She started awake, bolting straight up and gazing disorientedly about the room. Finally, her eyes fixed on his face. “Colin,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. I made a hash of everything.”
“Nonsense,” he replied. “Everything has been settled quite satisfactorily. Orsino is on his way out of England, and he will not be allowed back. He is also very, very clear on what will happen to him if he attempts to threaten you again.” His expression was grim. “Utterly clear,” he repeated.
“That is all very well, but—”
“Also…” He paused.
“What?” cried Emma, acutely sensitive to the change in his tone.
“Well, there is something else. I have done something you may not like.”
“What?” repeated Emma, bewildered.
He met her eyes. “I sent Ferik with the count.”
“Sent Ferik.” Emma blinked, confused.
“He will make absolutely certain Orsino is gone, and then… he will continue on to Constantinople.”
“Ferik is gone?” Momentarily, she felt bereft.
Colin nodded. “He was somewhat reluctant, but I, er, painted a vivid picture of the advantages of setting up as an innkeeper in his own country. And I gave him a sum of money that should allow him to do so in grand style.” When Emma didn’t respond, he added quickly, “The idea seemed to please him. And he sent you his profoundest respect and effusive farewells and thanks.”
“He will be able to have his wife with the big dowry and nice firm bottom,” murmured Emma.
“I beg your pardon?”
“He will love having his own establishment,” she added. “I will miss him, but it is perfect. He wasn’t happy here in England. I’ve been worried about him and trying to think what to do.”
Colin let out a breath. “Good. Then all’s well.”
Emma sat up straighter. “How can you say so? By tomorrow, everyone will be talking about the fight at the masquerade, making up wild tales, whispering and laughing behind your back. It will be a scandal worse than any—”
With a brusque gesture, as if this was a matter of no importance, he silenced her. “Why didn’t you tell me when you were in trouble?” he asked. “Did you imagine I wouldn’t help you?”
Emma turned her head away, staring at the dying fire. “No,” she said finally. “I knew you would help. That was the trouble.”
“The trouble?” He frowned at her.
She twisted her hands together. “You wanted a quiet life, after the war. You told me that. You didn’t want a wife who would plague you and cause uproars. But these… things kept happening. Gossip about me, and then Lady Mary’s silly dramatics.”
“Those don’t—”
“We were getting through those all right,” Emma acknowledged. “But then Orsino threatened to lie about me, and I thought it would be too much.”
“Emma.”
“People listen to him! I have seen them. He can be very convincing. He ruined a number of people with his stories about them. I was so afraid…” She caught a gasping breath. “I was so afraid he would cause a scandal greater than you could tolerate. And that I would lose you forever.”
Gently, he pulled her to face him again.
“And I couldn’t bear that idea,” finished Emma forlornly, her eyes on the carpet.
“Couldn’t you?” asked Colin in an odd voice. “Why not?”
“Because,” she choked. “Because…” She bit her bottom lip. Colin wasn’t angry about the fresh scandal, she thought. He seemed ready to return to their secure, comfortable arrangement. She had everything she needed. It was ridiculous—childish—to wish for more, for passionate declarations of love from her husband. Remember what your circumstances were just a year ago, she admonished herself sternly. But it didn’t help. “Because I love you,” she burst out. “I’ve fallen in love with you, and I don’t think I could go on without you.”
A dizzying heat swept through Colin, expanding in his chest with something akin to pain, and yet joyous. Her words seemed to ring in his ears. He should tell her, he thought. He knew how much it meant to hear those words. But even now, it was damnably difficult.
He cleared his throat. “Emma?”
She seemed to sense something. She gazed at him, her eyes midnight blue pools. Candlelight gleamed on the rose and ivory of her skin, glinted in her tumbled hair.
“I… I didn’t want to love you,” Colin managed at last. “I wanted a safe bargain. I thought that would guarantee that everything could not be swept away again, that it would prevent the kind of pain I felt throughout the war. If I did not love, I could not be hurt, you see. I could not lose what I loved, yet again.”
Silent, Emma watched him.
“But I couldn’t hold that wall,” he added. “Day by day, you breached every defense I had. And even though I fought, and tried not to reveal things to you, I fell in love with you all the same.” A muscle twitched beside his mouth.
“You love me?” said Emma wonderingly.
He braced himself. “I love you,” he said clearly.
She caught her breath on a sob. “You will never lose me,” she promised.
“How can you know?” he answered, his voice like a cry.
“I know!” she responded fiercely.
He caught her to him and held her, feeling her heart beat against his chest, her arms lace around his neck. Time seem to hang suspended as he pulled her yet closer, as if he could merge them into one inseparable being.
“Haven’t I said I would come back to haunt you if you tried to get rid of me?” Emma whispered in his ear.
Colin couldn’t tell if he was groaning or laughing when he lowered his head to kiss her.
***
“You aren’t to worry about any fresh scandal,” he assured her a long while later. “I will see to it that your position in society is not affected.”
“I care nothing about that,” replied Emma. “I wish we could live in Cornwall and forget London entirely. But I know you would miss your friends, so you must not worry that—”
“I only left Cornwall because I wanted to be sure you were accorded your proper position as my wife,” he protested. “I thought that after the years you spent abroad, you would want that more than anything.”
Emma stared at him. “You wanted to stay in Cornwall?”
“I wished it had been possible,” he agreed.
“You left because of me?”
Colin nodded.
“But I left because of you!”
He raised his dark eyebrows.
“I thought you wanted to be here, among society. You had not been down to Cornwall for so long. I thought you didn’t want to live there, I thought you wanted to be Baron St. Mawr, admired and respected. I—”
“I don’t care a snap of my fingers for that,” he interrupted.
“But why didn’t you say so?” she wailed.
He began to laugh. “And why didn’t you?”
“All this time here, and these silly parties, when we might have been with the sea and the cliffs.”
“A situation easily mended,” he pointed out.
“You mean…?”
He shrugged. “We will close the house and leave as soon as possible.”
Emma hesitated. “But everyone will say we are fleeing the scandal about Orsino.”
“Let them,” he responded.
“Oh, Colin,” Emma threw herself into his arms.
***
It took three weeks to make all the arrangements for the move to Cornwall. They had to placate Colin’s mother, say their good-byes to friends, and purchase all the things that Emma wanted for their country home. It was ample time for the scandal to hit, and each day, Emma waited to hear that they had become the target of gossip and mockery. When she marveled about the delay to Colin, he rai
sed one eyebrow and smiled. “I told one or two of the chief gossips that Orsino and Ferik had been in pursuit of the same young lady, and that I was trying to prevent them from killing each other,” he said.
When she gaped at him, he added, “I said she was a milliner’s apprentice, who has now left the country for America. Nice touch, don’t you think? I believe I am getting rather good at this sort of thing.”
“Colin!” exclaimed Emma.
“Leaving no one to ask but me,” he pointed out. “And alas, I know no more about the matter.”
“How could you?” she asked, holding back laughter.
He shrugged. “It seemed the best solution. The story cannot harm Ferik, and I care nothing for Orsino’s reputation, though this could hardly stain it after the things he has done. I had the help of some powerful people interested in silencing the story.”
“Your mother?” said Emma.
He smiled. “Yes. And even more, the Morlands.”
“Lady Mary!”
“Her family does not want it known that she attended a masquerade, and with a man who has since been deported as an undesirable.”
“So it will be all right?” marveled Emma.
“It appears likely.” He smiled down at her. “We are free to stay in London if we like.”
Emma was stricken. “But you said you wanted to…” Seeing his expression, she hit him lightly on the shoulder. “Colin, don’t tease me that way!”
“I can never resist the temptation,” he laughed.
***
On the night before they were to leave, Emma lay nestled in her husband’s arms, feeling completely happy and at peace. “I have some news for you,” she said.
“You have spent the last remnants of my fortune on sofas and drapery material,” he guessed.
“No.”
“Then it must be carpets and china.”
“Colin!”
“Yes, my love?”
“I am serious.”
“I beg your pardon. What is this portentous news?”
Emma took a breath. “I wanted to tell you that one important part of our bargain is fulfilled,” she said.
“Our bargain?”
“Our marriage bargain,” added Emma.
“As far as I am concerned, it is much more than fulfilled. I got more than I ever hoped for.”
“But there was one thing you particularly wanted,” she reminded him.
“You,” he said, drawing her closer and kissing her creamy shoulder.
“No.”
“There is nothing else I…” He stopped, then rose on one elbow to gaze at her face.
“I am with child,” said Emma happily.
He blinked, speechless.
“I wasn’t sure until the last few days. But now it is certain. The baby will be born in the spring.”
Very gently, Colin moved his hand to rest on her body.
“Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” teased Emma. “You do remember you wanted an heir?”
He blinked again, and Emma saw that he was fighting back tears. Finally he spoke. “What a good bargain I made all those weeks ago.”
“You made a bargain,” she teased. “I risked everything on a wager.”
“And…?”
“And won,” Emma said, smiling at him with love in her eyes.
About the Author
Jane Ashford discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school and was captivated by the glittering world and witty language of Regency England. That delight was part of what led her to study English literature and travel widely in Britain and Europe. She has written historical and contemporary romances, and her books have been published in Sweden, Italy, England, Denmark, France, Russia, Latvia, and Spain, as well as the U.S. Jane has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award by RT Book Reviews. Born in Ohio, Jane now divides her time between Boston and LA.
The Marriage Wager Page 37
