Page 40 of The Odd Riddle of the Lost Duchess
“Would you do that to Ann, George?” Emmeline asked. “Would you become a tyrant forcing me to follow some preconception of love when the lines for me are drawn in different places?”
“I’ll do my damnest to redraw them,” George replied. “Now come. We are leaving.”
“I will say goodbye to Ann,” Emmeline demanded, “until I do so, I am not leaving.”
“Yes, you are,” George replied. “Do you want to cast more shame on the young lady who was naïve enough to play dice in your game and ended up with snake eyes? The lady’s reputation is on a thin line because of you, Emmeline.”
“And I was the one who kissed her?” Emmeline replied heatedly. “Do not cast the first stone, Brother!”
With that, she spun on her heel and ran up the stairs to Ann’s suite of rooms and knocked on the door while nibbling on her lip. Emmeline had never expected the ruse to go up ended so quickly. Ann was supposed to get George’s word about releasing Emmeline and then they would move on. Noah had just shown up at the worst possible time.
She stood there with growing anxiety that suddenly turned to despair and dropped in her stomach like a block of lead. If Ann did not want to speak with her, it was for a good reason. She had almost damaged–if not outrightly ruined–her best friend’s social image and that pained her.
“Ann,” She said to the door, hoping her voice would carry to the other side. “I am truly sorry for putting you in such a dishonorable position. Please believe me that I never intended for things to spiral out so badly. You are my best friend, Ann, and I love you. Please forgive me.”
Pressing two fingers to her lips, Emmeline quelled the cry that was building in her system and with a few calming breaths, turned away. She got to the foyer to see Mrs. Benwick speaking with her butler, but on seeing Emmeline, she cut the conversation and approached her.
“Lady Emmeline, I have allowed your influence on my daughter for too long. I was able to salvage my daughter’s image just barely this night, but I cannot control any bad reports that might fly out now, and for that, I do ask that you not interact with her anymore, from this point on.”
Emmeline was appalled, “Excuse me?”
“Please leave my home immediately, Lady Emmeline,” Mrs. Benwick replied. “I appreciate your company these last few years, but the time has come for me to focus on my daughter’s future and your influence is not needed.”
Now Emmeline was angered, “Mrs. Benwick, might I remind you that I was not the one who kissed your daughter? She told a white lie to help me get peace between my brother and me, and if peacekeeping is not in your Christian values, it surely is in Ann’s. But for the sake of the same, I will go. Have a good night, Mrs. Benwick.”
Emmeline was just out the door when her harsh words caught up with her, and she felt even more horrible. Everything had gone so wrong that night. She had lost both George’s trust and Ann’s friendship. The only highlight of the evening–if it could be called that–was that Noah was not angry with her. Instead, he seemed impressed.
How had she messed up so many lives in one stroke and blasted a divide wider than the English Channel between her and her best friend’s family? The carriage pulled up and George tersely helped her inside. His stony silence pierced her soul.
She had barely made one step forward, only to be thrown ten steps back. Staring out at the shadowed bushes and dark trees on the way to the Grant’s manor at Leverton, she felt a bleakness come over her so strongly that it nearly broke her spirit. The only thing she could hang onto was Noah’s pledge to marry her.
One light in a sea of darkness,Emmeline sighed.Can it burn bright enough to cast out the pall?
The Leverton Manor loomed before her like a black behemoth. The three storeys, with gabled roofs and high terraces, looked torn out from the page of a gothic novel. When the carriage stopped at the bottom of the steps, Emmeline pressed her lips tight and waited until George opened the door and helped her out.
The silence continued as George opened the front door and without a word, she went to her rooms, opened the door, and sunk in the chaise heavily.
“Am I doomed?” Emmeline wondered. “What will happen now?”
Chapter 12
What Will Be
The manor house at Newberry was a relatively modern structure. The house was constructed only twenty-five years before when Noah’s father had appropriated the land and built the manor in an exquisite Georgian style, one that was far removed from the Tudor construction of their last home. Inside, the walls were pale colors, the ceilings were high, and the whole gave a feeling of light, air, and spaciousness.
Noah was sitting in his study with a pile of papers before him. They were a mound of debts, reports the manor’s tenants kept filing, spanning from one reason to another–crops were failing, the expense was used for a funeral, money was used dealing with an illness, merchant caravans were robbed, and the reasons went on and on.
The Duke wasn’t concerned much, as he knew his tenants would come through soon. And besides, the House of Newberry had enough money in the bank, and favor with the Crown, to have leeway for any taxes that were soon due.
His left hand was swirling a snifter of brandy as he reflected on the last week. The season had come to an infamous close at the Benwicks. Despite the ignominy, Noah was still impressed with how Emmeline had contrived to create peace between himself and her brother. He had planned the same but with another motive. Emmeline had apparently taken lessons from Shakespeare but not in a heinous way.
Almost everyone had an inkling about the attraction between George and Miss Benwick. She had many suitors, but the gentlemen knew that calling on her was just an enjoyable interlude until Leverton got the courage to approach her.
How was it, that Emmeline’s use of a simple ruse to make three blessings come about–the partnership between Miss Benwick and the Duke of Leverton, his own courtship of Emmeline, and peace between the dukedoms of Newberry and Leverton–was counted as something dishonorable? He was actually well pleased.
Getting up, he went to the large sash window, and with one hand in his pocket, looked out at the manor’s marvelous lawns.
Emmeline was everything he wanted and needed as his wife. There was the moment when he had feared that he had lost her, but the night at the Benwicks had told him differently. She loved him to the point she had used what was in her power to prove it to him.
