Liston’s eyes narrowed. “Hesaid you were circling. Not that you could have any true intentions.”
“He?”
“Sir Archibald,” Liston said with a cool smile.
James took a step closer as his body went cold. Archibald, whom he had sent away not a week before for his nastiness toward Emma. The idea that that viper had run straight to Liston was troubling, indeed, considering what he’d said about their shared gambling habit.
“What do you want here?” James said.
Liston’s smile faltered a little and he folded his arms. “I want to see my wife and my daughter, Your Grace. You see, I have news for them. News they will both wish to hear. And it is not news I have any intention of giving to you. So why don’t you simply get them here?”
Emma looked at her reflection in the mirror as Sally made the last few adjustments on her hairstyle. The maid had been chattering all morning as she did her duties, but Emma had hardly attended. Her thoughts kept going back to James.
As they always seemed to do now.
“But last night was so successful for you, Miss Emma.”
Emma blinked as her attention was brought back to her servant. She frowned. “I assume that means Mama’s maid is telling you whatever my mother said?”
Sally shrugged. “Claudia and I share a room in the servant quarters and she has never been reserved.”
“It is why she and my mother get along so well,” Emma muttered. “Yes, I suppose last night’s ball went well. I danced regularly.”
Sally’s smile was bright. “That must be a relief. You will have some options for a future.”
Emma stared at her reflection again. A relief? No, she didn’t exactly feel relief. Nor happiness in her current circumstances. Sheshould, but that didn’t make it so.
There was a knock on the door, and she sighed as she rose and nodded to Sally to answer. It was her mother on the other side, and she looked far too excited for Emma’s taste.
“Good morning, Mama,” Emma said, moving toward the entryway. “I didn’t expect to see you up so soon.”
Mrs. Liston grinned. “I would not have been, except that you and I have been summoned by Abernathe.”
Emma caught her breath as she stared at her mother. Slowly, she turned and nodded at Sally. “That—that will be all,” she managed to choke out.
Sally looked disappointed that she wouldn’t get to listen in, but bobbed out a curtsey and slipped from the room.
“You look miserable,” her mother snapped when they were alone. “Didn’t you hear me? I said the Duke of Abernathe has asked for our presence. Together!”
Emma could hardly hear over the rush of blood in her veins, but she tried to keep herself calm. “Did he say what he wished to discuss with us?”
“No,” her mother conceded, “but there could only be one thing.”
“And what is that?” Emma whispered.
Her mother slapped her arm. “He wishes to ask for your hand, Emma. It could be nothing else.”
Emma had a moment where her entire body filled with joy. That joy revealed a truth she had been trying to fight for so long. She wasn’t falling in love with the man—shedidlove him already. Worse, she wanted a future with him.
But that didn’t mean she thought her mother was correct in her assessment of the situation. James had made it abundantly clear he had no intention of offering for her. And she had been trying to accept that and position herself for some other future.
“I would not bank everything on that,” Emma said. “There could be many topics Jam—Abernathe would want to discuss with us.”
Her mother smiled in triumph at her near-slip of using James’s given name so freely. “I don’t think so. Come, we must not keep him waiting a moment longer.”
She clasped Emma’s arm and all but dragged her down the hall and the stairs to the main level of the house. At the bottom of those stairs, a servant awaited them.
“His Grace is waiting for you in the blue room,” the young man said. “Please follow me.”
