Page 120 of His Duchess in Disguise
“I’ll have a cup here if you don’t mind, Mrs. Noddicott. It would be a great deal too much trouble to bring all of you up to the study when we have perfectly good chairs and a table right here.”
Leo sat down at the table and gestured for Hamilton and Captain Arnault to bring stools over so that they could join them. He waved away cream and sugar then sipped the steaming brew.Mint. No wonder the place smells of it. It seems to be the beverage of choice.
“Now then, Miss Smith, I think it is time for us to all be honest with each other.”
“But, Your Grace . . .” Emma looked at him, her eyes round and terrified. Her nose was pink from weeping and her eyelashes still suspiciously damp.
“Tell me what really happened,” Leo insisted implacably.
Emma swallowed. “I was taking a bath. I was so sore from riding. Not even when I came out from London did I ride so long or hard.” She flushed pink, realizing she had already said more than she wished to say.
“Go on,” Leo said gently.
“I was dosing, daydreaming about the books, and. . . and stuff, when Mr. Blank came barging in. He . . .” she stopped, and sniffled. “He called me by my real name,” she said softly. “And he threatened to tell if I didn’t ‘show him a nice time.’”
Emma set her cup of tea down on the table. The liquid in it sloshed a little, showing that her hands were trembling. “I want to be here,” she said. “I think I could be happy here. I don’t want to go back.”
“Then tell us all the truth, Emma. I can’t protect you as a housemaid now that your secret is out. If Matthew Blank knows who you are, then there is a good chance it will be all over the village before morning.”
Emma flinched at the sound of her own name. Then she told the whole story, from being presented to the Queen to Robbie leading her back to the kitchen door at Menhiransten Manor. “I’d rather cut carrots for the rest of my life than be married to the Earl of Cleweme,” she ended.
“Since I am not fond of bloodied carrots,” Leo said, “I would truly prefer that you did not. We shall have to come up with something else.”
“I could go to Australia,” Emma said, a little sadly.
“And be eaten up by cannibals?” Leo asked, with amusement.
“At least they wouldn’t expect me to be polite about it,” she retorted sharply. “As Lady Cleweme, I would be expected to be politely subservient in public, and who knows what in private. He already has my father in his pocket, so I would have no protector should the marriage be less than pleasant.”
“She is not wrong,” Hamilton commented.
“Indeed, she is not,” Leo agreed. “Putrid Percy has a nasty reputation, even in Covent Gardens. The Pearthornes had passage on the Menhiransten on my last voyage, and Mrs. Pearthorne was not bashful about expressing her opinion of the Earl of Cleweme.”
“I do recall,” Captain Arnault endorsed, “that even some months later she told the story of his proposition to her with shuddering distaste. One can hardly blame a young woman who was befriended by the lovely widow for not receiving the Earl’s advances with equanimity.”
Hamilton looked up at the darkened beams of the kitchen ceiling, and said, “A well-read author recently noted that a man who is single and who has a good fortune, certainly needs a wife.
“What was that, Hamilton?” Leo asked.
“Well, Your Grace,” Hamilton said, “You could marry her. Of course, if you want an heir for Menhiransten before meeting the Earl; you’ll have to work fast for the date set for the duel is only a week hence.”
Emma blushed, rose, and clutched at the back of the chair as if she might hide behind it. Leo also rose from his chair, startled by his secretary’s suggestion.
“It’s just an idea,” Hamilton said. “I’m not even sure it’s a good one. But she is a baron’s daughter, and although without her father’s consent she won’t be able to bring a dowry unless you count her mare, but it could take care of one part of who is going to inherit Menhiransten.”
“I just ran away from one marriage,” Emma protested.
“True enough,” Hamilton said. “But you ran away from marrying the Earl of Cleweme, which by all accounts, shows that you have both spirit and good sense.”
Emma began to laugh. It was a bit hysterical, but it was genuine laughter. When she wound down, she wiped the corners of her eyes with her cap and said, “I was terrified. I could see that I was not going to get any sympathy from father. My uncle would not have let my aunt take me in, and if I went to Mrs. Pearthorne, I would only make trouble for her. Running away to look for work was the only thing I could think of to do. I’d helped Mrs. Able because Father kept dismissing the servants until there were only two. I thought I could do it.
“Only,” she sobered still farther, “being a kitchen maid is harder than being a scullery maid. I’d never cut that many carrots before, but I’d watched Mrs. Able do it. I scrubbed them for her, but she preferred to cut them. Now I know why.”
Leo looked at her thoughtfully. “Miss Hoskins, you are a very brave young lady. I know many men who might have hesitated to head into unknown territory with only three pounds and a shilling to their name and not so much as a water bottle.”
“I really should have thought of a water bottle,” Emma said. “Rags and Beauty could drink from a stream, but I just could not bear to try it myself.”
“Probably a good thing,” Hamilton put in. “No doubt saved you from becoming quite ill, especially if the sheep had roiled it up.”
