Page 41 of The Girl Out of Time
Chapter 11
Emmeline clutched her hands, as if that could help her steady her heart, threatening to burst out of her chest. In some faraway corner of her mind, she knew she wasn’t the real Maria Grey, and this man wasn’t her real fiancé—but still, everything felt so real.
This was it; the part in the play when the would-be-lovers finally laid eyes on each other. Everything hinged on it. It had to be dramatic, romantic, perfect, and that one look had to say a thousand words.
Daniel swiveled his gaze to Emmeline, eyes passing over her figure. A dozen scenarios ran through her head. Perhaps he’d bow. Perhaps he’d walk up to her, take her hand, and kiss it. Perhaps he’d tilt his head and greet her with a mischievous smile, hiding unspoken promises. Kneeling would probably be too much—
Daniel raised his chin, uttered a curt “Miss Grey,” and headed down the hallway, disappearing through a door.
Louisa raised a hand as if trying to stop him and stayed in the pose, as stunned as Emmeline.
Emmeline gulped. He rejected her, and she had no idea why it hurt so much when she didn’t even know him. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It had never been like this in any of her books.
Was there something wrong with her?
“He must be tired from travel.” Louisa sprung back into motion and came to hold Emmeline’s hands. “He’ll behave much better at dinner, you’ll see.”
“If you wanted to know all the gossip from London, you could’ve gone there yourself.” Daniel placed the napkin back into his lap, mouth pursed.
The duchess, sitting at the head of the table, looked in no better a mood. “I was simply wondering if Lady Oxley had purchased a new poodle yet. She told me last winter she intended to do so.”
“You seem to be under the mistaken impression I spend my time in London gathering intelligence on your friends, Mother. If there were anyintelligenceto gather.”
Louisa, sat next to Emmeline, let out a chuckle and caught Emmeline’s eye.
“What?” Emmeline whispered.
“It’s quite strange, not being the one chided, for once.”
For a brief moment, Emmeline cheered up. In all other aspects, the dinner was a flaming mess. The duchess and Daniel were going at each other like two fight dogs—certainly not poodles—in a ring, while Louisa and Emmeline helplessly observed. The duke, sitting at the foot of the table, hadn’t said a word yet, seemingly having washed his hands of the situation.
“Daniel!” The duchess put a hand on her jewel-encrusted chest. “Do you really wish to speak so in front of our guest?”
“If you didn’t want that to happen, perhaps you shouldn’t have invited her for a vacation.” Daniel’s eyes flicked to Emmeline before returning to his mother. “Or has she come to take measurements of her future quarters?”
“Well, I say!” The duchess lay down her cutlery a touch too hard, the ringing of the silver against the plate reverberating through the dining room.
“Next time, consider saying less.” Daniel scrunched up his napkin and tossed it on the table, stood, and left with the curtest nod.
A deep, uncomfortable silence descended. The duchess blinked, looking somewhere to the side as if that could take the focus off her. Even Louisa didn’t smile anymore. Emmeline gazed at the few buttered potatoes left on her plate, wishing she had the appetite to eat them.
On the bright side, at least Daniel wasn’t dismissiveonlyof her, right?
“Well,” the duke finally said, dry joviality imbuing his tone. “If all dinners are like this, I should turn up more often.”
Rattled after the events of the day, Emmeline headed to the servants’ quarters, instead of her bedroom, after dinner. She asked for Theo and was directed to the stables. Odd, that he’d still be working at this hour, but when she arrived, the stables were empty. An oil lamp on the wall flickered on its last fumes, and the horse in the nearest stall whinnied at her appearance.
“Hello?” she tried. “Theo?”
“Miss Grey?” his voice came from the outside.
She backtracked and craned her neck up.
Theo peeked past the roof, his pale face shooting out from the dark. “Is something the matter?”
She shrugged. “I wanted to talk.”
He made a move to slide down, but she stopped him with a, “No, wait” and climbed a barrel next to the wall until she was high enough Theo could hoist her up. He’d brought a blanket and had it spread across the wooden shingles.
