Meg shook her head, just shook it back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. Then she whispered, “Does she know that your attentions are untrue?”
“Of course!” he burst out, lunging to catch her hands. “Please tell me you do not think me so cruel as to do this without her knowledge, to purposefully play her for a fool. Please tell me that you don’t think me even worse than Father, Meg.”
She stared at him a moment and then her expression softened. “Of course not. You could not be so cruel, it is not in you. I suppose I am just…shocked that Emma would go along with something so dishonest.”
James straightened and released her hands. Once again, his hackles were raised in defense of Emma. “She was reluctant,” he said. “But you cannot truly judge her harshly. After all, her life is very different from yours.”
Meg’s face twisted just a little. “Yes, my fate, my future was sealed long ago.”
He wrinkled his brow at the tone of her voice, but tried to remain focused on his defense of Emma. “Yes. You have never had to worry about your future. I made sure of it. Emma has none of those protections. And she’s suffered for them. She would be a fool not to give herself a chance at marrying…well.”
He said the last more slowly, for he found it difficult to form the words somehow. And when he pictured Emma in a marriage, his stomach actually turned.
Which he ignored as Meg let out a long sigh. “I suppose you are right.”
“I am,” he said softly. “If you must be angry with someone about this, please let it be me. Emma is a worthy friend and I would never want to ruin your relationship.”
She bent her head. “You haven’t, James. I am simply…disappointed. I thought you really were beginning to like Emma. I hoped…” She trailed off. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter what I hoped now. I know you will not be turned from a path once you have decided to take it. But I do not approve.”
“That is duly noted,” he said.
Meg turned and looked up to the house. “I should go up and make sure all the arrangements have been properly made for the picnic.”
James nodded, but as she stepped away he called out, “Meg?”
She peered back over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“You won’t…interfere in our plan will you?”
“No,” she said with clear reluctance. “I won’t stop you.”
He relaxed a little at her vow. He knew she would not break it. That wasn’t Meg’s personality. She kept to her promises and always had.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll see you shortly,” she whispered, and walked away.
And though she had agreed to keep his secret, although she had acquiesced and promised not to change her attitude toward Emma, he still felt as though he had done something very wrong.
Something he wondered if he could fix.
Chapter Eleven
Emma stepped out of her chamber to find her mother already in the hallway waiting. And waiting rather impatiently, if her tapping foot was any indication.
“Good afternoon, Mama,” Emma said with as bright a smile as she could manage in the face of her mother’s focused expression. “Are you looking forward to the picnic?”
Mrs. Liston’s eyes lit up in mercenary glee. “Not as much as you should be, Emma, for I have heard a rumor.”
Emma slowly counted to five in her head before she said, “A rumor, Mama?”
Her mother caught her hands and leaned in. “The Duke of Abernathe’s very public and rather physical argument with Sir Archibald, the one that led to Archibald storming away on his horse…it was overyou.”
Emma’s lips parted in disbelief as she stared at her mother. There had been much buzz amongst the guests on the walk back to the house earlier in the day as to what could have caused such a shocking and public confrontation between the men. Emma had been curious, of course, for she had never expected James to act in such a way.
But over her?
“No,” she said slowly. “That cannot be possible.”
