Wantedhim.
When he looked at her again, his eyes hadgone ice cold.
“Emma?” A shaking hand clutched at Emma’s sleeve, and she turned to find Helena staring at her, her dark eyes filled with tears. “I shouldn’t have said that about Lord Lovell. I’m sorry.”
In all the time Emma had known Helena, she’d never once seen her cry. If Helena’s swollen lip and torn gown hadn’t been enough to make Emma hold her tongue, Helena’s tears should have been, but the look in Samuel’s eyes, the accusation there, the pain—everything rose up at once in Emma’s breast, every raw, painful, ugly emotion, and the next thing she knew she’d opened her mouth, and it was too late.
“You promised me, Helena.”
Helena’s face crumpled for an instant, but the anguish was there and then gone as quickly as a flash of lightning, sullen defiance in its place. “It was bound to happen, Emma. Madame Marchand despises me. She’s been looking for a reason to turn me out, and—”
“And you gave her one.” Emma’s voice wasn’tquite steady.
The minute the words left her mouth Emma wished them back, but it was as if a dam had burst, and all the misery and confusion and fear that had been pushing against Emma’s chest since she’d escaped the Pink Pearl at age fifteen were determined to have their way at last.
After five long years, they refused to be silenced any longer.
Helena made a sound that was perhaps meant to be a laugh, but it was sharp, cutting, like the sound of glass being ground under a boot heel. “What would you have had me do, Emma? Let Lord Peabody beat me bloody? He got what he deserved.”
What he deserved? No, he’d gotten far better than that. He deserved to be put down like the rabid animal he was before he got a chance to hurt someone else.
“I warned you to stay away from him, Helena!” Emma cried, knowing how unfair her words were, but unable to make herself stop. “I told you not to—”
“You’re right, of course. I should have declined his attentions, shouldn’t I? Why, I should have simply told Madame Marchand I preferred to lounge in my bed all evening instead of entertaining the gentlemen. YouknowI didn’t have any choice, Emma. Or perhaps you don’t know.” A bitter smile crossed Helena’s lips. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten.”
Helena turned away, but Emma snatched Helena’s cold hand in hers, stopping her.“Wait, Helena.”
Helena waited, herthroat working.
“I…haven’t forgotten.” How could she? She’d tried to forget those years, to bury the memories so deeply they’d never see the light of consciousness again, but they were like the wraiths floating through Covent Garden. Silent, but haunting. “I’m sorry. I know there was nothingyou could do.”
Helena face softened then, and incredibly she made a valiant attempt at a smile. “Well, notnothing. Lord Peabody came away from it with neat rows of scratches on his cheeks. He was furious when he saw his pretty, ruined face in the glass. Why are the ugliest men always the vainest?”
“And the handsomest gentlemen always the kindest?” Emma murmured, turning her gaze back to Samuel.
He wasn’t the handsomest man she’d ever seen, yet to Emma, no gentleman’s face could ever compare to Samuel’s.
The realization stunned her.
When had she stopped thinking of his face as too harsh, too cold? Was it the first time she’d seen a flash of heat in those cool gray eyes, the first restrained twitch at the corner of those hard lips? His wasn’t a kind face at first glance, but the hint of his smile…did it mean more than Lovell’s easy grins because it so infrequently graced his lips?
It felt like a gift, that smile, like a reward she’d earned, and then just as quickly squandered, because he wasn’t smiling at her now. His expression was dark, his face set into hard, uncompromising lines. He didn’t return her gaze, but turned away, as if he couldn’t bearto look at her.
Unconsciously, Emma pressed a hand to her chest, right over her heart, as if she could stop it from shattering with a simple touch. An unfamiliar sob rose in her throat, but she choked it back and took Helena’s hand. “Come along, dearest. Daniel will be looking for us.”
Emma led Helena from Bennets Court back to Drury Lane. Samuel followed without a word, a bedraggled, dejected littleband of three.
They met Daniel coming from the other direction down Drury Lane, his eyes wild, and moving at a speed that should have been impossible for a man of his massive size. “That the lass?” he called to Emma, when he caughtsight of them.
“Yes, we found her. She’s all right.” Mostly, and even that had been a near thing.
Some of the tension drained from Daniel’s big shoulders, but when he was close enough to see Helena’s face, the livid finger marks on her neck, he stiffened again. “Skin of her teeth, by the looks of it. What’s his lordship doing here?”
“He, ah…he followed us from Vauxhall Gardens.”
Daniel’s brows lowered. “Did he, now? What’s he want?”
Whatever answer she gave to that question wouldn’t sit well with Daniel, so Emma thought it best to ignore it. “You’ll see to it Helena is taken care of?” Emma didn’t mention Lady Clifford, but she didn’t have to, with Daniel. He knew what she wanted.
