Ashley considered his reply. He had not quite made up his mind to have a confrontation. But he supposed it was inevitable.
“Yes,” he said.
Sir Henry was silent for a while, apparently expecting an explanation. “Might I be permitted to know why?” he asked at last.
“Lady Emily Marlowe, despite her age, is innocent in the ways of the world,” Ashley said. “And she has no voice with which to draw attention to herself.”
The amiable face of his neighbor tightened with noticeable anger, though he kept it well under control. His right hand, though, Ashley noticed, moved and came to rest on the hilt of his dress sword.
“I find that explanation insulting,” he said. “I must remember, however, that you stand somewhat in the nature of a brother to Lady Emily and that her affliction has perhaps made her family overprotective of her. I am a gentleman, Kendrick. In future, if I seek out the company of the lady, with her chaperon’s permission, and if the lady herself chooses to accept my company, I would expect you to refrain from appointing yourself her watchdog.”
So he was going to start paying court to Emmy. Probably deliberately so, now that he knew his attentions would annoy the man who had married Alice.
“I know about you,” Ashley said quietly.
Sir Henry stood motionless. His hand was still on the hilt of his sword, though he did not grip it.
“Did you think my wife would have told me nothing?” Ashley said. In fact, she had told him almost nothing, but Verney did not need to know that. He knew all that was essential to know. Verney had to understand his fears for Emmy. “She told me everything.”
Sir Henry said nothing for a long time, though his hand fell away from his sword. “Ah,” he said at last. “I wondered, of course. You must have loved her very dearly. You do not wish to see Lady Emily acquainted with someone who was involved with that ugliness. I believe I can understand that. But I will say nothing, you know, to sully Alice’s name. I never have and I never will. I am glad you know, though. I would always have wondered and would always have felt somewhat awkward in your company.”
Somewhat awkward?But he would not feel it now? “Zounds!” Ashley came up to a full standing position from the fountain wall against which he had been half reclined. His hand clapped on to the hilt of his own sword. “You will say nothing to sully her name?Youwill say nothing, sir?”
In another moment he would have scraped his sword free of its scabbard. In another moment Sir Henry Verney would have done likewise, his hand having returned to his sword hilt. But someone laughed not far off, someone who was strolling along one of the paths with a companion. And Ashley, facing toward the house and the ballroom, became aware of his surroundings again—and of the fact that Emily was standing at the foot of the steps to the veranda.
“If you wish to meet me,” Sir Henry said, letting his hand drop to his side once more, “perhaps we should go through the proper channels, Kendrick. I see no reason for a meeting, but I will not cry off if you wish to make a formal challenge.”
“No,” Ashley said, concentrating on letting the tension flow out of his body. “No, ’twould be ridiculous. The events to which we refer happened long before I met Alice. But I would make it clear that I will protect Lady Emily Marlowe’s honor with my life, if necessary.”
Sir Henry made him a half bow. “I abhor violence,” he said. “I choose to read no personal insult into those last words. Lady Emily’s honor is perfectly safe with me. But I see now that I misunderstood the true nature of your concern for the lady. Good evening, Kendrick.”
He turned and strode away in the direction of the ballroom. Emily, Ashley saw, was no longer standing at the bottom of the steps. She had moved to one side and was hidden to Verney’s view behind a tree. She stood where she was after he had disappeared into the ballroom.
Like Verney, she had come out to talk with him, Ashley realized. And talk she would, with her hands and with those eyes of hers. He was not sure he was equal to looking into them.
I see now that I have misunderstood the true nature of your concern for the lady.
He walked toward her.
17
SHEhad not seen Sir Henry Verney go back outside. But she had not seen Ashley come inside either, and she wondered what he was doing in the garden, why he had gone there, why he had been alone. She shook off her followers by smiling at Lady Sterne and making her way pointedly toward the ladies’ withdrawing room. But she did not go there. She went out onto the veranda instead and down the steps into the garden.
And she found that he was still at the fountain, talking with Sir Henry. Quarreling with him. She was not close enough to read lips, but she could see Ashley’s face and she did not fail to notice how his hand went to his sword. For one heart-stopping moment she expected to see him draw it. She instinctively hid herself a few moments later when Sir Henry came striding along the path toward the steps.
But Ashley had seen her. He came toward her, a curious half smile on his lips.
“Come, Emmy,” he said when he was close enough for her to read his signing hands. “Walk with me.” And he took her hand and drew it through his arm and held it firmly against his side.
She would not look at him while they walked. Had they been quarreling overher? But why? For once she wished desperately for speech. At one side of the garden there was a small rose arbor, separated from the rest of the garden by a trellis over which the plants had been trained. There was a wrought-iron seat inside and lanterns hanging from the trellises. There was no one else there. He led her inside and indicated the seat. She sat down and he took the place beside her. She turned to look at him.
“Emmy.” He took one of her hands between both of his. “You came out here to scold me, as he did? For acting as a watchdog? I ask your pardon. I remember, you see, how someone took advantage of your innocence just a month ago when you were out of doors alone with him. I feared for you.”
She snatched her hand away and stared at him incredulously. He made it seem—sordid,what had happened between them. And how dared he suggest...
He reached for her hand again and held it tightly while he closed his eyes and dropped his head.
“I feared for you,” he said again when he lifted his head. She could see torment in his eyes. “Emmy, stay away from him. Anyone but him. Stay away from him—for my sake?”
