The countess did very little to hide the disdain from her tone.
“Can I speak with you both?” Emmaline asked, standing a little sheepishly in the doorway.
Her mama cocked a brow and said, “You may speak with me. As you can see, your father is in no fit state to be doing any speaking.”
Emmaline only then looked at her father. He appeared a shell of the man he had once been, his skin wrinkled and withered. It seemed to hang off his bones as if he were simply wasting away. How he had gone so downhill since she had seen him that morning, she didn't know.
“The doctor told me when I returned that he had given him something for any pain,” Emmaline said, approaching slowly. “But that he may still be able to hear me even if he does not respond. Is that true?”
Her mama nodded. “If you have come to apologize. Do not bother. It shall do no good now. The damage is done.”
Her words were like a knife to Emmaline's heart. She had never been overly affectionate to Emmaline but she had at least been motherly. Now, that appeared to be gone.
“I… I didn't come to apologize,” Emmaline said and that only seemed to anger her mama more. Before she could say anything, Emmaline hurried on. “I came to tell you I have fixed everything.”
Her mama looked stunned, so stunned in fact, she was silent. Emmaline used the moment to take to her father's bed and perch on its edge.
Gently, she took up his cold, claw-like hand and whispered, “Papa, I wish you had told me of the loans you had taken out. I never would have suggested such a risky investment had I known.”
She looked at his face, hoping for some kind of response, maybe even the flicker of an eyelid. There was nothing.
“I will be gone by morning,” she told him gently, squeezing his fingers, hoping he might do the same in return. Again, there was nothing. “I am to be wed, papa. I am to fix everything.”
“I beg your pardon?” her mama exclaimed, leaning forward so fast in her chair that she almost fell right out of it.
Emmaline gulped. Turning to look at her mama, she said, “I have made a deal with the devil.”
***
The time came around all too fast. Soon, Emmaline was escorted once more into the devil's lair.
Yet, it was oddly nothing at all as it had been the previous night.
Though dark still, and lit by those same red lantern candles, the place was almost entirely empty. Save for the masked man who had escorted her in last time—and did so again—the only other people she met were the devil himself and a priest.
When, the evening before, the devil had said they would complete their deal the next day after she'd had time to say farewell to her family, she never anticipated that things would movethisquickly.
Her stomach churned painfully as she entered the bowels of hell once more to find the devil and his priest awaiting her. She remembered all too well the thought she'd had the night before as everyone watched her approach his throne.
That had felt like a wedding. This felt as if she were walking to the executioner's block. It might as well have been the gallows for her throat constricted so painfully that it was as if there were a rope tightening around her neck.
The masked escort guided her to the two men and offered her hand to his master.
Instead of taking it, he dipped his head to the priest, and the supposed man of God, asked, “My Lady, are you here of your own free will?”
No, no! I am most certainly not!She wanted to scream the words at the top of her lungs. Just staring at the man with his black horned red devil mask on, she wondered how she could possibly marry him when she had yet to even see his face.
Instead, she gulped hard past the lump in her throat and said, “I am.”
The priest, clearly satisfied, clearing his throat and opened his book to begin. “We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…”
The priest's words faded into the background as all Emmaline could hear was the pounding of her rapid heartbeat in her ears.
Her mama had been shocked to learn her intentions, but she hadn't tried to stop her. In twenty-four hours, her father had not grown any better nor worse. And her elder brothers had continued to do as they always did. They had buried their heads in the sand and continued to drink and rake and whatever else they chose to do in their spare time, leaving Emmaline the one to fix things.
And so, she forced herself through the ceremony that would change the course of the rest of her life immeasurably.
“Do you Lord Alexander Black…”
