A British Bride by Agreement (22 page)

Nick folded his arms. He didn’t mean to
hurt anyone. He just had to get ahead. He had to prove to the world that he was
worth something. Someday he’d ask for forgiveness from God for all the questionable
things he’d done, but now he was too far gone. He would have to make up for his
sins later.

***

Emma sipped her tea, enjoying the
familiar taste of her favorite drink. Somewhat hungry, she ate the cherry
yogurt but it had an odd taste. After a while, she found herself transfixed by
the ocean waves.
Back and forth and back and forth.
She felt so relaxed. Everything was going to be fine. She ate one of the
cookies and it tasted delicious.

“Nick,” her words were slurring. Were
her lips getting bigger? They’d stopped hurting about ten minutes ago. “What
are these cookies? They are brilliant?”

Nick held up the package. “
Manzana
Galleta
.

“I think I need to lie down.” Her head
spun when she stood.

Nick helped her into bed.

“What did you put in the yogurt you gave
me?”

Nick smiled as he tucked the covers
around her.

She could almost swear he kissed her
forehead, just before she slipped under the waves of sleep.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Jonathan came home late. Both Nick and Emma
were sleeping. The cook had left a plate of dinner for him. Jonathan’s stomach
was in too many knots to think about eating. He set his briefcase down. He had
visited the site for the orphanage and there was a slab but no building. Some
of the locals told him, the man,
Stephano
Suzi
,
was
a known con artist in
the area, but they had not seen him in three months.

Jonathan rubbed his neck. The tension
had been building all day. The reality of the charity being ripped off was now
tangible. He even met some of the orphans who would have lived at the orphanage
if it had opened.
Such a waste of charity money.
And
not only had he been swindled, those children were paying the price, too.

He peeked in on Emma. She looked
beautiful even in her sleep. Her lips still looked painfully swollen. He shook
his head. He missed kissing those lips.

His cell phone rang. It was his
accountant, George Gardner. Jonathan closed the bedroom door so as not to wake
her. “George, you’re working late tonight. What’s keeping you up?”

“Just a financial matter that I’ve gone
over and over to make sure I am not wrong.”

Jonathan sat down at the kitchen table,
silenced by the man’s somber words. “Good news?”

“A transaction Nick told me about that I
thought I’d make you aware of. Just before you left for Belize, your wife
transferred just under three hundred thousand dollars out of one of your
savings accounts.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened.
The decorating account.
His defenses rose. He fingered his
wedding ring. “She’s decorating. I gave her that money to furnish our new
wing.”

“Is her decorator in England?”

The corners of Jonathan’s mouth
tightened. He trusted Emma. But why would she send money to someone in England.
To her family?
Based on what she’d told him, she
didn’t have any contact with her parents. Jonathan cleared his throat. There
had to be some misunderstanding. And how did Nick find out about this? And why
didn’t he tell him instead of his accountant? He yanked his tie off and set his
confidant corporate persona in place. “Thank you for telling me. I’m sure
there’s a simple explanation.”

George cleared his throat. “Another
client of mine had a wife that did the same thing. She left him a month later.”

Jonathan’s mouth felt dry. “I’m sure
that’s not happening here.”

As soon as George said good-bye,
Jonathan walked into their bedroom. Emma was still asleep with a soft
expression on her face. His heart sped up at the sight of her. No one that
beautiful could be a swindler.
But her
parents are
. His mind wandered with possibilities. Maybe she purchased
English antiques for their home and was having them shipped over. He had given
her free reign with the decisions. But who did she know in England, other than
her family? She hadn’t lived there in seven years. A small tug of fear rippled
through him. Was she planning on leaving him? She did kind of freak out the
other day when he brought up the whole children issue.

He change clothes and slipped into the
bed.

Emma sighed in her sleep, turned over
and snuggled up to him.

Who had he married?

***

Emma got up at four a.m. annoyed with
Nick for putting a sleeping pill in her food. How dare he drug her? This only
increased her suspicions that he was up to something. She took her cup of tea
and the bag of cookies over to the window to watch the waves in the fading
moonlight. Should she tell Jonathan? A sigh escaped her lips. This was supposed
to be a romantic get away, and they were returning to St. Louis tomorrow.
Surely, Jonathan would have time for her today. She touched lips, and breathed
a sigh of relief, the swelling was going down.

She pulled out her Bible and read and
prayed for a while, seeking the Lord’s wisdom, about what she should do about
Nick, and how to reveal to Jonathan about her growing feelings for him. She
revisited the scripture,
Guard me as the
apple of
Your
eye
. “Oh Lord, I know
You
watch over me. Watch over my heart, too. I don’t want it
to get broken. I want so much to show Jonathan that I care deeply for him, and
I want to be a wife that brings him joy. Help his feelings to grow as mine
have, help him Lord to desire ours to be a true marriage.”
 

She gripped her hands even tighter. “And
Lord, please tell me what to do about Nick. There is some deception going on
that I don’t know if Jonathan is aware of, but how do I tell him Lord? I don’t
know how much he trusts me, and I need to earn his trust. Help him to believe
me.”

“Believe you about what?” Jonathan
wandered into the kitchen shirtless. His eyes looked hard.

“Jonathan.” She got up to hug him, but
when she did, his body was stiff. “It’s so good to see you.”

“What do you need me to believe?”

Emma mouth hung open. She couldn’t
accuse Nick of taking pictures of his papers, or drugging her. This was his
cousin. Blood thicker than…
custard,
or something like
that. “Believe that,” she took his hands in hers. “I—I love being your wife.”

But his face still wore that stern
expression.

Her heart was sinking. What could she
say to distract him? “And that I’m ready to have children.”

His jaw tightened.

The money she sent to her brother? A
trickle of sweat drilled down her back. Did he know about it? She fixed a smile
in place. “And we could start tonight.”

***

Jonathan pulled on a sweatshirt. Should
he question her now about the transfer of money to England? She had been
through a couple of very traumatic experiences since they’d gotten here. He
sighed, still moved by her natural beauty. He’d wait until they got home to get
to the bottom of the missing funds. She had never done anything to make him
question her actions or motives.

Unable to resist her, he pulled her
close and felt her melt into his embrace. He would put this issue out of his
thoughts for now. When he returned to St. Louis, his days and nights would be
filled with work, so today he would set aside his climb to the top of the
family business, and just enjoy a day with her in Belize.

He pulled her back and saw her green
eyes twinkling with happiness. “Let’s go shopping.”

“Sounds like fun. I’d love to get out.
Let me put my teacup and these cookies away.”

“Hand them to me, I love these.”
Jonathan took one out of the bag.

“What are they?”

He
glanced at the Spanish writing on the side of the container.
“Apple
Cookies.”
***

Emma’s gaze was drawn to the colorful
shops and clothes of the people of Belize. But what caught her eye the most
were the dark-eyed, dark-haired children that were everywhere. Their bright
smiles and shy giggles made her grin. When she and Jonathan walked through a
shop, the children would be there silently holding up some small treasure for
them to buy. And she wanted to purchase every one. But after paying for a shell
necklace, a snow globe, a scarf in tropical colors, and a rock painted with the
word,
Belize
, her satchel was getting
heavy.

When they went in to the ice cream shop,
five children followed them with hopeful grins. “Okay,” Emma’s heart strings
were being pulled and she couldn’t help herself. “Everyone line up to get a
scoop.”

When they left the shop, Jonathan
steered her toward a place to rent a golf cart. “I want to show you another
part of the island.”

“Do you know how to drive one of these
things?” She asked as they climbed in.

He smiled. “I own three.”

They took off down the dusty road that
lay between the shops on either side. Emma looked back to see children waving and
chasing after them. “Oh, I could just scoop them up and take them home.”

Jonathan smiled and took her hand in
his.

Her heart soared with hope for their
future.

As they left the area of the shops, they
continued not far from the coast land and passed beautiful condo complexes,
luxury hotels, and stunning homes nestled into the tropical foliage that
overlooked the sea.

“I would love to own a home here
someday.” Jonathan squeezed her hand.

Emma looked over her shoulder to see if
any children were still following them. She sighed when she saw they had all
gone.

“What do you think?”

Emma turned around.
“About
what?”

“About buying one of these houses
someday?”

“I—I,” she glanced back again. “I like
the town area better.”

He laughed. “That’s the poor part of town.
This is luxury.”

I know, but I love those little kids.
Didn’t you tell me most of them are orphans or are very poor?”

He glanced back. “Yes.”

“I bet they never get piano lessons.”
Her voice wavered.

“Oh,
sweetheart.”
He stopped the cart and gathered her into his arms. “I haven’t given up on the
orphanage for here.”

“Really?”
She pulled
back, her eyes full of expectation. “Could I—could I somehow be a part of the
building or the planning for it? I would love to help these children.”

***

Jonathan kissed the side of her neck.
How could he have ever doubted her actions? Or thought that she had done
anything inappropriate? Emma had a heart of gold, and no one would ever
convince him of otherwise. She was the perfect wife for a man wanting to have
the perfect family. The family he needed to get to the top. “Of course you can
help. I’d love for you to be a part of the project. Then, maybe, we’ll have to
have more trips here.”

She clapped her hands.
“Really?
Oh, thank you Jonathan. Now can we go back to town?
I feel the need to buy some more Belizean treasures.”

When they got back to their condo, Nick
was gone. Jonathan scanned the text he sent.
Your dad needed me to handle something back at the office. Enjoy your
time in Belize.

Jonathan clicked his phone off. Why
would his father call Nick and not him? What was it that he couldn’t have
handled from Belize? Just then, Emma came out of the bedroom dressed in a
stunning off-the-shoulder tropical blue and green dress she found earlier in
the day in one of the shops. With her sun tan from today and her lips back to
normal, she looked beautiful. He bit back a grin. Maybe his father wanted Nick
out of the way so that Jonathan and Emma could be alone…

He took her hand and led her out onto
the balcony that overlooked the ocean. A candle lit dinner awaited them. He
held her chair out for her. “Mrs. Steller.”

As he sat, the view of the candlelight
illuminating her green eyes stirred his desires. His chest expanded. He had
made a very wise choice for a wife. Beautiful, caring, sensitive, generous, and
he knew that she cared for him. But was she in love with him? Was he in truly
love? He wrestled with whether that was a good thing. If he fell in love with
her, would that distract him from his goal? Surely, he could hold his feelings
at bay until he got control of the family business, and then finally, he would
have the time to pour into a real marriage.