You fool!She thought when she saw the darkening of his gaze once more.
She had had him right where she wanted him. Or was it he who had her right where he wanted her? She couldn't be sure. Either way, she had messed it all up.
“If you wish to see your family safe and your father's debts settled, Lady Moreau,” the lord said, his voice becoming all the more threatening, “You will be mine.”
Chapter 8
“But you can't!” Jane protested though Emmaline was already in the middle of packing her trunk.
“I have to,” Emmaline said, holding back tears. There was no method to her packing, she simply wished to get it over with quickly. Tomorrow, she would be married. Tonight, she did not wish for a fuss. Her sister being overly dramatic was not how she wished to remember her last night at home.
“What will you tell your father? What will mama say?” Jane continued, pacing up and down by the side of the bed.
Emmaline paused in her packing and turned to her sister. “Jane, come here.”
She held out her hands. Reluctantly, her sister came to her, and she held both of her hands, squeezing reassuringly.
“You don't have to do this,” Jane whimpered, but Emmaline shook her head.
“My mind is made up,” she assured her. Reaching up with one hand, she cupped her sister's cheek. “I am to do what is right. This is my mess. I must fix it. Anyway, your mother always wanted to see me wed to someone rich and powerful andThe Devil Lordis most certainly both of those things.”
Emmaline cringed remembering her encounter with the man. He had been cruel yet charming, commanding yet gentlemanly, aggressive and yet somehow…
She didn't have the words to describe him.
“There must be some other way,” Jane said as tears glistened in her eyes. “This can't be what you want for your life.”
“This isn't about what I want,” Emmaline said. Her heart felt as if it were breaking. In a matter of hours she would be ripped from her family, from all she held dear, to marry a man she had no idea about save for the fact that every businessman and gentleman in the country feared him. “My future was never really my own anyway. I was bound to be married off sometime.”
“Not like this!’ Jane cried. Emmaline couldn't take it anymore. Jane was the first family member she had told. She felt she would be the hardest but even so, it was a totally different thing to experience. Having been close to her stepsister all of her life, it had been far easier to speak the words than she imagined but the consequential aftermath with everybody else was as difficult as she believed it would be.
Unable to bring herself to argue anymore, Emmaline pulled her sister in close, hugging her tightly. “Please, don't worry for me. I am sure all will work out just as it is supposed to in the end. Maybe it was supposed to play out like this.”
She told herself that because it was all she had left to calm herself with. She had to believe that fate worked in mysterious ways.
Jane held her so tightly in return that she thought she might be stuck there forever. But eventually her sister's grip eased enough for her to pull away. “Would you mind finishing my packing for me while I go and say goodbye to papa?”
She gulped. She hadn't braved seeing him since he had collapsed though she was assured by his doctor that he was in a stable, if somewhat delicate, condition.
“Are you certain you don't want me to come with you?” Jane asked and Emmaline shook her head.
“This is something I have to do alone.”
And so she did. Leaving Jane to pack the things she had piled onto her bed, she headed down the hall to her father's chambers where a footman was standing guard outside.
“My Lady,” the man said with a bow of his head as she approached.
Emmaline dipped her head in acknowledgement and asked, “How is he?”
The man who couldn't have been more than a year or two older than her, dipped his gaze and said, “Unchanged, My Lady.”
Emmaline sucked in a breath to prepare herself for what lay on the other side of the door.
“Is my stepmother with him?” Emmaline asked. The man dipped his head again. That was just what Emmaline needed. At least she could get it out of the way quickly.
Taking one final, deep gulp, she entered the room with a gentle knock.
“Come in!” her stepmother called. Then when she saw her, she added, “Oh, it's you.”
