“But what about love, and justice, and morality? You're letting the wicked punish the innocent here, you and Dalton,” Myrtle objected, hoping she could secretly do something to help her friend and Dalton win each other back.
“The children are the innocent ones in all of this. I will not have them harmed by Frederick Randall or Madeleine Lyndon or anyone else, is that clear?”
“Yes, Emer,” both the Bishop and Myrtle replied meekly, and rose from their chairs.
They left her alone as they each went home to consider how best to set their respective plans of action into motion without breaking their promise to Emer not to interfere.
Emer sighed as they left, and tried once again to quash the memories which flooded her mind despite all her attempts to suppress them.
Emer felt Dalton kissing her, while running his hands up and down the hourglass of her body as though trying to memorise every inch of it.
Each caress delighted, yet brought her passion to an increasingly fevered pitch.
"Dalton, my love, please, now," she urged throatily.
"Good things come to those who wait, darling," he replied with a husky laugh, peaking her breast with one hand, while stroking her gently below until she could feel herself blossoming, her bedewed petals eagerly seeking the completion only his love could provide.
She reached for his own proud stem and…
"Stop it, stop it," she muttered aloud, as she flung herself from the chair.
Pressing her hands together to stop them from trembling, she headed back to the dining room, and forced herself to join in the Sunday afternoon festivities, even though she felt as though her heart had been torn in two.
CHAPTER FIVE
When she assumed she would never see him again, Emer had definitely underestimated the depth of Dalton’s feelings for her.
He came to the orphanage again early the next morning, and when he was told that Emer was teaching, asked Sissy for a tour of the house. He went through every room and workroom, marvelling at all she had achieved.
When Emer came out of class at twelve to have dinner, Dalton was there waiting for her, and she was forced to endure another tense meal, with only mainly Irish-speaking Joe by her side to help get through the conversation.
She also narrowly avoided Dalton seeing the Jenkinses by dropping a bowl of potatoes ostentatiously with one hand, while she waved them out of sight with the other.
Dalton saw a man and woman scurry away out of the corner of his eye, and wondered why everyone in the orphanage either looked at him strangely, avoided him outright, or seemed to have something to hide.
Joe sat with a face like stone, and Patrick Bradley, normally jolly and outgoing, was as silent as the grave, shovelling food into his mouth mechanically with little relish, before standing and excusing himself with a short bow to Emer, and not even waiting for her reply before he was off.
Emer lived in constant fear of someone saying the wrong thing, and jumped every time Dalton spoke to her. Finally the meal was over, and Emer said she had to go back to her classroom.
“Can’t you get Joe or someone else to mind the children for a few minutes? I really need to speak to you.”
“We have nothing to say to one another, Mr. Randall. My life and duty are here now,” Emer said coolly, "and you're engaged to be married."
“I think we have plenty to say," he countered, earning a startled look from she and Joe.
She rose from her chair, but Dalton followed close behind. Too close. She could barely breathe, he was so near, and recalling her fantasy from the day before, she felt a hot blush flood her cheeks.
"For starters, Mrs. Dillon, I want to hear from your own lips what you've been doing since August. I want to know where your family are, and why they died. I want to know how you came to this house, and began an orphanage. I need to know where you got the money, and whether there's any sort of place for me in your life now that I've found you again,” Dalton stated boldly.
“I’m sorry, Dalton, but there can’t be," she said over her shoulder as she made her way into the corridor.
"This place takes up all my waking hours, and you're about to be married on Thursday. We've both made our choices, and our new loves and loyalties are incompatible. If you're asking me to choose between you and this place, then you are unavailable, and at any rate, I've already made my choice. The children need me,” Emer replied firmly.
“Why can’t you have both, my love and the orphanage?” Dalton demanded, halting her progress with one hand on her arm.
Emer shook him off at once, her skin scorching even though his touch had not exactly been lover-like.
“It's pointless even thinking in that vein. We both know it's just a fantasy. Your father would never accept me, and the scandal of your abandoning Madeleine on the eve of your wedding would ruin my reputation, damage this institution, and harm the children’s prospects."
"Nonsense. You would be part of my sphere of inflluence and—"
She shot him a withering look. Influence indeed… "As a respectable widow, I can run this place and find homes and jobs for all of my charges. But as a predatory hussy, we would be done for.”
“You are no such thing!” Dalton declared vehemently, so that everyone stopped in their progress towards their classrooms, and all eyes turned their way inquisitively.
Emer stiffened, and she sought a bolthole to flee from Dalton and get out of the sight of everyone's stares. She hared to the right and went in to check on the infants in the nursery, but left the door open so that anyone walking past could look in and see they were not alone. And she was sure that Joe would not be too far away to summon if she needed more help.
“Please, Emer, you are not a hussy," he said in a low tone when he was sure they were alone. "It was my mistake for allowing my father to browbeat me into accepting the engagement this time."
"Oh please, you're a grown man. As if anyone could ever make you do anything you didn't wish!"
"Once I believed you to be dead, it didn’t seem to make much difference who I married," Dalton argued, "and Father said Madeleine’s reputation had been compromised. That she would be an asset to my doctor's practice, and for helping me raise funds for all the charitable works I wish to engage in." He began to pace up and down in front of her as she stood by the children's cots.
"There has never been anything between she and I except a coldly calculated business arrangement on the part of our two fathers, I swear it by all I hold sacred.
"I know what it looks like, Emer but you have no idea the torment I’ve gone through, missing you, wanting you,” Dalton declared, lowering his voice further to a seductive whisper.
Emer indeed had a very good idea of the pain he had experienced, if it was anything near as severe as her own anguish ever since they had separated on the Pegasus.
But she had given her word to the Bishop, and couldn’t afford to give way to her feelings at the expense of the children in her care.
She picked up one of the infants to feed it, and observed in what she hoped sounded like a reasonable tone, “Just think for a moment, though Dalton. What if your running into me had happened just a few days later? You would have already been married. Then you couldn’t simply have told Madeleine it was all a mistake, and come back to me.
"If, as you say Madeleine’s reputation has been compromised, then you must do the right thing by her. She has the prior claim. Please understand, I have a new life now, with duties and responsibilities which we simply cannot share."
She gathered the babe close and put the prepared bottle sitting in a pan of warm water in its mouth. "I have to go now, Dalton. My class is waiting. I wish you well, certainly, but there is nothing more to be said, and you shouldn't come here any more. We both know it’s best if we never see each other again, let alone like this.”
“I can’t understand your attitude, Emer. What is going on here? You’re like a stranger, or someone with something to hide,” Dalton observed as she avoide
d looking into his eyes, and tried to push past him and escape from the suddenly claustrophobic nursery.
“I don’t know what you mean. No, please, stay away from me, stop trying to get around my reason and common sense,” Emer insisted, desperate for him not to touch her again, she was so uncertain of her own response if he dared.
Dalton swung the door shut before she could reach it, and moved his mouth tantalisingly close to her own.
“I want you to look me straight in the eye, and tell me you don’t love me,” he challenged.
Emer blushed and looked down at the ground.
Dalton cupped her chin with his strong fingers, and pleaded, “Look at me. Tell me truth.”
She clutched the child even more tightly to her. “Don’t do this, please. One day you’ll understand this is the best for everyone, and then you’ll thank me,” Emer maintained.
But Dalton’s lips moved even closer. All she had to do was tilt her head, and then….
Then she would have truly been lost.
Emer held the babe tight and ducked out from under his arm, catching him unawares, flung out the door, almost dropping the baby bottle in her headlong flight, and made straight for the safety of her classroom, where she prayed fervently that she wouldn’t see him again.
Dalton pounded the door jamb with his fist as he watched her flee, and resolved that this would not be the last of it.
She needed time. They both did. And she was right, this was not the time or place. He had actually been trying to seduce her in a nursery, for pity's sake.
He took a deep breath and forced himself not to follow her into the classroom. Instead he went to the front door to gather his hat and outerwear.
He had much to do himself if he was going to set up in private practice and take the post at the fever hospital.
Emer was correct about another thing as well. She certainly couldn't come to him right this instant, not when he had made no provision for a wife and family.
He had taken some tentative steps towards this goal due to his impending nuptials. The intentions were good, it was just the bride who was not the right one.
He stepped out onto the porch, and waved to his carriage driver. He would go to town now and see what he could arrange for his beloved Emer and her immediate family.
Then he would tell Madeleine that it was over between them, and wait for Emer to admit once and for all that they were meant for each other.
He only prayed it was soon. They had wasted enough time apart due to his own pride and foolishness, but he had found her again at last, and this time he was determined that nothing would ever separate them again, not even death.
CHAPTER SIX
After Dalton had left, Emer finally felt as though she could breathe again. Dash it all, what was it about the man that set her so completely on fire and made her want to throw all caution to the wind?
If he had kissed her, she knew she would have been lost in that instant.
She almost felt as though he had, for her whole body was trembling with barely suppressed desire, and she could feel her inner thighs moisten with her own torrid passion, her secret feminine core clenching with the most aching need.
She took a deep breath to steady herself. That way lay madness. She was a responsible teacher, who had to do the best for the charges in her care now. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted by Dalton, no matter how rosy he kept trying to paint a supposed future for them.
After all he had done, even if she were prepared to forgive and trust him, the pile of corpses of her family and friends stood between them, an effective barrier to them ever being together again which she would do well to remember the next time Dalton tried to entice her romantically.
Fortunately, finishing feeding the baby, and then teaching the children, who were very eager participants in the day's lesson, made the time fly by once she put Dalton's visit out of her mind.
Then it was time for supper, and evening Bible reading, and soon after, Myrtle arrived to help her get ready for their evening engagement on behalf of the orphanage.
Emer's heated cheeks gave her a glowing appearance which her friend noted, but did not comment upon lest the auburn-haired beauty grow self-conscious and refuse to accompany her. She could see her nerves were tightly strung, and half-expected her to balk at the invitation.
So Myrtle kept their conversation confined to all the good the Hearsts could do for the children in Emer's care, and congratulated herself when she finally got the younger woman into the carriage and safely across the river heading towards the Hearsts' splendid townhouse.
Emer felt composed enough to face even Dalton after Myrtle's enthusiastic conversation about the many potential prospects the children might have if all went well that evening.
She had no way of knowing that the mysterious invitation to the Hearsts’ soiree that evening had been at Madeleine Lyndon’s instigation.
Madeleine’s sharp brown eyes had taken in Dalton’s odd behaviour at the cathedral on Sunday morning, and the ebony-haired beauty's soul had simmered with jealousy at the thought of him having been involved with the delicately lovely red-headed Irishwoman whom every one said had to be none other than the mysterious Mrs. Dillon, who had fascinated most of the male hearts in town with her gorgeous looks and even more remarkable compassion and intelligent conversation.
Madeleine had therefore persuaded the Hearsts to invite Mrs. Dillon under the pretext of supporting her charitable efforts so that she could see for herself how Emer and Dalton behaved together. Then she could determine whether she could somehow stave off the threat that the gorgeous widow seemed to present to her future happiness.
Madeleine was nothing if not tenacious in her quest to marry Dalton on Thursday, even if it meant she had to use every trick in her extensive repertoire to do so.
Madeleine dressed with extreme care in a tight blue gown which accentuated her curves, and was daringly low in the shoulders and bosom. She put on an exquisite sapphire necklace with matching ear bobs and bracelets, and gathered up her elegant blue and black lace reticule and lace fan.
She congratulated herself that she was thin and graceful, not a waddling duck like Emer in her present condition.
When Dalton came to fetch her that evening, she was especially affectionate and fulsome in her praise for anything to do with the fever hospital, which she remarked to herself wearily he did nothing but talk about incessantly.
Dalton had been surprise at Madeleine's warm attitude and conversation, so much so that he had not seen any sort of opening to break off their engagement.
He decided not to distress her and put them in danger of causing comment by not turning up at the Hearsts, or worse still, her going when she was upset.
So he swallowed his carefully reheased speech, and fetched her sapphire silk evening cloak instead.
The couple were chatting in a corner quietly when Emer and Myrtle arrived. Madeleine cleverly waited until Emer was fully in the room before giggling flirtatiously, and then stretched up to kiss Dalton passionately.
Emer’s eyes widened, and she felt her throat constrict.
Dalton’s head eventually raised when Madeleine had stopped pulling him down with all her strength by the lapels of his jacket, but by then the damage had already been done.
He glanced around in embarrassment to see who had witnessed Madeleine’s immodest display, and looked straight into the huge aqua eyes of Emer as she stood frozen to the spot.
Dalton hastily stepped away from Madeleine as though he had been burnt, and tried to go over to Emer.
But Myrtle, who had seen the whole thing, as well as Madeleine’s triumphant grin as she sized up Emer, took her friend firmly by the arm and practically dragged her towards Mr. and Mrs. Hearst to introduce her formally.
Despite the strain of the past twenty-four hours, and Emer’s general tiredness from her pregnancy, she looked radiant that night, clad in a black lace gown with a high ruff at the neck which set off her unusual ha
ir to perfection.
It was piled loftily on her head, and secured with two large bows on either side. She wore no jewellery, but her beauty was such that she didn’t need expensive trinkets to catch anyone’s attention.
Madeleine Lyndon fumed as her small moment of victory against Emer was erased by the sight of all the men in the room making a beeline towards Emer to be introduced now that she was no longer shyly staying in the corner.
Just who was this wealthy women, whom everyone said was a recent arrival from Ireland. And more importantly, how did Dalton know her?
Madeleine had never had a social rival before, but she decided that if she couldn’t match this woman for beauty, she would put her down with her wit and brilliance.
The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) Page 4
