done to increase the brewery’s supply so they can sell it all over England. Such goodness, Jonah. Such honorable plans. And I refuse to let you lock me out of it.”
“I won’t, luv, and I have it in hand. Really, I do.”
He seemed so earnest that Emma wondered if she had a right to assert herself into his plans. But it only took a moment’s reflection to know she was right.
“But yours is a ten-year plan. And much of it can’t be started for another three years until you’re on a better footing.”
She caressed his hand. “Jonah, think of the lives that can be changed if your plan starts now. The people whose lives depend on your success. The children who might have a chance at school instead of laboring in the fields with their families. Their lives could start getting better today!”
Jonah turned his face toward her and saw her eagerness. She had somehow righted all the things that had gone topsy-turvy in his world. Before she came into his home, he’d been a drowning man, flailing about for a way to save himself and his estate. And it was Emma who had thrown him a lifeline. Emma who had extended her hand to focus him on a future that had promise. Like a level-headed partner she was showing him a way forward that he could not hope to achieve on his own. But with her—
“Well, you’ve made a compelling argument, my dear. But it’s an awful lot to consider.” He sat up straight and pulled a studious look across his face. “Perhaps if I had a partner I might be able to manage all the work.”
He heard her gasp and couldn’t help the grin that seemed to spread wider across his face by the second.
“A partner,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he whispered back. “Know where I might find one?”
Now she was beaming as broadly as he was. “A partner! Yes! Oh, Jonah, we’ll be partners!” She grasped at his hand and stood up, dragging him with her.
A moment later she thrust out her hand.
“Let’s seal our partnership with a handshake,” she said. “Isn’t that how it’s done?”
Jonah just gave a slow shake of his head as he closed in to take her in his arms.
“Sorry, partner,” he whispered. “I prefer to seal it with a kiss.”
Epilogue
“Are you sure there will be room for so many?”
Jonah gazed around the ballroom that had never looked better thanks to his wife’s keen instinct. Glassborough Manor had not housed a ball in his adult lifetime. Now Emma couldn’t wait to banish that dubious record.
Emma laughed. “I will be terribly disappointed if it’s not the crush of the decade.”
“Surely some of them won’t come,” he argued.
“Won’t come? How could they not?” Emma gave him her most glorious smile. “They admire you, darling, whether you know it or not. Have you forgotten that in the past year, you’ve turned Glassborough into a thriving estate? Tripled our staff? That you’ve given jobs to many of the locals who desperately needed work, and that you purchase lumber and farming supplies from the local merchants, causing their profits to soar? That we purchase the food that goes on our table from the shops in the village? And,” Emma continued, “that you were very generous to the church when they asked for donations?”
“My partner is the one who was generous. I wasn’t even aware the reverend was taking collections for the orphanage.”
“You would have been had you listened closer when Reverend Smithey made announcements after Sunday service.”
“It’s difficult to listen when all the parishioners sitting around me are staring at my wife.”
“Nonsense.”
Jonah rolled his eyes then looked at Emma. She seemed a little pale tonight. “Feeling alright, Em?”
“Yes, I’m fine. It’s your babe that’s letting me know I’ve been on my feet a little longer than usual today.” She patted her stomach that had not yet begun to show evidence of the coming joy.
“Then I will make sure you spend the entire evening seated.”
“You will not. You are going to dance with me at least a hundred times. I didn’t hire a London orchestra for the evening so I could sit on the side and listen. I’m going to dance like I haven’t had the opportunity in years.”
“Do you miss living in the City?”
“Heavens, no! I wouldn’t be anyplace but here. With you.”
“I love you, Em,” Jonah said.
Emma leaned on the tiptoes of her most comfortable dancing slippers and kissed him on the cheek. “You have to, sweetheart. You’re stuck with me whether you want me or not.”
Jonah returned Emma’s kiss and tried desperately not to leer. “Oh, I want you. Have no doubt of that, lassie.”
She gave him a playful swat of the glove she had still to put on. “What a cheeky thing to say to your business partner.”
He took her breath away when he pulled her suddenly into his arms. Jonah lowered his head until his lips brushed hers and her eyes fluttered closed.
“I want you a great deal. Wife.”
Over one million pages of Laura Landon books are read each month. Read more by looking for Laura on Amazon, or at www.lauralandon.com.
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Read Laura Landon Victorian Romance!
Laura happily announces her new series for 2020
SEASONS
Winter’s Cold Heart
available now
Spring’s Tender Heart
available now
Summer’s Distant Heart
will tiptoe into view in May of 2020
Autumn’s Wild Heart
will bound outrageously into view in August of 2020
About Laura Landon
Laura Landon enjoyed ten years as a high school teacher and nine years making sundaes and malts in her very own ice cream shop, but once she penned her first novel, she closed up shop to spend every free minute writing. Now she enjoys creating her very own heroes and heroines, and making sure they find their happily ever after.
A vital member of her rural community, Laura directed the town’s Quasquicentennial, organized funding for an exercise center for the town, and serves on the hospital board.
Laura lives in the Midwest, surrounded by her family and friends. She has written thirty Victorian historical romances, all of which are selling worldwide in English, one in Japanese, and several in German. Two are Scottish historicals.
Always beautifully set and with a mysterious twist or bit of suspense, Laura’s books average a million pages a month read by her loyal readers.
LAURA LANDON IS A PRAIRIE MUSE PLATINUM, KINDLE PRESS, AND AMAZON MONTLAKE AUTHOR
WWW.LAURALANDON.COM
Other Books by Laura Landon
Published by Prairie Muse Publishing
SHATTERED DREAMS
WHEN LOVE IS ENOUGH
BROKEN PROMISE
A MATTER OF CHOICE
MORE THAN WILLING
NOT MINE TO GIVE
LOVE UNBIDDEN
KEEPER OF MY HEART
THE DARK DUKE
CAST IN SHADOWS
CAST IN RUIN
CAST IN ICE
CAST IN SCANDAL (novella)
JADED MOON
THE DEVIL’S GIFT
ONE MYSTICAL MOMENT
BEWARE THE RICH MAN
BEWITCHED BY THE POOR MAN
BETRAYED BY THE BEGGAR MAN
BEHOLD THE THIEF
WINTER’S COLD HEART
Published by Montlake Romance
SILENT REVENGE
INTIMATE SURRENDER
INTIMATE DECEPTION
THE MOST TO LOSE
A RISK WORTH TAKING
BETRAYED BY YOUR KISS
RANSOMED JEWELS
Published by Kindle Press
THE SECRET ROSE
DARK RUBY
DECEPTION IN EMERALDS
THE TRAITOR’S CLUB
WHERE THE WOMAN BELONGS
NOVELLA
Published by Dragonblade
A VOICE ON THE WIND
See all of Laura’s books at Amazon.com
COMPANION BOOKS (series)
by Laura Landon
THE BROTHERHOOD
When Love is Enough | Broken Promise
RANSOMED JEWELS
Ransomed Jewels | Jaded Moon
Dark Ruby | Deception in Emeralds
THE REDEEMED
The Most to Lose | The Dark Duke
CAST IN SCANDAL
Cast in Shadows | Cast in Ruin
Cast in Ice
| Cast in Scandal
THE TRAITOR’S CLUB
Ford | Hugh | Jeb | Caleb
RICH MAN | POOR MAN | BEGGAR MAN | THIEF
Beware the Rich Man
Bewitched by the Poor Man
Betrayed by the Beggar Man
Behold the Thief
SEASONS
90-Minute Reads
Winter’s Cold Heart
Spring’s Tender Heart
Summer’s Distant Heart
Autumn’s Wild Heart
All of Laura Landon’s books on Amazon
Visit Laura at www.lauralandon.com
