Page 20 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
“You are impossible.”
Emmett cocked his head. “You say that so often, I might just start to believe you.”
“Would you prefer I call you incorrigible?”
“Incorrigible, I like the sound of that.”
Pandora looked back out the window before speaking again. “Is there anything you’d like to know about me?”
‘So many things,’ thought Emmett. He cleared his throat. “What about your childhood? I have a sister, you have a brother, surely our childhoods couldn’t have been that different.”
“A daughter’s education compared to a Duke’s heir? I should think we learned very different things. I don’t know a word of Latin, or about the stars and planets.”
“Would you like to?” said Emmett. “I have a library’s worth of books on a variety of subjects.”
“You wouldn’t think it unseemly of your wife to read about science?”
Emmett cracked a grin. “Well, if it keeps you from writing that gossip column–”
“Incorrigible.”
“Very much so,” said Emmett as he leaned back in his seat. The coach turned down a lane that would eventually lead them home, and Emmett stirred.
“Do you like to ride?” he asked suddenly.
Pandora blinked at him. “Very much so. Edward and I used to go riding almost daily before our parents died.”
“And after?” Pandora looked away.
Emmett frowned. “I’m sorry, I should have realized it would be a difficult topic.”
“No, no. It’s all right. I just don’t like thinking of ‘before’ and ‘after’. Our lives changed so much, and as much as I loved my Aunt, she couldn’t fill the void–” Pandora broke off and stuffed a knuckle in her mouth to stop further words from coming out.
The coach swayed as Emmett hopped over to her side and sat beside her. A little awkward, he put his arms around her, as a husband should. After a moment of stiffness, she buried her face in his chest and trembled.
“It’s all right, Pandora,” said Emmett in a hesitant voice. What else could he say to her?
In response, she just sniffled and buried her face further into his waistcoat. His arms tightened around her as a strange tenderness overtook him. Not the protectiveness he felt toward Rose, though there were certain similarities. This was different, deeper. But still so strange and new.
‘You know what it is,’said a traitorous voice from the back of his mind. Emmett stuffed the thought away and looked back down at Pandora. This was the first time she had let him touch her, even if it was in simple comfort, and he didn’t want to disturb her.
ChapterEleven
Pandora awoke as the coach pulled to a stop in front of Willcrow Manor. She lay still for a moment, warm but disoriented. Her arm was slung across… Emmett’s chest?
She pulled herself upright with a yelp. “Your Grace, my apologies, I didn’t mean–”
“So we are back to ‘Your Grace’ again, are we?” said Emmett with a yawn. His eyes were lidded and relaxed, and Pandora stilled her tongue. Had she ever seen him so at ease?
A footman opened the door, and she took his hand and stepped down without a second thought. Emmett chuckled behind her and followed her out. With a click of his tongue, the driver had the horses moving, leaving Pandora and Emmett alone in front of the Manor.
Pandora looked up at Emmett through her eyelashes. “My… Emmett. Thank you.”
He raised an eyebrow in a gesture that was becoming increasingly familiar to her. “For what?” he asked.
“For trying to get to know me. For wooing me, as against your character as that sounds. It puts me at ease in a way that surprises me. We have more in common than I thought we did.”
Emmett’s answering smile had a strange quality to it that she couldn’t identify. “Indeed we do.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we?”
