“But, Lucien,” Henry began, “I am to blame. You said yourself that I had to take responsibility.”
“And you are,” Lucien said. “This is you taking responsibility right now. However, going back and forth on who is to blame won’t help us now. We’re in the situation we are in, and the only thing we can do is move forward and figure out how to fix it.”
“He has a plan to try and pass off to thetonthat he and I are madly in love and that you selflessly ran away so that we could be together,” Emery said, raising her eyebrows.
“Really?” Henry laughed, turning to Lucien. “And you think people will believe that you are in love with Emery? No offense, Emery, but you aren’t exactly the kind of woman I would envision my brother with.”
“No offense taken,” she said so sincerely that Lucien felt himself prickle with defensiveness.I’m not that bad! Am I?“Hence the etiquette lessons,” she continued. “He’s trying to make me into someone people will actually believe captured his heart.”
“I see.” Henry shook his head. “Well, I suppose that might work.”
“The worst of the scandal was already avoided thanks to my quick thinking,” Lucien reminded them. “By marrying Emery, I ensured that we were not completely ruined. However, if we are to convince thetonthat nothing untoward took place--that, for instance, I didn’t steal Emery away from my brother and then banish him--”
Emery interrupted him by bursting out laughing. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. “I’m just trying to imagine you, the least romantic person I’ve ever met, stealing me away from Henry and then banishing him.”
Henry was smiling now as well, and Lucien folded his arms across his chest. “Are you two quite done?” he asked in a sour voice.
“Y-yes,” Emery stuttered, as she forced herself to stop laughing, coughing and wiping her eyes. “Sorry.”
“As I was saying,” Lucien continued in an imperious tone of voice, “we must present a unified front. It’s good you’ve returned, Henry, because by accompanying us to London, we can prove that everything is above board in our family and that there is nothing scandalous afoot. However, once we arrive, we must be very, very careful not to court any more scandal. All of the eyes of thetonwill be upon us, and we cannot make one wrong move. For Leah. And for both our families.”
Both of them nodded, and Lucien was pleased to see that they both looked deadly serious.
“And perhaps,” he added, after a moment of contemplation, “if we play our cards right, we can even turn the current attention on us into something productive.”
“In fact,” Henry said slowly, “I have an idea how I can help.”
Chapter Twelve
“So, this is where you live now,” Georgina said, looking around the sitting room, her eyes wide. “And where you grew up.” She glanced at Henry, who was sitting opposite Emery and Georgina on the sofa, setting out the pieces to the board game that Emery had picked out for them to play that afternoon, as a sort of going-away party for Henry, who would be leaving for London in two days’ time.
“Yes, this is where I grew up,” Henry said, glancing up to smile at Georgina. “It’s not as big and intimidating as it seems.”
“Really?” Georgina didn’t look convinced. “It’s a castle! Not just a manor house, but a castle.”
Henry laughed. “Yes, I suppose it is. But growing up with a brother and three sisters, it was always so loud, messy with children's toys, and full of laughter and games that it never really felt much like a castle. It was quite cozy, actually. I’ve been tocastles since--especially during my tour-that felt drafty and old. But ours never felt that way.”
“It will feel more that way once all your sisters have left to be married,” Emery said gloomily, looking over to where the three girls sat in the corner, talking and laughing with one another. They had said they’d like to join in the boardgame, but Emery was glad to have a private moment with her best friends beforehand.
“I’m sure by then that you will have children of your own,” Henry said, smiling kindly at her. She stared back at him in surprise, and he flushed and looked down, as if realizing just how uncomfortable a subject this was for him to bring up to her. “That is… if you and Lucien decide… you’d be a great mother!”
Emery looked sideways and met Georgina’s eyes, which were wide.This is very awkward,she seemed to be saying, and Emery had to agree, but for more reasons than Georgina and Henry realized.
“Mmm,” she said, a noncommittal noise if there ever was one, while Henry returned to setting up the board for their game. Georgina made some stab at conversation with Henry, to change the subject, and Emery let her mind wander to her husband.
She had not told anyone, of course, what the Duke had said to her about not wanting to have children or live together properly as man and wife. Nor had she mentioned her rather confrontational remarks that she would refuse him anyway.
It was not a subject that a lady could bring up with her friends--even a lady as untraditional as Emery. Anyway, even if she could have spoken to Georgina about it, Emery wouldn’t have known what to say.
So far, she had been trying not to think about it and distract herself with planning out her sisters-in-law’s futures. Whenever she let her mind linger too long on the state of her marriage, she felt as if she were being slowly buried under a large blanket of snow. It was not a good feeling.
However, her feelings toward her husband were not as negative as they had been when she’d first arrived in the house. They had now been living together for almost three weeks--although the first week he’d been in Cornwall--and she had been surprised by him on more than one occasion.
His generousness with Henry, for instance, had been a pleasant surprise. She had expected the Duke to hold a grudge and blame him for what had happened. And while he’d held him responsible, he hadn’t doubled down and become hostile. Instead, he’d encouraged them all not to linger on whose fault it was and instead to work together to protect their family.
That was impressive, she thought to herself.It showed a real magnanimous spirit and loyalty to his family.
Henry, too, had impressed her. His idea to help save the family’s reputation was to head to London a week before the rest of them and begin to spread the rumors that the Duke and Emeryhad fallen in love and were willing to dutifully sacrifice their happiness for the sake of their family.
