Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

R ather than Godric, Ashton waited outside Emily's door to escort her to breakfast. Today the baron looked exceedingly fashionable in a dark blue coat, biscuit-colored breeches and an immaculately tied cravat.

He smiled and took her arm. "Emily."

"Good morning, Ashton." She couldn't resist the urge to smile back.

With Ashton alone she felt like a queen. It was a pity Charles lacked his subtle charm. He'd be truly dangerous to every woman in the ton if he accomplished that skill.

She proceeded with Ashton down to the dining room, with only Cedric present. He rose, bowed and sat back down as she took her seat.

"Lucien and Charles left for London about ten minutes ago. I believe they'll return tonight," Ashton said.

"Is Godric coming down?" She couldn't forget the tension that had passed between them. Emily had the jarring sense that he might try to avoid her.

"Yes, he's trying to find an old hunting coat."

"A hunting coat? He doesn't have one?" Every sensible man had at least one hunting coat.

"Yes, of course he does," Cedric said. "He's trying to find one for you."

"For me?" She was delighted they would let her come on such an outing, to which women were usually unwelcome.

"Yes, kitten. You're coming on our outing today. Why do you think your maid set out a twill gown and black boots for you?" Cedric asked with a small smile.

Emily glanced down at herself. She barely asked questions anymore when the maids pulled out clothes. She was dressed for a day of walking, not riding.

"We aren't hunting foxes then?"

Ashton laughed. "Lord, no, you are the only fox we've hunted lately. We want something less bothersome, so our prey will be pheasants."

Emily sat up on the edge of her seat. "Will I get to shoot one?"

Cedric's brows rose in surprise. "I would never have taken you for a hunter, Emily."

"It seems I never cease to amaze you. Will I get to shoot?"

"If you think we are stupid enough to give you a firearm—"

"I've handled one before! I know how to hunt."

Ashton steepled his fingers. "Our fear is not that you haven't handled a gun…" The unspoken words re vealed his true concern, and it wasn't for the pheasants.

Emily eyed the men reproachfully. "You honestly think I would shoot you? Any of you? Well, perhaps Charles, but only if he tries to tickle me again."

Cedric sat up in his chair, leaning towards her. "You will be in charge of Penelope. She has to learn to retrieve the fowl once we've shot them. Best to start them young, you know."

"I suppose I won't mind that." Emily nibbled at a scone. That they would limit her enjoyment out of some silly fear that she would shoot them irritated her. Well, perhaps it wasn't too silly. The thought of her out in the grass with five men whose arms were raised in surrender did put a smile on her face.

A few minutes later, Godric joined them, looking virile in his hunting jacket and buckskin breeches. He held out a black coat for her.

"It is my old coat, Emily. Let me put it on you."

Emily stood away from her chair and put her arms into the coat he held for her, and then he spun her around to face him so he could button it up. She wanted to swat his hands away and do it herself, but knew she'd lose that battle.

"There." He patted her shoulders so roughly that Emily staggered. The jacket hung loosely over her, hiding her figure.

Godric pressed her back down into her chair and took a seat next to her. "Now, finish your breakfast."

Emily felt a childish retort on the tip of her tongue but for once restrained herself.

After everyone ate, Ashton and Cedric fetched the guns while Godric lingered in the hall with Emily. He seemed indecisive about something, but finally spoke.

"You know, I don't think I had my proper good morning kiss from you." His eyes heated as they fell on her.

"You're mistaken. You stole a fair number of kisses from me this morning." Something in his face had changed, the dark part of him seemed to have returned, meaning to restore his control. She couldn't allow that, not if she wanted him to fall in love with her.

"This morning was an introduction to another type of pleasure."

"Well, I hate to disappoint you, Godric, but you are out of opportunities." Emily took a big step back, putting herself out of his immediate reach.

He advanced.

"That is the beauty of holding you captive. I don't need to worry about opportunities."

Oh? He thought she couldn't play the game back? Well, he was about to earn his kisses. She bit back a grin and glanced about the hall. Could she make it up the stairs to a room? No, he'd snare her halfway to the top.

She bolted, thinking only to get to the first doorway she could find, his study. She slammed the door, turned the key in the lock and braced herself against the door.

Godric beat on it from the other side. "Emily, open this door at once! I am in no mood to hunt you down."

She huffed. "But it's such a fine day for hunting, don't you think?" Let him make what he would of that.

"Simkins, get me the spare key!"

"Oh, blast." She studied the window. A sash window. The view beyond the windowpane revealed a small side garden on the left end of the manor.

She lifted the sill until the bottom half was wide open. Gathering her skirts in one hand, she tucked her legs up and dropped over the edge into a flowerbed.

Emily's hopes of evading Godric unseen were hampered. A gardener tended to a row of nearby yew bushes with a pair of shears—a stunningly handsome young man in his early twenties. He ran a hand through sandy blond hair that cast shadows above his eyes as he stared at the bushes he was working on. Hoping to sneak past, she started to move, but he turned just as she raised one foot. His gaze caught hers, a bewitching emerald trap she was intimately familiar with.

Her gut clenched, and realization dawned—this man had to be related to Godric. This man before her was a golden haired replica.

But Godric had been an only child—

The man dropped his shears and removed his gardening gloves. "You, I am guessing, should not be out here alone. His Grace must be looking for you."

"I…I was taking a bit of fresh air."

He studied her with amused interest…his eyes that same bewitching green. A distant cousin, perhaps? Surely, he had to share the same blood.

"Fresh air, eh? You couldn't have just walked out the front door, like a proper young lady? Scampering out of study windows is highly suspicious."

She waved her hand airily. "Oh, it's all the fashion in London, I assure you. Excellent source of exercise if one cannot go on a walk in Hyde Park."

The man smiled. "All the fashion? Be that as it may, I am afraid I must escort you back to His Grace."

He could have just taken her arm, politely escorting her back to her captors, but he didn't. He grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up over his shoulder. It seemed they had that in common as well.

"Good heavens! Put me down at once! I assure you it is just a game I am playing with His Grace. He would have found me soon enough."

"I'm sure he would, Miss. Nevertheless…"

He even talked like Godric. If not for his sandy blond hair, she would have sworn that…but that was impossible.

The young man carried her around to the front of the manor. Cedric and Ashton stood waiting, guns in hand.

Cedric chuckled. "Afternoon, Jonathan. I suppose we're fox hunting after all."

"And the hound's already got her," added Ashton.

Emily knew she must be offering the rogues an excellent view of her backside and kicking legs. Jonathan put a firm hand on her rump and Emily growled indignantly. Would no man in this world treat her with the respect she deserved?

"Put me down at once!" Emily balled a fist and pounded it into Jonathan's own rump. "How do you like it?"

Jonathan jerked in shock. "She's a spitfire!"

Ashton laughed. "You have no idea."

Despite being a servant, this one seemed at ease with Godric's friends, even more so than Simkins. Emily filed this away for further contemplation.

"How did you catch the vixen?" Cedric walked around behind Jonathan to look at her. Emily scowled as the blood rushed to her head.

"She was climbing out of His Grace's study window. I thought His Grace might have misplaced her."

As if summoned, Godric came storming around the corner. No doubt he had climbed out the same window. Relief softened the anger in his eyes.

"Ah, Helprin, you found her. I wasn't sure how far she'd gotten."

"Not far. She barely put up a fight. Just stood there staring at me." Jonathan slid Emily off his shoulder and into Godric's waiting arms.

Godric held her firmly in place as she looked away from all of the smiling men. They had yet again wounded her pride, and things continued to worsen.

Godric loosened a coil of rope from his arm.

Cedric and Ashton kept her rooted to the ground while Godric secured her. With a complex knot about her waist Emily found herself anchored to Godric, separated by only six feet. His friends released her. She plucked at the rope and then looked up at Godric, her lack of amusement evident.

"This isn't humiliating at all," she said, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Don't pout, Emily. You can't run from me now. I always get what I want, and it is time for you to accept that."

"If we are discussing things that we must learn to accept, you ought to accept that I won't cower and just melt in your arms whenever you command! I have better things to do with my life than become your plaything!"

Godric didn't seem the least bit perturbed. He grabbed her by the arms, tugged her to his chest and covered her mouth with his. Godric's tongue shot straight between her lips, and Emily's body reacted as it always did, with weak knees and a heat that defied rational thought entirely. Damn her senses.

She was still on her feet only because Godric maintained a firm grip on her arms. Otherwise she would have collapsed like a newborn foal, shaky and untested.

"What was that you were saying about not melting in my arms?"

Dimly Emily remembered their audience, staring at Godric's eyes was like being swallowed up in a meadow of tall grass, a personal paradise for her and her alone.

"I…" Coherent words weren't possible. Godric smiled with the grin of a cat sated on a bowl of cream. She bristled with indignation. He enjoyed destroying her resistance. If he meant to toy with her, just use her the wa y he would any woman… Well! That wasn't going to happen.

"You bind me as if I am a dog on a leash, then take what you desire with no regard to me. Touch me again, without my permission—" her voice dropped into an icy hiss "—and you will lose a body part, the one you favor most. Think about that. I have not asked to be here. I am not some lightskirt, and when you treat me like one, it is humiliating."

Godric blinked. He'd clearly not expected this reaction. "But, darling—"

"Do not ‘darling' me, Your Grace." Emily dragged her index finger in a dangerous line down his chest to his waist and scissored her fingers. "I will geld you like a horse if you continue to treat me so."

Her words might have made more of an impression if the other rogues hadn't been laughing so hard.

"Are we ready to leave?" asked Cedric. "As much as I enjoy a good kissing, if I'm not on one end of it, I tend to lose interest. We are wasting the day away watching you two have all the bloody fun."

Godric studied Emily's face for a long moment, then brushed a loose coil of her hair back from her cheek. "We're ready, Cedric. Lead the way."

The hunting party set out. Penelope bounded ahead of them, her young instincts guiding her. Cedric, the most avid hunter, cradled his gun in the crook of his arm, scanning the fields and woods. They climbed over the stone wall and moved into the forest. The weather was fine. A cool breeze tugged playfully at Emily's loose hair .

She'd not used Godric's butterfly comb. Libba told her that it wouldn't match her outfit. She'd been right, but Emily brought it with her to put her hair up later.

As she trudged behind Godric and Ashton, Emily slipped it into her hair. She plucked it from the hidden pocket of her skirts and gathered her hair back into a loose bun, and then slid the comb's teeth in to secure it.

Godric walked ahead of her. The length of rope tightened between them before she could catch up and the rope jerked her forward. He spun around as the rope tugged, just in time to catch her stumbling into his arms.

He pulled her up against him with ease, saving her from a nasty fall.

"What were you up to, little vixen? Escape again?"

"And give you a reason to chase me? Not a chance." She hoped he'd notice the comb, but wasn't going to point it out to him. She didn't need to inflate his oversized sense of self further.

Ashton walked past the pair of them. "That is a lovely comb you have in your hair, Emily." He hurried to catch up with Cedric.

Godric, gripping Emily's arm, turned her around. "You weren't wearing that when we left."

Emily's lashes dropped. "Libba said it didn't match my outfit, but I expected there to be wind, so I smuggled it out."

Godric smiled with such warmth and pride that Emily tingled. He gripped her waist again, pulling her against him, his body warm and hard, unlike the cold air that danced, shifted, celebrated around them. Emily didn't mind at all .

"You do find ways to get what you want, even if you continue to act like you don't." He chuckled.

"Minor victories, Your Grace, are not worth counting."

"Everything you do is worth counting."

He didn't move to kiss her as she'd expected him to. He merely moved his hands up and down her back over the loose hunting jacket.

She shivered beneath his touch.

"Are you warm enough, darling?"

"I am warm whenever you touch me." Realizing she'd admitted too much, she hastily added, "When I wish to be touched, that is."

"Hmm, I shall remember that." He released his hold on her waist and put an arm around her shoulders as they walked after the others.

Emily realized Godric wasn't carrying a gun. "Are you not shooting today?"

"I don't need to hunt. I've already caught you." He kissed the top of her head.

"It is highly unfair that Penelope is running around free while I am leashed."

Godric considered this. "You're quite right. Cedric, tether the pup so she doesn't wander off." He looked back to Emily. "There, my dear, fairness has been achieved."

Cedric grumbled. "Would you two kindly stop cooing at each other like a pair of doves? You are scaring away the pheasants."

"Jealous, Sheridan?" It was the first time Emily had ever heard one of the five men call another by his last name. It sounded like a schoolboy challenge, and she nearly laughed. Men would always be boys on some level, that much never changed.

"Jealous of you?" Cedric snorted. "You think I want to constantly chase and tie down a little fox like her? Not on your life, St. Laurent. It is far too much work. No woman is worth that."

Emily lifted her skirts as she stepped over a large stone. "Not even Anne Chessley?"

Cedric froze, his foot braced on a fallen log, watching the dog.

Penelope sniffed around the log's opening and then dove inside.

"Penny, come!" Cedric commanded, tugging on the leash.

The little hound crawled out from under the fallen log, looking alert and ready.

"Penny, sit." Her haunches dropped, her tail wagging on the grass, stirring leaves with its energetic swiping.

"Good girl." Cedric pulled out a biscuit from his pocket and tossed her a piece. Penelope caught the crumb, licking her lips.

"She's a fast learner. You should have no trouble with her, Emily."

"Cedric, you didn't answer my question."

"I had not planned on doing so."

"But—"

"No, Emily." He made a show of checking his gun and jumped over the log, walking away from them. Emily watched his retreating back with disappointment .

Ashton bent to stroke Penelope's head. "He's a bit stubborn when it comes to women."

"Really? When he told me about how he met Godric—"

Godric and Ashton looked at her.

"He told you that story?" Godric's face was red. Emily couldn't contain her grin. It was nice to see him flustered for a change.

"Oh, yes. He told me you got into a fight with an upper year over a woman."

Godric stumbled a step. "He did?"

Emily thought of the man with the cane. "Did you know Waverly very well?"

"Hugo was an older student and an unpleasant fellow to say the least," Ashton said. "He made a lot of trouble for us, but if it hadn't been for him we would never have met Charles."

"How did you meet Charles?"

Godric and Ashton laughed. Their reaction contained no humor, only a strange coldness.

Ashton answered vaguely. "What a night that was. Suffice it to say we rescued him from a rather prickly situation that Waverly put him in. Rescuing him was how the League was formed."

"Oh, but you must tell me more than that, Ashton!" Emily tugged on his sleeve, annoyed that he would deprive her of what was sure to be a grand tale.

"Perhaps at dinner. It is better if Charles is there. It is after all, more his story than ours."

There was another log ahead of them. Ashton casually stepped over it. Emily tried to lift her skirts, but Godric merely scooped her up and stepped over the log before setting her back down on her feet. She shook her skirts, trying to resume some sense of dignity, but none of the others had noticed. They took their hunting very seriously.

Far ahead, a crack of gunfire sounded as Cedric felled a pheasant. Emily, startled by the sound, took a step closer to Godric. She wasn't frightened of guns, but there was something about those first few shots, when the shooter was out of sight, which made her nervous.

"Can't stay away from me after all, eh?"

"Actually, your height and build are excellent for a shield."

Ashton chuckled but Godric recovered quickly and threw an arm back around her shoulders, keeping her tucked against his side.

"Cedric is a fine shot. He won't hit me, no matter how much you might wish for him to shoot my black heart."

She gave him a wicked smile. "If he managed to hit your backside, that would be well enough for me."

"Careful, darling, my temper is all over the place today."

She had a retort ready, but silence was probably best.

"Well, look at that." Ashton pointed to Penelope. Too small to carry her prize, the pup had resorted to dragging the pheasant along, growling with the effort. Cedric followed the dog, flashing a black look in Emily's direction.

"Here, Penelope." Emily patted her thighs. She dropped the bird and ran to her, bright eyes fixed intently on Emily. She rather looked like she was smiling, with her tiny pink tongue lolling out between her white little teeth.

"Good girl." Emily picked the dog up, hugged her and set her back down.

Ashton picked up the pheasant and dropped it into a burlap sack.

Cedric fixed a surly look at Penelope. "Little Penny here is just as willful as her mistress. She broke away from my grip, then refused to bring the bird I shot back to me." He continued to scowl at the dog, but without real malice.

Godric grinned. "She's loyal. You can't fault her for that."

Cedric frowned as he reloaded his flintlock. Emily figured the irritation of loading a gun was one of the reasons Cedric had learned to be a good shot. A man could grow old reloading his gun.

"I think I'll try my luck." Ashton hoisted his gun and walked off. Penelope followed at his heels.

Now alone with the duke, Emily wondered about a different matter.

"Godric, may I ask a question?"

He nodded.

"What is Mr. Helprin to you?" She phrased the question carefully, in case the answer proved upsetting.

"Jonathan? He's my valet."

"Valet? I haven't seen him attend you…"

Godric pulled her to a stop and cupped her shoulders. "Why the sudden interest in my valet? Not thinking of making me jealous, are you?" He grinned below stony eyes.

She couldn't resist teasing him. "Would you get jealous? I assumed with your hundreds of mistresses, you wouldn't worry if I turned my attention elsewhere."

"Don't you dare joke about that, Em." He growled the new nickname. "I want only you. I have no other women."

He didn't declare his love, didn't promise a permanent relationship, but it was a start.

Emily leaned against him, hugging his waist briefly on impulse.

"Will you untie me now? I'm not in the least inclined to run off."

"No. I like you tied to me." His words seemed filled with a deeper meaning.

The forest was quiet and beautiful. A fullness settled into the air and woods, as though a sleeping god dwelt within a tree close by. The trees sighed and swayed with the pull of the breeze. Magic coated the forest floor, and leaves fell every few moments in a storm of gold and red.

Everything was perfect. She owned a loyal hound, and walked in the presence of a man who wouldn't let her leave his side, albeit in a far too literal fashion, and the company of new friends built inside her a peace and joyful fervor. Words were unnecessary. Instead she spoke to Godric with smiles and the clasping of his hand in hers.

Life with her uncle had been cold. There were no jokes, no laughter, not even tears; just awful silence and the scratching of quills on paper. Why couldn't time stop for just a few days? A few weeks? She could stay here forever with Godric and the others.

"What are you thinking about?" Godric asked. Emily came back to herself, trying to dissolve the sudden melancholy.

"It's nothing." She tried to wipe away the evidence of her tears.

Godric's brow furrowed. "You are unhappy? Does the rope hurt?"

The caring tone clashed with his words in such a way that it made her laugh but it came out as a sob. "Unhappy?"

He massaged her waist, but she shook her head, and turned away, ashamed. She tripped on a broken branch but Godric caught her. He pulled her fully into his arms and held her tight to his chest.

"What… What can I do?" He couldn't know what she wanted or needed, but his intentions warmed her heart.

"Please, Godric, just hold me for a moment." Her lips brushed his throat as she snuggled against him.

He walked them back to the nearest log and sat down, cradling her in his lap. From the moment her parents died, no one had held her, comforted her. She'd been forced into her uncle's household, where her heart withered and died.

Godric wasn't offering love, but at least he cared, and that was a thousand times purer to her than anything her uncle had provided.

At that moment, Emily needed Godric's warmth, his strength, his embrace, more than she needed the air in her lungs.

It finally hit. Her parents were dead, and they would never come back. She was alone.

Tears came. Harsh, painful tears, but she let them flow, let them rule her. Soon enough they faded, and she was empty, a skeleton on the inside.

"Emily, are you all right?" Godric's warm lips caressed her ear.

"I'm…I will be all right. I am sorry to have cried. It must be annoying to listen to me."

"The only thing that upsets me is knowing I've made you cry."

"You? Oh, Godric, this was not… My tears were for my parents. It's finally sunk in that my parents are dead…that they're never coming back." Her voice shuddered. "I can't help but wonder what their last moments were like. My mother never learned how to swim… She must have been so frightened." Emily couldn't breathe, thinking about the cold, dark waters. A tightness gripped her mind, clenching around her head, making it hard to think.

"Breathe, Emily. Breathe." Godric's arms tightened about her body as he held her closer to him. Rather than feel suffocated, his embrace cocooned her with strength. She felt his mouth against her temple as he kissed her. Emily drew in a slow, painful breath.

"My poor darling," he murmured between gentle kisses that traveled down from her temple to her cheek. He nuzzled her neck, and his scent flooded her nose. It was soothing, dreamy, and yet enticing .

"I know what I can do to make you smile again."

"What? No, not that!"

"Oh yes."

Emily threw her arms around herself defensively, but it was too late as Godric began to tickle her.

In seconds she was laughing again. It was too odd to believe, she and the infamous Duke of Essex were entangled together, laughing and teasing. It was how she'd always believed love would be like.

The stormy passion in his eyes softened when she smiled at him. "Come on. We ought to catch up with the others."

Emily climbed off his lap.

They started to walk, and without a word, Godric slipped his hand into hers, their fingers lacing as if the world had always meant them to be together.