Chapter 15

CHAPTER15

“Let’s talk in here.” Jacob beckoned the Duke of Elbridge to follow him into his study. He’d attempted to persuade Emily and her sister to sit in the parlor, but Emily had flatly refused. The pair were wandering in his terraced garden instead. As Jacob moved to his window, he saw the pair of them meandering hand in hand.

Jacob took the towel his butler had left for him in his desk chair and tried to dry himself. He’d been for a swim in the lake that morning, hoping it would somehow clear his head, but it hadn’t. If anything, the murky water with all its reeds had simply made things foggier than before.

The door closing heavily on the other side of the room snapped Jacob’s gaze away from Emily through the window. He looked to the Duke of Elbridge who strode into the room, his gaze so dark that Jacob felt strangely chastised, like a child in the company of another duke.

“You can rant and rave, yell at me, anything.” Jacob waved a hand toward the Duke, encouragingly. “Believe me, I know I deserve it.”

He thrust the towel across his head and ruffled his hair as he sat in a wooden chair, stretching out his legs. When he removed the towel, he saw the shock on the Duke of Elbridge’s face.

“You perplex me,” The Duke shook his head. “You know you’ve dishonored her, yet you refuse to marry her.”

“I do not refuse out of a wish to harm her, or her reputation. That being said, I wish for no harm to anyone in your family,” Jacob grimaced when he saw the disbelieving look on the Duke’s face. “Though after how I have behaved, I do not blame you for thinking differently.”

“Explain yourself then. If you wish me to understand any of this, I need an explanation.”

Before anymore could be said, there was a tap on the door.

“Enter,” Jacob called. The butler walked in carrying a tray. He offered an encouraging smile to Jacob who thanked him for bringing the coffee. As the butler retreated, Jacob moved to the desk where the tray had been placed and poured out two cups of coffee, one that he passed to the Duke of Elbridge. “First, let us drink. Maybe this will help clear my head.”

“No drink does that. Not even liquor.” Yet the Duke of Elbridge eagerly took the cup regardless, then turned his back on Jacob and moved to a seat. He sat down, with one ankle crossed loosely over his knee, then gestured for Jacob to begin. “I am waiting for an explanation.”

Slowly, Jacob perched on the edge of his desk with the towel slung around his shoulders.

“I was willing to marry for convenience, Your Grace,” Jacob said slowly, “which was why I agreed to marry Lady Bridget in the first place. I never pictured marrying for anything like… this.”

“What? Dishonor?”

“I was going to say affection.” Jacob’s words made the Duke’s brows knit together.

“Hard to picture you being affectionate toward Emily at all after how you have refused to marry her.”

“There is a reason for that,” Jacob said quietly.

“Ah, we run the risk of going around in circles here.” The Duke of Elbridge took a gulp from his cup then leveled his gaze at Jacob. “Believe me when I say I know what it is like to have made a resolution about marriage then be forced to break it.”

“What do you mean?” Jacob asked with interest, fixing his focus on the Duke so much he nearly forgot about the coffee in his hands.

“Marriage wasn’t something I factored in as being a part of my life once,” the Duke said uneasily, shifting in his seat. “That changed with Rachel.”

“You mean you fell in love then married?”

“Clearly you have forgotten our own scandal.”

“Oh.” Jacob stiffened then stood off the desk, remembering he had indeed once read about the Duke of Elbridge and his wife in the scandal sheets.

“Yes, now you remember.” The Duke nodded toward him and sat forward, shifting his legs so he could rest his elbows on his knees. “I came upon Rachel in a garden at a ball where her gown had been caught on a branch. I went to assist her, and we were seen together in what was perceived as a compromising position.”

“Yet that was just an accident.”

“That it was,” the Duke agreed and took a sip from his coffee, biding his time before he said anymore. “Yet that is not the way the ton saw it. If I hadn’t married her, Rachel and her sisters would have been dishonored by association with her.”

“So, you did marry her,” Jacob whispered, stunned at the insight. “Yet you two seem so…” he trailed off, gesturing to the Duke.

“That is because I fell in love with my wife.” The Duke actually smiled, the movement transforming his features. “We have our boy together, and I could not be happier with my life. It wasn’t always easy though.” Darkness took over his expression. “For a while, it was hard, and I do not pretend that the decision to marry her was easy, for it was not.”

“I feel as if I am seeing you clearly for the first time, Your Grace,” Jacob said with a little admiration and raised the coffee pot, urging the Duke to have some more.

The Duke managed another small smile as he stood and moved back toward Jacob, allowing him to refill his cup.

“In return, let me see who you really are.” The Duke of Elbridge nodded toward Jacob. “Tell me what is truly going on here.”

“Very well.” Jacob knew he couldn’t reveal everything. Seth had already looked at him as if he was mad when he told the truth. He would have to explain part of the truth whilst still being evasive about other parts. “I care for Emily.” The words escaped him in a rush, making the Duke of Elbridge halt at his side, not quite pouring the milk into his own coffee cup yet. “I am not worthy of her, that I know for certain.”

“And that is what holds you back from marrying her?” the Duke scoffed a little. “Well, based on how you have treated her, I’m tempted to agree you are not worthy of her, but I cannot hold onto such a resolution and stand by, just to watch her reputation plummet. Bridget would be affected too, once the scandal spread.”

“It is already starting to spread,” Jacob whispered. “I fear one of your staff may have sold the story of our expected duel to the scandal sheets, Your Grace.”

“Ah.” The Duke sighed heavily and leaned against the desk. “Then we need to act fast.”

“Yes,” Jacob murmured. He turned to face the Duke of Elbridge fully. “I fear what would become of the future, Your Grace. If I do marry Emily…”

“If!?” the Duke spluttered, looking ready to spit his coffee back out again.

“Please, hear me out.” Jacob stepped toward him. “If I marry her, may I extract a promise from you?”

“It depends on the nature of the promise.” Still, the Duke encouraged him on, waving the sugar tongs at him to continue.

“If anything were to happen to me, you would take care of her, would you not?” Jacob’s question left the Duke dumbstruck. He cocked his head to the side, as if examining every part of Jacob. “It’s imperative to me that she not end up hurt, and if someday something were to happen… She would need her family around her. That I do know.”

“You speak in riddles.”

“Yet I will not say anymore.” Jacob put distance between them, rounding his desk and moving to his own seat. “I need your agreement on this matter.” He refused to say more for he feared the same scoffing look that he’d received from Seth.

“You need not hear me promise this especially, for it is already a vow I have taken.” The Duke of Elbridge stood tall. “I have vowed to protect my wife no matter what happens, and through her, her family. It is something I intend to keep until my dying day.”

“That is good.” Jacob nodded, feeling his admiration for the Duke growing by the second. He was not only a principled man, but he had great feeling, and a large heart. He must have been a devoted husband to his wife.

“So, Your Grace,” the Duke of Elbridge outstretched his hand toward Jacob. “Do we have an agreement?”

Jacob looked down at that hand.

* * *

“They are returning,” Rachel whispered in Emily’s ear. She turned on her sister’s arm to look across the terraced garden.

She’d been indulging in wild imaginings as she stared at this beautiful garden. What if she and Jacob had been the partnership arranged by her father to be married? What if they had wed and then this attraction between them had begun? She could be mistress to this home and this stunning garden, wandering through these flower borders with a smile on her face, perhaps with a child by her side who clung to her hand and played with Joey when he came to stay.

It is a foolish imagining. Such a world is impossible now.

“I am not sure I am prepared for this,” Emily murmured to her sister.

“I’m here,” Rachel said reassuringly, squeezing Emily’s hand. Emily looked at her sister in surprise.

“What happened to our argument where you washed your hands of me?”

“You didn’t think I meant it, did you?” Rachel asked with a small laugh. “I will always be here for you, Em.”

“I do not know what I’d do without you,” Emily confessed. For all the anger she had thrown at her sister over these last few years, these words tumbling from her lips were the greatest truth she’d ever told. Rachel smiled sadly and clung to her hand tighter.

“Here they are,” Rachel nodded through the garden.

Emily turned to see that Jacob and Daniel were turning. Daniel led the way and walking a little behind him was Jacob. He’d still not properly dressed and though his clothes were beginning to dry, the shirt hung loosely off his torso. It still clung to his shoulders though, in such a way that made Emily’s eyes trace his figure.

What is wrong with me? How can I marvel at him and be so attracted when I feel as if my heart has been crushed in two by him? That feeling should be impossible!

Daniel dropped down into the terraced garden with Jacob following behind. The pair stopped a short distance in front of them.

“Well, the two of you are not shooting daggers at one another with your glares anymore,” Rachel said hurriedly, “so may I presume the situation has improved a little?”

“The Duke of Thorne and I have discussed the matter. At length,” Daniel added, glancing at Jacob beside him.

At last, Jacob looked at Emily. She flinched at that look, feeling how intense it was. He said nothing as he continued to stare at her.

He will refuse to marry me. I know it.

“Yes, we have talked,” Jacob said, now shifting his gaze between all of them. “Despite my concerns, I must acknowledge that the Duke of Thorne is right. I have dishonored your family, Your Grace.” He addressed Rachel with these words. “For that, you have my sincerest apologies, and I must make reparations for this.”

Dishonored? Is what passed between us being reduced to this?

Emily was stunned, her jaw hanging loose as she stared at him. There were many other words she could have used to describe all of the shared moments between them, but dishonoring was not a word she would have chosen.

“Well?” Rachel said with her brows raised. “I am waiting for what more you will say.”

Jacob cleared his throat and nodded, looking between Daniel and Rachel.

“I am content to marry Emily.”

Emily backed up, her hand loosening from Rachel’s. She moved slowly, but with such purposeful steps that her boots scattered the stones beneath her on the gravel path. He looked at her then, a look of pain on that handsome face.

“Then everything is settled,” Daniel spoke with such a heavy sigh that his shoulders practically dropped two inches. “We shall prepare for the wedding.”

“A wedding? What? No!” Emily spoke with such sudden venom that Rachel’s head snapped toward her. Emily couldn’t bring herself to look at Jacob, so satisfied herself with returning her sister’s look. “Rachel, he has no real wish to marry me. You believe I wish to be bound forever to a man who does not want me? A man who would rather marry any other woman in this world than me?”

“That is not quite how I would put it—” Jacob didn’t get a chance to finish his words, for Emily cut him off.

“Do not dare to say anymore.”

He at least had the decency to fall silent, his lips closing.

“Emily, this is not a matter up for discussion,” Daniel’s voice was firm as he stepped toward her. “If you had the liberty of choice, I would agree with you, but after what has passed between you and the Duke of Thorne, the choice is not something you have anymore.”

“But—”

“The rumor is already out,” Daniel said hurriedly. “The scandal sheets know we were to duel, and how long do you reckon it would be before they discovered the reason why? Days? Maybe even hours?”

Emily stared at Jacob, uncertain of what to think or feel. Was there relief inside her? Yes, of a kind. At least now her name wouldn’t be scandalized, and Bridget was protected by association, but there was horror here too. Jacob didn’t want to marry her, and her own pleading had done nothing. Somehow, Daniel had persuaded him into it.

“I cannot believe the man I am to marry had to be forced into it.” At her dark words, Jacob grimaced and looked away.

The way in which he refused to return her gaze simply made her feel worse.

“I have no choice?” she whispered, appealing to Daniel, who shook his head.

“I wish there was another way, but there is not,” he said simply. “This matter is at an end.”

This sentence brought such finality, Emily couldn’t stand to be here any longer. She spun on her heel and marched away as quickly as she could, not far off a run. Rachel scampered to her side, hurrying to keep up. Emily didn’t glance back, though she could hear Jacob and Daniel talking together in low tones, their deep voices carrying around the garden.

“Emily, please.” Rachel snatched up her hand and they walked together, side by side as they reached the stone steps and climbed up toward the drive.

“Please, what?” Emily repeated, baffled.

“Do not despise Daniel and I for this. We are trying to protect you.”

“I know that.” Emily waved her other hand in dismissal, for their interference was not what bothered her. She knew they were faced with little choice. “What bothers me is him,” her voice filled with anger. “I am to marry a man who hates me, Rachel.”

“He does not hate you.”

“Does he not?” Emily halted on the driveway, turning to face her sister. “He refused to look at me for most of that conversation and has spent the last few days blankly refusing to marry me. That is hardly a man with affection in his soul, is it? It is hatred! He must despise me.”

She flung herself away and reached for the carriage, not bothering to wait for the footman to open the door but clambering inside herself. Rachel scrambled to follow her.

As they fell onto the coach’s bench together, the tears started once more. Emily was shocked. After all the tears she had cried recently, she didn’t understand how her body could cry anymore, but it happened anyway. Rachel thrust a handkerchief in front of her and Emily gladly took it, drying her tears.

By the time Daniel returned to the carriage, Emily rested her head on Rachel’s shoulder. Her sister’s arm was around her, cradling her into her side.

A memory broke through of Emily leaning on Rachel in a similar way when they were children. Emily had gone climbing the trees in their garden. Rachel had pleaded with her not to climb too high, but Emily had gone anyway. When she fell from the branch and landed on her arm, twisting her wrist, Rachel had been the one to pick her up again and take her back inside.

As they waited for the physician, Emily leaned on Rachel as she did now, relying on her. Rachel was always there, even when she hadn’t wanted her to be, but now, Emily wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“Thank you,” Emily whispered to Rachel as the carriage set off.

“I do not know what you are thanking me for when you are crying such tears,” Rachel murmured, patting her shoulder and drawing her in tighter still. “Yet I am here, Emily. I’ll always be here.”

Emily clung to her tighter, fearing how much she would be able to see Rachel once she was married to a man that did not want her.