“My sister-in-law is too generous. I made the choice to betray my brother. Fate paid me back by giving me the marriage I deserved, but it’s not enough—not for what I did.” Self-recrimination weighted his words even as he shrugged. “All I have to offer is money. I funneled the funds through the Hilliards because I know my brother’s pride. I didn’t want William to feel obligated to me when it is I who can never right the wrong I did to him.”
Alaric’s guilt, the depth of his remorse, squeezed her heart.
“You have much more to give than money,” she said softly. “And family forgives.”
“Your family, perhaps.” His bleak expression reminded her that he’d been parted from his true kin at an early age. “There’s too much bad blood between William and me. More than just Laura. And before you ask—yes, I’ll tell you about it. Not today, however.”
He’d exposed more to her today than he ever had. Something had changed, deepened between them. Hope bloomed in her for their future.
“Thank you for sharing this with me. I won’t tell anyone,” she promised.
“You don’t despise me, Emma, for betraying my own brother?”
Suddenly, she understood. “Is that why you wouldn’t answer me when I questioned you about the Hilliards earlier? Because you thought I’d despise you?”
At his curt nod, her chest constricted. Did he believe her regard of him so conditional? Then again, she hadn’t exactly been steadfast in their relationship. She cringed, thinking of how she’d first misjudged him, how noncommittal she’d been since.
“I don’t hate you. I couldn’t. I... I care for you, Alaric.”
Goodness, it wasmorethan that. Was she... falling in love with Alaric? He, who’d told her he didn’t want or need her love?
“Then wear my necklace.” His knuckles grazed her cheek, his eyes silvery and intense. “’Tis my gift to you, a token so that you might think of me when we’re not together.”
How could she refuse such a request?
“And you sayI’mstubborn,” she muttered.
“It takes one to know one, pet.”
She debated for a moment—and hit upon the perfect compromise.
Meeting his gaze, she smiled. “I’ll wear the necklace... if you’ll do me a favor in return.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I cannot believe I agreed to this,” Alaric said.
Emma beamed at him. “’Twas a fair bargain, your grace.”
She looked as smug as if she’d haggled with the butcher and secured a prime cut at a steal of a price. Certainly, she seemed to have no qualms whatsoever about being in a third-rate, ramshackle theatre several blocks from Drury Lane. “Actresses” were milling about, and their skimpy robes and painted faces suggested that The Cytherea’s main source of income was not the ribald plays it put on, but the entertainment it offered to male patrons afterward in the “visiting” chambers.
As usual, Emma was too focused upon her goal to take any notice of the impropriety of her being in such a place.What would she do without me to protect her from herself?Alaric wondered wryly. He’d taken the precaution of posting guards around the theatre and greased the palm of the manager to let him and Emma backstage.
“Who should we approach first?” she said.
His lips twitched. Truly, she looked like a child in a confectionary, her eyes wide and shining as she considered all the options.
“You’re the one who wanted to come here and investigate. I thought you had a plan,” he said.
“Of course I do.” She pulled her shoulders back. “Just, um, follow my lead.”
Because he found her determination to help him so damned adorable—and coming in her sweet palms had put him in an indulgent mood—he complied. In her primrose walking dress, she was a blast of sunshine in the windowless space. She meandered between the rickety vanities that served as primping stations for the cast. She stopped at one and, clearing her throat, tapped the shoulder of a ginger-haired actress who sat powdering her face before a cracked looking glass.
The tart eyed Emma in the reflection. “Gor, ’oo are you?”
“My name is Emma Kent,” she began. “I’m looking for an actress who used to work here by the name of Lily White.”
“I don’t know nothin’—which is what I told that other investigator who showed up askin’ questions about Lily earlier this week.” The woman turned her attention back to the powdering.
