Page 64 of Dukes Do It Better
“Good work, everyone.” Emma stood and crossed to the covered dishes on the sideboard. “Please help yourselves to breakfast.”
She hastily stepped back to avoid the stampeding little feet, but their enthusiasm made her smile until Cal and Phee gestured her over.
“Start packing, Em. I would sleep better if I knew that you and Alton were away from this. Arson is a serious threat. What if they go after the house next? Phee, we should send Freddie to Lakeview with Miss Lacey,” Cal said in a low voice.
Phee said, “Agreed. The country will be safer for the children.” She linked her arm through Emma’s and tugged her toward the door. “Let’s go visit the boys in the nursery and tell them of their upcoming travels.”
Leaving Cal to supervise Frankie and the others’ breakfast, Emma let herself be escorted through the hall. “Phee, what am I going to do?”
Her best friend glanced over with a serious expression as they climbed the stairs to the family rooms. “You go on. You put one foot ahead of the other. Eventually you hurt less. You show up for your son and focus on being a mother for a while. Cal is right. Choose a house. Make it yours. I suggest an unentailed property, so we can give it to you. Alton will have his land, as you wanted. Eventually there will be an end to all this upheaval. In the meantime, take a footman with you everywhere. Charles is loyal, big, and will keep you safe until this is over.”
The words settled on Emma, and she blew out a breath. Alton would be safe. He’d be taken care of. They’d make sure of it. Everything else was merely heartbreak, and she’d already proven she could survive that.
“Did you love him, Em?”
Emma didn’t have to ask who Phee meant. “A little, yes. Or, I was well on my way. A slide from lust to love was happening, I think.” Blinking back fresh tears, Emma reached a shaky hand out to grasp the door handle to open the hall to the nursery.
A rueful smile tilted Phee’s mouth. “I’m glad you caught it in time, then. It wasn’t a slide for me. More like a sudden drop of realization that it had been Cal all along.”
How lovely it must have been. To wake up and realize you were already where you belonged. “I’m glad you have each other. Maybe one day I will find what you have. I need to stop letting rat bastards in my life first, though.”
Phee placed her hand on top of Emma’s on the nursery door. “Please don’t blame yourself. We had no way of knowing. All of us liked him. Hell, he even won over Lady Agatha.”
True. Mal had charmed everyone, slipping into their group of friends with an ease Emma had believed meant he belonged with them. With her.
Silly girl. Silly, stupid girl.
* * *
Something was wrong. Somehow, he’d made a mistake, and Malachi had no idea what he’d done. The note he’d sent Emma this morning sat in his hand, returned unopened.
The butler at Calvin’s house had said she was feeling poorly and wouldn’t be taking visitors for several days. The following day there was no reply to his concerned message. Which was fine. After all, the woman was a mother and surrounded by family and friends. It wasn’t as if she was pining her days away for want of word from him.
Like he was for her.
Today’s note had been returned unopened along with the bouquet of flowers he’d sent to cheer her up as she recovered from whatever malady befell her. The blooms sat in a vase on his dressing table. Emma hadn’t even taken his flowers.
What the hell had happened?
The only bright spots in the last few days came in the form of a summons from the Admiralty, and a note from Simon. A contact, who Simon simply referred to as Smith, had agreed to take a look at the bank book.
Mal should be thinking about the government information his father had left behind and returning to his ship before it left drydock. Instead, he was worrying about Emma’s silence.
He’d had relationships end before, of course. But never this abruptly or mysteriously. Nothing else explained her silence—they were over, hours after agreeing they both wanted more from each other. It didn’t make sense. The clock in the hall chimed, and Malachi rubbed at an ache under his sternum.
The clock’s bells continued, and he glanced over. Damn it, he was supposed to have left a quarter hour ago. Simon was meeting him at the codebreaker’s house.
The sun was obnoxiously bright against his face when he stepped outside to flag down a hack, and he glared up at the sky.
Fine, he was grumpy. Who would blame him, though?
Thankfully, the traffic gods were smiling down on him, even if the relationship gods were not. Although running late, he wasn’t too far behind schedule when the hack arrived at the address Simon had given him.
The house was in a nice area of town with beautifully kept homes and swept streets. Having been on the receiving end of the king’s salary for years, Malachi had to wonder who this codebreaker Smith fellow was that he could afford to live here. The sight of Simon pacing in front of a set of stone steps, thumping an impatient tattoo against his thigh with his hat, was confirmation that he had the correct address.
“Where have you been? We’re late,” Simon greeted him.
“Hello to you too. Sorry. I lost track of time.” Getting into the intricacies of his suddenly dismal love life while standing on the street sounded like an appalling idea, so he gestured to the house. “After you.”
