Page 97 of The Forbidden Lord
Hurrying into the house, she fumbled about in her mind for how to tell Papa why she was here. But she stopped short at the sight of not only her father, but Lawrence sitting in the drawing room.
Surprise gave way to relief. “Thank God! Lawrence, you can take me back to London. How did you get here? On your horse? I can ride. If we hurry?—”
“Slow down, child,” her father interrupted. “What are you doing here? How did you come? Lawrence has been telling me the most astonishing story?—”
“There’s no time for that, Papa.” She turned to Lawrence. “We must leave for London at once.”
“What’s wrong?” Her cousin’s face grew drawn. “Is it Sophie? My God, what have they done to her? If that beast of a father has hurt her, I’ll …”
He trailed off as he saw the confused expression on her face.
“Sophie?” she whispered. “You’re concerned forSophie?”
Color suffused his face, and that’s when she knew. Dear heavens. “You’re the one.”
“The one?” Casting her father a helpless look, Lawrence mumbled, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, yes, you do, devil take you.”
“Emily!” her father said sternly. “How dare you use such language!”
She wanted to laugh. If only her father knew … All the things she’d done, the words she’d spoken, and for what? Because she hadn’t seen what had been right under her nose all this time. Lawrence’s dramatic response to Sophie … Sophie’s dramatic response to him. She should have realized they were attracted to each other.
Granted, Lawrence had claimed to despise the “snobbish” Lady Sophie. Yet after the ball, he’d not been so vehement in his dislike. He’d even asked a casual question or two about Sophie and her family, but she’d assumed …
“How did you manage to court her when her father keeps her so secluded?” she asked, trying to make some sense of it. “I know he never allowed it.”
“Court her?” her cousin said in feigned surprise.
“Curse you, Lawrence, stop this foolish pretense. I know you tried to elope with Sophie.”
It was her father’s turn to be confused. “Lawrence tried to elope with Lady Sophie? But when? How?”
“In London a few weeks ago,” Emily explained tersely. “Lord Nesfield caught her as she was leaving the house, and Lawrence was forced to flee.”
All this time, and it had been Lawrence. She might as well put the noose around her neck herself. Her own cousin. Lord Nesfield would never believe she’d had no part in Lawrence’s plans.
“Lawrence,” her father demanded in his most ministerial voice. “Is this true?”
Lawrence looked from her to her father. Then he crumpled. “Yes.”
“May God have mercy on us all,” her father muttered. “Lord Nesfield will have my hide for this.”
He’ll have more than that,Emily thought morosely. “Oh, Lawrence, if you only knew what trouble you have caused?—”
“I don’t care,” he said with all the selfishness of a man in love. “I love her. She loves me.”
Emily gave a shaky, nearly hysterical laugh. “Young love. A pity Lord Nesfield doesn’t understand the concept. He thinks a fortune hunter has put her under a spell.”
“That bastard!” Lawrence leapt to his feet. “I don’t care about his money. He has the sweetest daughter in Christendom, and he doesn’t even know it.”
“That’s the trouble—he does know it.” Emily sank into a chair, more weary than she could express. Her masquerade had been for nothing. The lies and games and her shattering night with Jordan … all of it, pointless. She was completely ruined, her reputation in a shambles and her life soon to be at risk, all because she’d been blind to her cousin’s change in affections. And her friend’s.
“When did this happen?” she whispered. “You seemed to dislike her so.”
Lawrence began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back. “I thought she was beautiful, of course, from the first. Even then, I envied the man who would have her. But she seemed toohaughty, too cold. Then at the ball, when you told me all those things about her shyness, I began to reconsider.”
Another mad laugh escaped her lips. Wonderful. She could thank herself for that.
