Page 63 of Wicked Rivals
Without warning, Emily burst through the parlor doorway and hugged him. “Oh, Ashton! You and Rosalind have sorted out your differences. How wonderful!” She beamed at him, and in that moment his heart sank. He was about to disappoint her. Emily, the woman who believed everyone deserved to be loved.
Godric gently pried his wife off Ashton. “Let the man breathe, darling.”
“How did it happen?” Horatia asked. She and Anne had joined them, forming a large group in the hall. “When we last saw Lady Melbourne, she was furious with you and determined to save herself from the financial ruin you put her in.”
Emily suddenly narrowed her eyes. “Ashton, were you inconsiderate to her? She is a friend, and I shouldn’t like to discover you bullied her into something. I won’t allow it.”
She thought she could control him? How sweet. How utterly misguided. “I did not bully her.”Not exactly,he silently amended. “She lost a game of chess, and the stakes were marriage if I won.”
Lucien frowned. “That doesn’t seem like you, leaving an outcome to chance.”
“Hardly chance. There’s a reason none of us play against him anymore,” said Godric. “But how the devil did she make the mistake of playing chess with you?”
Ashton grinned. “Rafe had convinced her my skills were…below average.”
Lucien snorted. “There’s the Ash I know.”
“Why would Rafe say that? He’s not usually in the habit of helping you,” Cedric added.
“Indeed,” Ashton agreed. “But he was foolish enough to rob Rosalind’s coach, and—”
Godric cut in, waving a hand. “What?”
“Rob?” echoed Lucien.
Emily held a hand to her mouth in shock before Godric continued. “What in blazes was Rafe doing robbing a coach?”
“It seems he’s added highwayman to his ever growing list of questionable talents,” said Ashton.
“Good God,” Lucien muttered. “That man is going to hang someday.”
“Yes, I’ll have to deal with him later, once I’ve married Rosalind.”
“Oh, no you will not!” Emily jabbed a finger in his chest hard enough to make him stumble back a step.
“Emily…” Ashton felt exasperated. He was not in the least bit interested in receiving another lecture about how he should treat Rosalind with kid gloves.
“Don’t you ‘Emily’ me, Ashton. I’ll not have you mistreating Rosalind. She’s a wonderful creature, and I won’t let you break her spirit out of some misguided notion of pride. What, it was not enough to simply ruin her finances, you now mustpossessher as well?”
She honestly thought he had it in him to break a woman? God’s teeth, he’d never do that. He loved the fairer sex far too much to be that cavalier in his interests.
“Sheiswonderful, and I have no intention of breaking her,” he countered. “This is to our mutual advantage.”
Emily halted her military-style advancement. Her violet eyes grew wide and searching.
“You think she’s wonderful too?”
He nodded. “Of course.” How could he not? She was intelligent, beautiful and stubborn.
“Yet you don’t love her?” Emily asked, her violet eyes full of curiosity.
“I am fond of her and wish her no harm, but you are correct.”
Emily looked briefly at Anne and Horatia before she spoke again. “Then off you go to the Doctors’ Commons. We ladies have some dresses to shop for if we’re to be ready for the wedding.”
It took a moment for Ashton to absorb what had been said. “Pardon?”
“Yes,” Anne agreed. “It’s important we are all there. Weddings are family affairs. And you are family in all ways but blood.”
