Emily took a deep breath. “James offered to buy me?”
“Do not speak of it like that. Captain Winchester is your friend, and it is a lot of money he is offering to help out. You should be thankful,” Lady Daventry said as she eyed her daughter disapprovingly.
Emily ducked her head and murmured, “I am sorry, Mother. I am thankful for Captain Winchester’s offer. I just wish he had made it directly to me.”
“Perhaps he would have if you had been a bit more open to his words when he talked to you of marriage before,” Lady Daventry said as she smoothed her skirts. “I wanted to let you know that the offer had been received. I thought it only fair. If you wish to speak to Captain Winchester directly, then the time to do so would be now as he is waiting downstairs.”
“He’s waiting downstairs?” Emily asked. Her head whirled, and she felt like she could not breathe. This was all happening so fast.
Lady Daventry nodded. “He wanted to speak with you after he was done talking with your father. I thought it best that I give you a bit a warning as to what was happening.”
Emily closed her eyes. “Thank you for that,” she said in earnest. She knew that this was not really in her mother’s hands any more than it was in her own. If her father chose to accept the offer, then Emily was merely a parcel in that. “I know that this isn’t what you wanted for me, Mother. For your and Father’s sake, I will hear what James has to say.”
Her mother gave her a warm smile. The woman came over to Emily and wrapped her in her arms much as she had done when Emily was a child. “Worry not,” Lady Daventry whispered. “Things will work out.”
***
Downstairs in the sunroom, James stood up when Emily entered. She saw the way he looked at her, and there was anxiousness in the man. Emily put on a smile. “You wanted to speak with me?”
“Yes,” James said as he gestured to a sofa behind him. When Emily made no move to sit down, James continued, “I know your father has been in dire straits as of late, and I thought that I could help all of us by offering to settle some of his debts in return for your hand in marriage.” James looked at Emily and quickly added, “With your permission, of course.”
Emily smoothed her dress as she thought of how to say what she wanted to get across to James. “I am not an object to be traded, James,” Emily said. She eyed the man as he stood watching her with an expression that Emily could not read. “I had no idea Father’s debts had gotten so bad. Parents often hide such things because they think it helps the children. I would have liked to be more prepared for my circumstances.”
“I am sorry, Emily. I should have come to you first with my suggestions, but I did not know if your father would even be amenable to it,” James said as he looked at his boots.
Emily agreed, “You should have.” She cleared her throat. “That being said, your offer is generous, and my family is in dire need.”
There was a hopeful look in James’ eyes when he looked up. “You will consider it then?”
“You know very well James that I never intended to marry anyone after Edward. I know he is not the man that I thought he was, but that is worse. How do I ever trust again?” Emily asked the question as she eyed James intently.
James seemed to be thinking before he said, “Your family needs aid that I can provide. I need a wife to be reputable in society, especially since I am an Earl now. You will stifle in your parents’ home, whereas if you marry me, you could indulge your hand at all the things you love. No one would pressure you to marry any more because you would be married already. We could live as friends and benefit one another by doing so.”
Emily stared at James for a long moment. “You would be willing to do that? To live as friends and be husband and wife in name only?”
“I would do anything for you, Emily,” James said as he looked at her, his eyes pleading. “I can think of no one else on this Earth that I would rather have at my side, friend or wife.”
Emily bit her lip. The offer was a good one, and James was her friend. Emily smiled. “In that case, I do think that your offer is more acceptable,” Emily said to the man. She saw his face light up. “I shall go tell my parents of my decision. Thank you for your generosity, James.”
“The pleasure is mine,” James said. “I get the honour of having you as my wife, so I think I have the better end of the deal.”
Emily laughed. “It’s remarkable how much you have changed and yet are still the same James. I am glad the war did not change you so much, James.”
***
The first few months of marriage for Emily were wonderful ones. James was true to his word. They even had separate bedrooms. They ate together and shared their lives. It was what Emily had hoped for.
“James?” Emily came into the man’s study and found him looking over papers.
James looked up at her. “Yes, my love?”
Emily smiled at the endearment. James often doted on her with sweet words, and Emily did not really mind so much. She loved James in a way, but she could not let anyone be first in her heart but Edward, despite all that Edward had turned into. “I thought that we should host a party for the change of the seasons,” Emily suggested with a hopeful smile.
“That sounds nice,” James said as he looked back down at his papers. “I wanted to bring something up to you now that we have been married three months. I think I have more than kept up my end of the deal, have I not?”
Emily nodded as she eyed the man with a furrowed brow. “Yes, you have,” she agreed.
“As a husband and a wife, we are expected to provide heirs for the family line. I am certain that your mother and father would adore grandchildren. I do not have any family now that my father has died. It is lonely,” James said as he looked up at Emily.
She searched his eyes before she said, “I have thought about that as well. I married you in good faith and before God. One of the things he commands is that we go forth and multiply. I suppose … that it would not be a horrible fate. I have always wanted children.”
“You really mean it?” James asked, and the look on his face reminded Emily of a boy waiting to see what was under the Christmas tree.
Emily nodded, and the man was swiftly over to her. James scooped her up and spun her around as Emily protested. She laughed and clung to the man. Emily smiled up at James, who gave her the first real kiss of their marriage.
Chapter 9
(Three Years Later)
The life of the thieves in Spain was one of famine and of riches. Edward slung a bag of money over his shoulder. It was a good haul, and what was more, he had managed to do it without Pablo killing anyone. Pablo had an itchy finger, and as much as Edward liked the man, he did not like being paired with him.
Pablo came up and spoke in Spanish to Edward who had picked up the language quite well over the past two years while running with the gang. “Si,” Edward said as he headed towards the house where the gang leader would be waiting for their return. “You go see your Rosa,” Edward told Pablo in English. Edward had been teaching Pablo English, and the man had caught onto it fairly well. Pablo bobbed his head and set off across a field to the right, leaving Edward to deliver their bounty.
Edward shook his head. Love made men foolish, but perhaps even Pablo could find some happiness in this hateful world. Edward kicked the door open, and the man inside looked up. There were other men there. They were just getting orders. Cantara waved his hand to dismiss his men, and the gruff looking bunch of thieves set off without a word. One or two of them nodded at Edward, and he nodded back.
“Ah, there you are,” Cantara said in English with his thick accent. The man liked speaking in English and often chose to converse with Edward in the language rather than Spanish.
Cantara was a scarred and rough man. Not many crossed him, and few befriended him. He was not above killing women and children, and he held no particular love for God or the law. Cantara was not a man to be messed with.
Edward looked at the man and put
the bag down gently on the table. “Pablo is off seeing Rosa again. He sends his regards,” Edward said as he slumped down with fatigue in the chair across from the gang leader.
“You still haven’t found a girl that you like?” Cantara asked with a grin as he poured Edward a glass of whatever homemade liquor the man was drinking.
Edward accepted the drink and prepared himself for the taste as he took a gulp of it. Even with the strong alcohol bite, it was nice after the day on the roads. “I told you, I already have a girl,” Edward said with a shrug as if to end the conversation.
Cantara leaned forward, his cheek pushed up on his eye patch just a bit as he grinned broadly. “Yes. I think she must be Mother Mary because she is not to be seen.”
“She is real,” Edward assured the man. “My girl is in England.”
Cantara propped his chin up on one of his hands. The man’s blue shirt was quite wrinkled, and Edward wondered if the dark spots on the front were blood. “So you keep saying. Emily? Correct?”
“Yes, Emily,” Edward said in a voice just above a whisper.
Cantara beseeched. “Tell me about this Emily of yours. I wish to better understand what makes this gringo before me such a ruthless bastard, yet so shy as to try and reform Pablo.”
Edward tapped the table. His mind thought back to Emily. He dwelled on her often. “Emily and I had always known each other. We grew up on estates that were very near to one another, and our families were close.”
“Ah, so you came together because of convenience,” Cantara said as if he had cracked a code.
Edward chuckled. “Not at all,” Edward said causing Cantara to give him a frown.
“What then?” Cantara demanded.
Edward took a deep breath. “She was just a girl that lived nearby. She played with me and my friends. It wasn’t until we were about ten that I saw her as she was.” Edward looked at Cantara and explained. “Emily is very iron-willed. She gets it from her mother. She wants to be like her mother very much, but one day she got so angry that she shoved me into a stream. I do not even recall the argument. I am sure it was some silly childish thing.” Edward nodded and continued, “That’s when I saw Emily. She is all fire and vigour. She will not stand for a wrong to be committed.”
“So you fell in love with her because she shoved you into a stream?” Cantarra laughed and slapped the table. “I knew a girl like that in Catalina.”
Edward shook his head and stood up. “I need to go rest,” he said.
“Why don’t you go to her?” Cantara asked.
Edward looked over at the gang leader. He lifted his shoulders in a helpless gesture. “I simply cannot,” Edward said before he left the house.
***
Edward was just tying his horse near the trough when Cantara appeared around the corner of the building. “Edward,” he called. Edward waited for the man to reach him. Cantara chuckled. “You have not finished telling me about your love,” he said as he slapped Edward on the back.
“What more is there to tell?” Edward asked in amusement. The Spanish gang leader was an imposing man, and Edward found it ridiculous that he would be this interested in some sad story from an Englishman.
Cantara guided Edward towards the house. “Come. Indulge me.”
Edward knew that he had no choice but to do so, and he sighed as he did as he was asked. Inside, Cantara offered Edward a glass of whatever he was drinking, but Edward declined politely. Cantara then looked at Edward and said, “Let me tell you a story that I have told very few and I would not appreciate having spread around.” Cantara gave Edward a meaningful look.
Edward nodded. “Your secret is safe with me,” he said to put the easily-agitated man at ease.
Cantara shook his finger at Edward. “That’s why I like you,” Cantara said. “When you give your word, I believe it. Those other scoundrels out there would like to cut my throat in my sleep if they thought they could.” Cantara tapped the table. “Not you, though. You don’t care for all of this.” Cantara waved at the house, and Edward knew that he meant their thieving lifestyle. “Yet you stay here.”
Edward did not know really what to say. There was nothing to say. He simply had nowhere else to go. He watched Cantara, and Cantara watched him back.
Cantara continued, “My story is this, Edward. I was married once. I built this house for her.” Cantara looked around at the house with affection but also sadness. “She died in childbirth. I swore that I would never love another. And as it turned out, I was right.”
“I feel I do not understand,” Edward said in a quiet voice. “Is that why you went to thieving?”
Cantara laughed. “No,” he said as he guffawed. “I went to thieving because the rich sit on their pampered bottoms while the rest of us die.”
Edward looked down at his hands. “So, you never loved again,” Edward said.
“No woman could hold a candle to my Teresa,” Cantara said with a shrug. “She gave her life trying to bring our son into the world, and I think it is fitting that I am alone. She deserves my devotion.”
Edward nodded slowly. “I am sorry that she died. To lose both your wife and child must have been a terrible blow.”
“Yes,” Cantara said. The man cleared his throat. “That is why you interest me so. You do not chase after love like these fools around me. You hold it as sacred as a man should. I wish very much to help you reclaim this Emily.”
Edward shook his head. “I can never go back. The minute I step foot in England as the son of the Duke of Danborough, I might as well tie the noose myself.”
There was a long pause as they both sat at the table lost in thought before Cantara said, “Do not go back as yourself.”
Edward’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You can’t look much like the young man that left. Reinvent yourself as someone else then go back and find your Emily,” Cantara said as he thumped the table with his fists.
Edward frowned. The shock of the beating and stress on his body had been so that his hair had turned grey, this was true. His skin was weathered from his five years living in exile among the thieves in Cantara’s gang. Edward reached up and touched the scar on his face. “I rarely look at myself these days because the man in the reflections is not myself,” Edward whispered. “Do you think it possible that I could return home?”
“Maybe even clear your name, as that seems important to you,” Cantara said with a shrug.
Edward shook his head. “No, I have no means to support myself.”
“You are a thief by trade now,” Cantara reminded Edward. “And I have been told that you have a certain affinity for playing cards. Those two things can take you far if you use them wisely.”
Edward considered what the man said. His words had merit. If Edward could build himself a new identity, then he could return home. Even if he could not go as himself, he could make sure that Emily was well and perhaps see his father again. “You are sure that you can teach me to play cards well enough to get myself home?”
“As long as you are willing to learn, then yes,” Cantara said confidently. The man’s mouth quirked up into a one-sided smile that made him look every inch the calculating crook that he was. “You could probably afford a nice life with the way the rich like to throw their money around.”
Edward hesitated and asked, “What is in it for you?”
Cantara pursed out his lips and said, “Nothing except the knowledge that perhaps you will not have to live a life without your lady like I have mine.” Cantara chuckled. “Besides, anything that involves lightening the purses of our betters is fine by me.”
***
The Revenge of the Betrayed Duke: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 11
