“It’s far enough away that you would be safe,” Aiden said, but Wren could tell his gentle words didn’t appease her.
“And it’s an open-minded sort of place, I’ve heard,” Zara said. “Where three lovers might live almost entirely openly.”
“That’s part of the attraction,” Wren admitted, and knew Emilia wouldn’t like what came next. Or at least she would resist it. “We need three new identities.”
“No!” Emilia said as she jumped to her feet. “We’ve talked about this! I won’t destroy you.”
“Emilia,” Aiden said softly, reaching for her.
She dodged him. “Do you not think I want to be with you two? Do you not know that it breaks me into pieces to think of losing you? But it also crushes me to think you’d turn yourselves inside out to be with me. That you’d let go of your own futures in trade for mine. I won’t allow it!” She turned toward Huxley. “You’re quiet, but you’re clearly the one who understands this situation best.”
“And how did you determine that, my lady?” Huxley asked in affected boredom, though his gaze flitted up and down her frame with an increased interest.
“It’s obvious if one has eyes in their head,” she snapped. “If you’ll help me, I would be forever in your debt. But perhaps you can do me another favor and make these two see…see…” She burst into tears suddenly and then raced from the room.
Wren jumped to his feet, moving to follow, but Huxley caught his arm and held him in place. “Let me,” he said softly.
Wren tugged his arm away and jerked his face up to the other man’s. He still couldn’t read him. That was Huxley’s gift, it seemed. “You don’t know her.”
“Oh yes. I do. I know this, at least,” he said. “Zara, why don’t you and Richard help Mr. Wren and Mr. Edwards? I’ll be along shortly.”
“Of course,” Zara said, and got up. She tucked her arm into Richard’s and motioned Aiden and Wren toward the door. “Why don’t we go to Richard’s study and continue our work there?”
Aiden’s lips were a thin line of worry, but he followed the pair from the room regardless. Wren moved to do the same, but at the door he paused and looked back at Huxley. “You’ll be gentle with her?”
Huxley’s brow wrinkled. “Would you leave me alone with her if you thought I would be harsh?”
“No,” Wren said softly. “I suppose I wouldn’t. Th-thank you, Huxley, for being willing to help.”
He inclined his head and Wren departed to catch up with the others. He could only hope now that whatever this man said to Emilia, it could persuade her to try for a future that he and Aiden couldn’t seem to convince her of.
CHAPTER12
Emilia
Emilia clenched and unclenched her fists against the rough stone of the terrace wall as she looked with unseeing eyes over the well-tended garden below. She could hardly breathe with the weight of uncertainty pressing against her chest. The weight of guilt.
“It’s a lovely garden, isn’t it?”
She turned to watch Peregrine Huxley exit the house. He walked across the terrace with a surprising grace of movement and stopped beside her. He drew a cigar from the inside pocket of his jacket and lit it with flint, then puffed out a perfect ring of smoke so that it floated away from her.
“I apologize for my outburst,” Emilia said softly. “What you must think of me.”
“I think you’re human and that if you didn’t have emotions in this situation, you would likely have something very wrong with you.”
She looked at him. He was very handsome and had a bright intelligence to his eyes—she could see why Zara and Mr. Fitzroy were attracted to him. “Thank you, Mr. Huxley.”
“Hux,” he said softly. “I don’t go by Mister anything.” He drew a long breath of his cigar and puffed another ring. “I was once like you, you know.”
“Like me?” she said.
“Hard to picture, isn’t it? That we could be alike when our positions are so disparate.” He chuckled. “But it turns out I have emotions, too.”
She faced him. “Of course you do. But I don’t think you mean that is how we were alike. So whatdoyou mean?”
“I wanted to protect them.” He motioned toward the house with his cigar. “I was willing to leave them to do it. To break myself into a thousand pieces just so I wouldn’t leave even a hairline crack on them.”
She swallowed, for that description did feel too familiar. “Why?”
