Page 59 of Emma & Edmund

"Hm," Edmund hummed, "and the other?"

An indistinct timbre laced the question, enough so to give Emma pause. If she didn't know better, it almost twinged with jealousy, but his sly smile betrayed nothing but amusement.

"A family friend." She could have sworn sly turned sardonic before Edmund gave another brief glance around the tree's trunk.

"They seem irreparably lost."

"Watch your tongue, for I am just as lost as they."

"Of course you're not," Edmund scoffed, focusing his attention to her, "you are with me."

Emma had to turn her head away to stop the oncoming blush. She knew what he had meant, he knew the woods surrounding his home like the back of his hand and he wouldn't allow her to be lost within them. Yet, that fact was partially the problem.

A feeling of safety with him had never abated, from the moment she sat with him at his table to that afternoon.

"Emma!" A shout came from the men, Jonathan cupping a hand around his mouth. "Come along! We're going this way."

He had pointed somewhere up the path, but Emma could hardly pay the direction mind when she caught Edmund shaking his head out of the corner of her eye.

"What's the matter?" Emma whispered to him, pretending not to have heard her chaperone by studying her gloves for dirt.

"You'll cross into Wales before finding you're way home with these fools."

She almost told him to hold his tongue once more, but a look down the path only proved his point. Jonathan threw his hands about, stomping in small circles as he muttered curses to God, Jesus, and whomever else would listen. William stared up through the foliage as if the sunbeams filtering through would guide their way.

Dirty, lost, and confused fools.

"What do you suggest?" If the ever-increasing voices were any indication, Jonathan and William no longer agreed on a direction.

"Leave it all to me." The merciful offer wrapped around her heart. For as learned as her companions were, Edmund was truly their only hope.

"How?"

Edmund smiled at her again, and between two fingers held up the small wood project, shaking the chunk lightly as if to show it off.

"That does little to answer the question, Edmund."

"Just trust me, Miss Thompson. I would die before allowing your safety to be left with such incompetence."

"Oh hush," she scolded, even as her own smile spread over her cheeks. "Thank you, Edmund, truly."

"Anything in my power for you, Emma." Emma wanted to pretend it was just another nicety, easily acknowledged and forgotten, but there was something in his eyes she couldn't quite understand.

Perhaps he wasn't as unbothered as she had assumed. Perhaps he was very bothered to see her again, bothered by their tryst in the same way that keeps her up at night with wetness between her legs.

"I missed you, Emma."

The tenderness, the gentleness in just those four words nearly brought her heart to a stop.

Staring into eyes staring back at her, the undeniable urge buzzed throughout her to go to him. To throw her arms around his shoulders, to hold him as close as they had that strange, creepy, wonderful night. To kiss him as she had then, and to tell him she missed him too.

"Yes, well, ah," Emma stumbled over her words instead, feet firmly rooted, "we won't be on our way home for another week or so, still."

It was a pathetic response, she felt it deep into her core, and regretted it the second it was spoken. She refused to look to Edmund, to see the disappointment he must have in her, staring resolutely at her soiled dress hem.

"EMMA! We are leavingnow!"

It seemed as if the argument down the way was far from quelled, with William Tate already stomping off even further into the woods. Jonathan practically radiated with fury, hands clutching at his coat so tightly she could see the white knuckles even from her distance.

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