Chapter 8

"But you can"t!" Jane protested though Emmaline was already in the middle of packing her trunk.

"I have to," Emmaline said, holding back tears. There was no method to her packing, she simply wished to get it over with quickly. Tomorrow, she would be married. Tonight, she did not wish for a fuss. Her sister being overly dramatic was not how she wished to remember her last night at home.

"What will you tell your father? What will mama say?" Jane continued, pacing up and down by the side of the bed.

Emmaline paused in her packing and turned to her sister. "Jane, come here."

She held out her hands. Reluctantly, her sister came to her, and she held both of her hands, squeezing reassuringly.

"You don"t have to do this," Jane whimpered, but Emmaline shook her head.

"My mind is made up," she assured her. Reaching up with one hand, she cupped her sister"s cheek. "I am to do what is right. This is my mess. I must fix it. Anyway, your mother always wanted to see me wed to someone rich and powerful and The Devil Lord is most certainly both of those things."

Emmaline cringed remembering her encounter with the man. He had been cruel yet charming, commanding yet gentlemanly, aggressive and yet somehow…

She didn"t have the words to describe him.

"There must be some other way," Jane said as tears glistened in her eyes. "This can"t be what you want for your life."

"This isn"t about what I want," Emmaline said. Her heart felt as if it were breaking. In a matter of hours she would be ripped from her family, from all she held dear, to marry a man she had no idea about save for the fact that every businessman and gentleman in the country feared him. "My future was never really my own anyway. I was bound to be married off sometime."

"Not like this!' Jane cried. Emmaline couldn"t take it anymore. Jane was the first family member she had told. She felt she would be the hardest but even so, it was a totally different thing to experience. Having been close to her stepsister all of her life, it had been far easier to speak the words than she imagined but the consequential aftermath with everybody else was as difficult as she believed it would be.

Unable to bring herself to argue anymore, Emmaline pulled her sister in close, hugging her tightly. "Please, don"t worry for me. I am sure all will work out just as it is supposed to in the end. Maybe it was supposed to play out like this."

She told herself that because it was all she had left to calm herself with. She had to believe that fate worked in mysterious ways.

Jane held her so tightly in return that she thought she might be stuck there forever. But eventually her sister"s grip eased enough for her to pull away. "Would you mind finishing my packing for me while I go and say goodbye to papa?"

She gulped. She hadn"t braved seeing him since he had collapsed though she was assured by his doctor that he was in a stable, if somewhat delicate, condition.

"Are you certain you don"t want me to come with you?" Jane asked and Emmaline shook her head.

"This is something I have to do alone."

And so she did. Leaving Jane to pack the things she had piled onto her bed, she headed down the hall to her father"s chambers where a footman was standing guard outside.

"My Lady," the man said with a bow of his head as she approached.

Emmaline dipped her head in acknowledgement and asked, "How is he?"

The man who couldn"t have been more than a year or two older than her, dipped his gaze and said, "Unchanged, My Lady."

Emmaline sucked in a breath to prepare herself for what lay on the other side of the door.

"Is my stepmother with him?" Emmaline asked. The man dipped his head again. That was just what Emmaline needed. At least she could get it out of the way quickly.

Taking one final, deep gulp, she entered the room with a gentle knock.

"Come in!" her stepmother called. Then when she saw her, she added, "Oh, it"s you."

The countess did very little to hide the disdain from her tone.

"Can I speak with you both?" Emmaline asked, standing a little sheepishly in the doorway.

Her mama cocked a brow and said, "You may speak with me. As you can see, your father is in no fit state to be doing any speaking."

Emmaline only then looked at her father. He appeared a shell of the man he had once been, his skin wrinkled and withered. It seemed to hang off his bones as if he were simply wasting away. How he had gone so downhill since she had seen him that morning, she didn"t know.

"The doctor told me when I returned that he had given him something for any pain," Emmaline said, approaching slowly. "But that he may still be able to hear me even if he does not respond. Is that true?"

Her mama nodded. "If you have come to apologize. Do not bother. It shall do no good now. The damage is done."

Her words were like a knife to Emmaline"s heart. She had never been overly affectionate to Emmaline but she had at least been motherly. Now, that appeared to be gone.

"I… I didn"t come to apologize," Emmaline said and that only seemed to anger her mama more. Before she could say anything, Emmaline hurried on. "I came to tell you I have fixed everything."

Her mama looked stunned, so stunned in fact, she was silent. Emmaline used the moment to take to her father"s bed and perch on its edge.

Gently, she took up his cold, claw-like hand and whispered, "Papa, I wish you had told me of the loans you had taken out. I never would have suggested such a risky investment had I known."

She looked at his face, hoping for some kind of response, maybe even the flicker of an eyelid. There was nothing.

"I will be gone by morning," she told him gently, squeezing his fingers, hoping he might do the same in return. Again, there was nothing. "I am to be wed, papa. I am to fix everything."

"I beg your pardon?" her mama exclaimed, leaning forward so fast in her chair that she almost fell right out of it.

Emmaline gulped. Turning to look at her mama, she said, "I have made a deal with the devil."

***

The time came around all too fast. Soon, Emmaline was escorted once more into the devil"s lair.

Yet, it was oddly nothing at all as it had been the previous night.

Though dark still, and lit by those same red lantern candles, the place was almost entirely empty. Save for the masked man who had escorted her in last time—and did so again—the only other people she met were the devil himself and a priest.

When, the evening before, the devil had said they would complete their deal the next day after she"d had time to say farewell to her family, she never anticipated that things would move this quickly.

Her stomach churned painfully as she entered the bowels of hell once more to find the devil and his priest awaiting her. She remembered all too well the thought she"d had the night before as everyone watched her approach his throne.

That had felt like a wedding. This felt as if she were walking to the executioner"s block. It might as well have been the gallows for her throat constricted so painfully that it was as if there were a rope tightening around her neck.

The masked escort guided her to the two men and offered her hand to his master.

Instead of taking it, he dipped his head to the priest, and the supposed man of God, asked, "My Lady, are you here of your own free will?"

No, no! I am most certainly not! She wanted to scream the words at the top of her lungs. Just staring at the man with his black horned red devil mask on, she wondered how she could possibly marry him when she had yet to even see his face.

Instead, she gulped hard past the lump in her throat and said, "I am."

The priest, clearly satisfied, clearing his throat and opened his book to begin. "We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…"

The priest"s words faded into the background as all Emmaline could hear was the pounding of her rapid heartbeat in her ears.

Her mama had been shocked to learn her intentions, but she hadn"t tried to stop her. In twenty-four hours, her father had not grown any better nor worse. And her elder brothers had continued to do as they always did. They had buried their heads in the sand and continued to drink and rake and whatever else they chose to do in their spare time, leaving Emmaline the one to fix things.

And so, she forced herself through the ceremony that would change the course of the rest of her life immeasurably.

"Do you Lord Alexander Black…"

Wait! Emmaline recognized that name. Where had she heard it before?

Then, as the devil raised his hands to untie the ribbon that held his mask, Emmaline gasped.

"…The Duke of Westmarch, take Lady Emmaline Moreau to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

I do know him! She gasped again when the mask was lowered and dropped into the waiting hand of the masked escort.

"You!" she exclaimed, unable to stop the word from bursting out of her mouth.

Her heart hammered in her chest. Her palms began to sweat. Her knees grew weak. That face, that handsome yet scarred yet wonderful face, belonged to that of the man she had first encountered at the ball, then again in the devil"s office, the man who had assured her he was very close friends with the devil and would pass on her message, the man whose very gaze had made her tremble with desire.

"Is something the matter?" the priest asked, pausing in the ceremony. "Do you wish for me to stop, my dear?"

"No, no!" Emmaline protested.

Questioning and confusion were uncontrollable within her. She fought the urge to spew a million questions. Anger and frustration swelled inside her. If he had been The Devil Lord all along, why couldn"t he have just told her that day in the office?

She would get her answers, she was determined to, but first she would have what he had promised her. She would have a wedding for her father"s debts to be paid and her family"s good name restored.

The priest looked to the duke. "Your Grace?"

His Grace stared at Emmaline without blinking and offered her his hand. She glanced down at it, considering hard what she ought to do.

Then, finally, she laid her hand in his and the duke gave a curt and commanding nod. "Continue."

"Do you, Alexander Black, The Duke of Westmarch, take Lady Emmaline Moreau to be your lawfully wedded wife?" the priest repeated. Emmaline saw the way he was trembling. It was as if he were as frightened of The Devil Lord now as when he had been wearing his mask.

"I do," the duke declared and the way he stared so intensely into Emmaline"s eyes made her feel as if she might collapse. The way he squeezed her fingers gently sent heat surging up her arms and into her chest.

What is happening?

"Do you, Lady Emmaline Moreau, take Lord Alexander Black, The Duke of Westmarch, to be your lawfully wedded husband?" the priest asked.

Emmaline barely heard him. Her heart was pounding harder and harder in her ears. Her entire body quivered until she felt as if she might melt into a puddle on the floor.

The intense way he was looking at her made her feel as if she were the only person in the room, blocking out all voices that weren"t his.

When he cleared his throat and said, "My Lady, you must say the words or this cannot be complete," Emmaline realized that everyone in the room was waiting upon her.

Tongue feeling as though it was far too big for her mouth, she struggled to speak. Clearing her throat, she said, "Please…please can you repeat?"

The priest did not look best pleased to be asked to do so but he hurried to oblige when the duke glared at him threateningly. It appeared it wasn"t just the mask that struck fear into the hearts of men.

"Do you, Lady Emmaline Moreau, take Lord Alexander Black, The Duke of Westmarch, to be your lawfully wedded husband?" the priest repeated, his voice so shaky that Emmaline felt even more sorry for him than she did for herself.

The duke looked about to speak again when Emmaline answered, "I do."

"Then by the power vested in me by the grace of God Almighty, I pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride!"

Emmaline gasped. Her eyes widened as the duke stepped closer. She hadn"t even thought about that part of the ceremony. In fact, she hadn"t really thought about the ceremony at all, only what happened afterwards.

Her family would be saved from ruin. Her father might recover after some joyous news such as this. And she would be the wife of the devil himself.

But this moment, this appeared to be all for her. She hadn"t imagined that it could be but as the duke stepped forward and took her face in both his hands, she realized one thing with a wave of absolute astonishment, she liked it.

Yes, the duke"s face was hideously scarred on one side, but the other was ruggedly handsome, marvelously so, and with a little imagination it wasn"t difficult to picture what he had been like before whatever accident had befallen him.

Besides that, his touch upon her cheeks was gentle, tender even, and when his lips met hers, Emmaline felt as if the sun had collided with the moon and her entire world had been obliterated. All that she knew and had ever known was swept from her in an instant. There was only her and him. Their lips connected in a way she had never connected with anyone else before.

Of course, she had kissed people before. She had kissed her parents good night many times. She had kissed her little siblings plenty, too. She had even had a quick peck on the lips from a young nobleman"s son when they had been too young to even understand what kissing meant.

But this was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was fear inflicting, mind numbing, bone shattering bliss.

And it frightened the life out of her. It was one thing to experience such a thing with The Duke of Westmarch but quite another with The Devil Lord of London. How was she supposed to feel now that she knew they were one and the same?