Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Wren

T he dock was loud, a cacophony of sounds and smells and sights between those readying to board the ship to Athawick and the workers loading cargo and luggage. It was a rainbow of the humanity of London and one Wren realized he would likely never see again. It was odd that he felt very little sadness at the thought of never returning to the place he'd called home his entire life.

In truth, Emilia and Aiden were home. Everything else was smoke and mirrors. Existence and nothing more. And now it was over and the future he had hoped for and dreamed of was just a ship's voyage away.

Once Emilia had agreed that they should all leave together, everything had moved at record pace. Richard and Hux had somehow procured passage to Athawick under false names and Zara had done a fine job disguising all of them enough that they wouldn't be instantly recognized by those around them if anyone took particular interest.

Now they awaited their turn to board the ship after warm goodbyes to their friends and saviors. Wren wanted to feel excited and free, but until they had sailed away from London, his fear remained heavy in his chest. He kept looking around, watching every face to be certain none were observing their party with more than a passing glance.

At last, a porter reached them and examined their documents and luggage. He stamped a few pages and then gathered up their things. "These will be put in your stateroom, Mr. Vickers," he said to Aiden, using the false name without any hint of suspicion. "You may board the vessel at any time between now and when the first bell rings."

"Thank you," Aiden said, pressing a coin into the man's palm before he turned to smile at Wren and Emilia. "Shall we?"

Emilia nodded, her eyes bright with relief as she turned to look once more at the city behind them. But as she did so, Wren saw the color leave her cheeks and she staggered slightly.

"Well, well, Emilia," came a voice from behind them.

Now Wren spun around and Aiden took a long step forward, hands outstretched for protection as Lord Wilburn, himself, stepped down the dock, his gaze narrowed on Emilia and the two men. Wren tried to put himself in front of her, but he knew it was useless. Despite everything he'd done to put this man off the scent, now he was here.

It was too late to stop whatever would happen next.

* * *

Emilia

E milia had never been one to faint, but the moment she watched Wilburn stalk toward her, his intense stare locked on her face, her vision began darken and her knees trembled. How many times had she watched him do the same over the years, his anger plain on his face? She had known there would be punishment then and she knew the same now.

"W-Wilburn," she whispered, almost without sound.

His lips pinched. "You recall your husband's name, it seems, though not your wifely duties." He glanced now at Aiden and Wren and his disgust rippled over his features. "And here is my whore wife's lover and the very man I hired to find them."

"Watch yourself," Aiden growled, moving toward him before Wren caught his arm and pulled him back. Emilia was glad of both the desire to protect her and the act to protect him.

"What are you doing here?" Emilia asked. She felt foolish to do so, but her mind was spinning. They had been so close to escape. "How did you know I was here?"

Wilburn shook his head. "Did you think I had only hired Mr. Wren to find you? No, I have spies everywhere and there were whispers that you were back in London. And that you were trying to flee. Why I'm here is to bring you home. You belong to me, Emilia."

"No," Wren said, touching her shoulder and drawing her back toward them. "She doesn't."

Wilburn stared harder and his eyebrows lifted. "And here I thought you and Mr. Edwards were rivals. Perhaps I misunderstood. Spreading your legs for both of them, are you?"

Emilia lifted her chin. "You've had your own dalliances. What do you care?"

"As I said, you belong to me. In the eyes of the law and God, you are my property. And you will return home. Now. If you refuse, I can make things much worse than they already are."

He meant for Wren and Aiden, and it was clear by the quiet rage on his face that he would follow through on those threats. The Emilia of weeks before, months before, years before, might have done as he asked to appease him. To give Aiden and Wren a chance to escape. But she wasn't that woman anymore. She was no longer hopeless from losing the loves of her life. She was no longer fearful of an endless future of pain and worry.

"You don't want me, Wilburn," she said softly. "You come to collect me only to save face. And I know that if I go with you, you'll kill me in the end."

His gaze narrowed and she thought he looked surprised. Apparently he didn't know she had become wise to his plots against her. "And why would you think that?"

"Because I didn't breed you sons to carry on your title. It was all you wanted from me. You won't spend the time and money, nor risk the scandal for a divorce. So you intend to wipe me off the face of the earth and then remarry."

His lips pinched. "You are delusional, Emilia. Hysterical."

She shivered at his use of words that had sent many a good woman to Bedlam for her so-called sins. But it would not be her. "I am getting on the ship with these men," she said, slowly and succinctly. "You will not stop me. You won't interfere."

"And why is that?" Wilburn asked.

She glanced back at Aiden and Wren. They were both tense, coiled and ready to strike. But she wanted to end this a different way. It was so perfectly clear now.

"Because your wife is dead," she said. "She died when I left you. It is not Emilia, Viscountess of Wilburn who will board this vessel and sail from London, never to be seen again. It will be a woman you never met." She stepped toward him even as Aiden grabbed for her hand and tried to keep her close.

Wilburn's gaze flitted over her, though and she could see she had sparked his interest.

"Declare me dead," she said. "I died in an accident, I drowned in the sea and my body never washed up, I wasted away from a venereal disease, I don't care what you say. Take all that I have, all that I brought to our marriage financially. And move on." She tilted her head. "Or challenge me here on this dock, and these two men will still ensure I escape, but I will make every day of your life as much of a living hell as you made mine."

She felt Aiden and Wren move, flanking her on either side, steady and intimidating as they all stared down a man who had ruled over her for the last time. His cheek twitched and then he nodded. "That is acceptable. But if you ever step foot in England again?—"

"Careful now," Wren said softly. "I wouldn't finish that sentence."

Wilburn let out his breath in a shaky sigh, and then he pivoted and walked away. She watched him and it was only when he had disappeared out of sight that her knees buckled and Wren and Aiden caught her to hold her up.

"Come, let's board," Aiden said, rushing the two of them up the gangplank and onto the relative safety of the ship.

They were directed to the stateroom they would share, though Emilia hardly heard the words of the servants who directed them, nor saw the lovely room that Richard Fitzroy had somehow procured at the last moment. Her mind spun too much on what she had just done. She had rid herself at last of the man who had ruled and ruined her world for nearly a decade.

And she had killed her old self in the process. Fully stepped into the future. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Aiden shut the stateroom door and then he and Wren were coming to her, their arms sliding around her, their comfort loosening some of her fear.

"You were magnificent," Aiden said against her hair. "My God, it was like watching an empress."

"I only hope it will work," Emilia murmured. "That he will hold to his side of the bargain and not seek me out again."

"When we get to Athawick, we'll change our names to something more permanent," Wren promised as he drew back. "He won't know them. And I doubt he'll waste time on it since I assume he has been heartily compensated for his loss by whatever you just granted him."

"Far too much," Aiden said with a frown. "Your money had been well-invested, Emilia. It is no small sum."

"No sum is too large to be free of him," she said.

Wren paced away and moved to the window of the stateroom where he looked out on the dock below. The bell had begun to ring and the last passengers were boarding in a rush. "I hate that he'll escape, though. That he won't be punished for his ill deeds and will even be free to commit more against whatever poor woman he marries next."

Emilia smiled slightly and Aiden cocked his head. "What is that look?"

Now she laughed because her freedom was truly beginning to set in and it felt like everything right and wonderful. "He won't, I don't think. This morning as we were saying our goodbyes, Huxley whispered to me not to worry about Wilburn. That his specialty was making sure pricks, as he called them, got what was coming to them. So Wilburn will not be unscathed, I don't think."

Wren's eyes widened. "I pity the man who gets on Hux's bad side."

They stared at each other, smiling as the ship began to move. And then they moved to each other again, their arms around each other, the truth of what was happening so powerful and true that it was almost too much.

"We are free," Emilia whispered. "Free to live. Free to love one another. All of us."

Aiden pulled back and looked at them both and then he whispered, "If it wasn't all of us, it had to be none of us. But by God, I prefer this way."

"As do I," Wren and Emilia murmured.

And then they kissed, just as they had when they'd parted all those years ago. A joining of three mouths, three bodies, three hearts that somehow made up one whole.

And it was everything to Emilia. As it would be for the rest of her life.