Page 60 of The Girl Out of Time
And as if there wasn’t enough hubbub in the house yet, one day Emmeline found the duchess and the duke arguing in the drawing room.
“Because in that case, we need to vet the servants,” the duchess got out before they noticed Emmeline, and hushed.
“Is anything the matter?” Emmeline asked.
“Nothing for you to worry about, dear,” the duke said, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“But we might have a thief!” the duchess protested.
“I’m sure the necklace simply fell on the floor behind some bookshelf when the study was last being cleaned,” the duke said to his wife. “And we’ll discover it months from now while looking for something else entirely.”
So the duchess had discovered the pendant had been stolen. With the duke trying to brush off the event, did that mean hewasbehind it?
“Besides, it was hardly worth anything,” he said.
“What was?” Emmeline asked, only to make sure.
“An old thing of mine has gone missing,” the duke said. “I’m certain it’s merely lying in some dusty corner.” But even as he conjured a reassuring smile, his eyes glimmered ever so slightly in worry.
When she wasn’t otherwise occupied, Emmeline tried to repeat the events of the day at the castle ruins,sansfall, to open another passage to the castle. Two or three times, she might have seen the familiar shimmering, but it dissipated before she reacted. High emotions could’ve activated it, but perhaps prolonged, overwhelming emotions also suppressed it. The nerves about the wedding might be too much.
But how could she get rid of those nerves, when each day passed was a day closer to the wedding?
Daniel didn’t seek out another kiss, although he’d invited her for a couple of walks, during which they’d chatted and even cracked a few jokes. Finally realizing she might have to make the first step, Emmeline used an opportunity on one of those walks, when their chaperones—Louisa’s maid and Theo—lost sight of them for a second, rounding a dune on the beach. She leaned in.
Daniel drew back a few inches. “Are you all right?”
“Of course.”
“I thought you mis-stepped.” He checked the ground, as if he wanted to reassure himself of her balance.
Emmeline grunted inwardly. “Maybe we could…”Flutter your eyelashes.Women always fluttered they eyelashes when flirting, didn’t they? “Repeat that night in the study.”
“What?” Daniel looked genuinely confused, and moved another step away. He glanced behind them.
Louisa’s maid and Theo rounded the bend. The heat rising in Emmeline’s cheeks battled even that of the summer sun. Oh, if she could sink into the ground right now. But as she and Daniel moved on, and she glanced back, to Theo’s stormy expression, and the more neutral one of the maid, she wondered what made her feel more awkward—her awful attempt, or Theo witnessing it.
One evening, Emmeline and Louisa descended to dinner together, only to discover a stranger in the dining room. The man—in his mid-twenties, perhaps—had dark red hair, cut slightly shorter than fashionable. His impeccable black-and-white ensemble and his seat next to the duchess’s end of the table denoted a position of importance.
“There you are,” the duchess said, primarily toward Louisa. “You’re late. We had to sit down without you.”
“Something, something, fashionable,” Louisa said, and she and Emmeline sat down.
“I believe the saying is ‘fashionably late,’” the man said in a light tone.
“Clearly, I know the saying. It’s called humor,” Louisa responded.
The duchess cleared her throat. “May I introduce Mr. Wexley, our new neighbor.”
Mr. Wexley’s eyes gleamed in amusement. “On the other side of the town.”
“My youngest daughter, Louisa, and my soon to be daughter-in-law, Miss Grey.”
Emmeline nodded at the visitor. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, holding the same amusement, then skipped to Louisa.
“Mr. Vexley,” Louisa said.
“That’s a ‘W,’” he corrected with a smile.
