Page 53 of The Matchmaker Meets her Duke
"What are you talking about?” Pandora huffed out a frustrated breath. Then, as calmly as she could manage, she pulled herself together and told her brother everything.
Edward nodded, but mostly he listened and watched her intently with those thoughtful eyes of his. When she finished he said, "But who would do such a thing?"
"I don't know, Edward. That's what makes no sense. And Emmett–" she shook her head.
"What about him?"
"He'll see it. Somebody will give it to him, and he'll run his eyes over those horrible, horrible words–" she stopped talking, afraid that she might choke on her own words and tear up yet again.
"Surely he won't believe you're capable of such vice, Pandora."
Pandora shook her head. She didn't know what to believe Emmett would believe. She did not want to embarrass herself, she refused to overestimate the way that he felt toward her. She feared disappointment. She didn't want to set herself up for even more despair than this.
"Where is he now?" said Edward.
She flicked a hand in an uncertain gesture. "I don't know. Home, Willcrow Manor, but certainly somewhere he had access to the paper."
"You should have gone to him first. You should have found him first, Pandora."
"I didn't know what to do!" she cried, her confusion and despair now giving way to a simmering, consuming anger. "You should have seen the looks on their faces, Edward."
"Whose?"
"Rose! Her grandmother. They didn't want a word from me, they were so certain that I would… that I would do such a thing."
Edward crossed the room and came up beside her. He gathered her in his arms, and Pandora allowed him. She wanted to sink into her brother's comforting embrace and forget everything.
She lifted her head to him. "What if he doesn't believe me?"
"Then he doesn't deserve you.” Pandora scoffed at that. She wasn't sure who deserved who anymore, or what. "But you do love him, don't you?"
"Yes," she said, the word a testament and a promise, a dam crashing loose from her tongue. "I love him so much, I can hardly believe myself."
"Then it's settled." He took her hand in his. "And I wouldn't write Rose off like that," he added.
"How so?"
"Just, best not to draw conclusions. We don't know what's in her head. She might have believed you but feared offending her grandmother."
"Hm, yes you're right, absolutely," Pandora agreed teasingly.
"What was that?''
"What was what?" She feigned innocence.
"That tone, Pandora. I'm your brother. I know when you're mocking."
She clutched a hand to her chest, feigning offense. "Why would Ievermock my brother, who usually doesn't care a bit about women suddenly defending the honor of my beautiful sister-in-law?"
"I have no idea what you insinuate."
"Of course, you don't." She beamed innocently at him, and he squinted at her in mock indignation. She spoke of her journey here on foot and the way that she had taken the back door of the kitchen, to the scandalized surprise of the maids and footmen.
"Yes, I'm sure you've given my staff something to gossip about for days to come."
"Keeping their mood alive. You ought to thank me even."
"I'll do no such thing. Now come downstairs, we have guests to attend to."
