Page 54 of A Duke to Undo her
“Have you abandoned your oath now, then?” he asked her and Josephine shook her head.
“No, it is only that my ideal has changed. I want only a man that I love and who loves me, with his whole heart. I will marry no one else. I think that you should swear the same, or you will never be happy. Don’t marry the next woman who comes along, only toget away from Ashbourne Castle. Wait for someone who makes your heart sing…”
Benedict Emerton listened to this earnest declaration with a smile.
“I suspect my mother would agree with you but I would love to see Cassius’ face if I told him that I was waiting for true love.”
“I think it would do him good to hear it,” Josephine remarked. “Tell him that you will settle for nothing less than a woman who adores you for yourself and doesn’t seek to change you. Tell him that he should look for the same.”
“Maybe one day, when I am feeling particularly brave,” laughed her friend, now getting to his feet and Josephine rising with him. “For now, I shall return to Ashbourne Castle with my tail between my legs for letting my arguments with my brother make me do something so foolish.”
“I can understand it,” Josephine told him. “Cassius can be very… compelling.”
“Yes, he has a kind of animal charisma, despite his anti-social manner at times,” Mr. Emerton remarked, entirely unaware of Josephine’s shiver. “It makes it very hard to refuse him what he wants at times. I am lucky he is a principled man, I suppose, or I would be in a far worse position.”
Josephine only nodded, speechless with her renewed desire for Cassius Emerton’s touch.
“Well, as you cannot be my wife, will you promise to be my sister instead, Lady Josephine? I should hate you ever not to be in my life.”
This request was more heartbreaking for Josephine than Benedict Emerton could know. To guarantee her ongoing friendship with one brother was to ensure a painful and permanent connection with the other. Yet, how could she refuse? She did like Benedict so very much and also saw how much he needed good friends to help him remain his own man in the face of Cassius’ misguided attempts to co-opt him.
“I will always be your sister, Benedict, through thick and thin. Madeline thinks I should go to Scotland soon, for a change of scenery. I could write you, if I do, so you don’t think I have vanished.”
“You do look like you could do with a change of air, Lady Josephine. Be sure that you write to my mother, if you do go to Scotland, and tell us all your funniest stories. If you address your letters to me, Cassius will likely judge it most improper and have words with your family.”
Benedict was laughing as he spoke but Josephine could say nothing in reply. Impulsively and naturally, they hugged one another in farewell and it did feel exactly like hugging a sibling. When Benedict departed a few minutes later, it was with a calmer mood and more relaxed smile.
“What in the world was that all about?” asked the mystified Madeline when she returned to the room with Vera.
“Mr. Emerton had argued with his brother, the duke, and needed someone to talk to,” Josephine told them, truthfully enough. “I hope I gave him the right advice.”
Vera looked very relieved, if still puzzled by this account.
“Well, I suppose that is explanation enough. When he came to the front door, from the way he was speaking, I even thought…I thought he had come to propose to you.”
“I shall never marry, Vera,” Josephine declared, tears suddenly beginning to spill from her eyes again. “Not unless I am entirely in love and that love is returned in kind. I don’t care if I end up an old maid. I want only what you and Norman have, and Constance and Ophelia with their husbands.”
Both her older sister and her friend rushed forward to embrace and comfort her.
“Are you angry with me, Vera? Do you think me a fool?”
“No, I think you a young woman of great feeling and I will always support you, Josephine. You deserve love, and I am sure you will find it, one day.”
Meeting Madeline’s eyes, Josephine sobbed again. Perhaps she should flee north to Scotland.
“I think that Josephine might need a peaceful holiday,” said Madeline to Vera, as though reading Josephine’s mind. “What about Scotland…?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“You’ve been to London and back?” Nerissa Emerton exclaimed with surprise upon meeting her youngest son in the hallway as he returned late that evening. “You really should have told us, or left a note. No one knew where you had vanished to.”
“I am sorry, Mother,” Benedict said penitently. “I didn’t intend to worry you. It’s only that I argued with Cassius last night, after you went to bed. I was still so angry this morning that I got straight on my horse and went to London.”
Pleased to have him safely home but her face still creased with worry at his explanation as much as his absence, the dowager duchess rang a bell and asked for a tray of cold food to be brought for him to the library.
“But why did you go to London?” she probed as they walked together into the library. “What did you and Cassius argue about that made you want to do that?”
Benedict looked rather sheepish as he considered his answer.
