Cardiff Siblings 01 - Seven Minutes in Devon (29 page)

“
Mr. Cardiff,
I—”

“
Aidan.” He pulled away
from her for a moment, his clear eyes shining in the moonlight.
“Call me Aidan.”

Oh, how she wanted to. Her heart
hammered away, swelling within her chest until she was sure it
would soon burst if she didn’t do what he asked of her.

But she couldn’t do that. She didn’t
want this with him—not really. She wanted to find a nice,
respectable gentleman who would marry her, and only then did she
want to experience such depth of feeling, such wealth of passion.
Only then did she want such familiarity.

Heavens, but that was a lie. She’d
been lying to herself, trying to convince herself of that, but why?
Fear?

This sort of passion before she was
well and truly married would mean allowing the possibility that she
could end up as heartsick and devastated as Morgan had been three
years ago. That couldn’t happen. She couldn’t allow it, but she
didn’t know if she could stop it either.

And Mr. Cardiff was
anything but a nice, respectable gentleman. She knew him too well
to believe such falsities. For that matter, she shouldn’t believe
he wanted her now in any way that involved anything more than pure
lust. He certainly didn’t
need
her no matter what he said, not for anything more
than relieving a…well, an itch of sorts. If she allowed this to
continue, then she was absolutely setting herself up for exactly
the sort of heartache she’d been trying to avoid.

She shoved against him,
harder than before. “
Mr.
Cardiff
, I—”

An oath sounded in the distance, and
both Emma and Mr. Cardiff froze in place.

“
I should have trusted my
inclination.”

It was Lord Trenowyth. There wasn’t a
doubt in Emma’s mind. Mr. Cardiff spun around to face his brother,
and Emma scurried to straighten her gown and put herself back
together before the earl saw her as she was. In her frantic need to
hide her state of partial nudity she fumbled with the fabric, which
only made it take longer than it ought to have done.

With one hand, Mr. Cardiff reached
behind him and nudged her more fully behind him so she was well
hidden from his brother’s view. “Go back inside, Niall.”

“
Do you really expect me to
ignore what I just saw?”

“
I expect you to do what is
best for the lady’s honor. She came out to help with birthing the
kittens. I came to help her when she hadn’t returned soon enough.
Nothing more. Nothing untoward has happened.”

Emma tugged the silk sleeve again, and
finally it moved into place. She was mussed, certainly, but not
really much more than anyone would expect from her. Especially if
they believed she’d been out near the stables helping to birth
kittens, or any number of the other things she so often indulged
in.

Lord Trenowyth hefted a sigh. “I wish
I thought anyone would believe that, anyone at all, but everyone in
that drawing room saw how you two were looking at one another all
evening.”

In the stillness of the night, the
soft tread of his footsteps echoed like the closing of a tomb. Each
step brought him closer to delivering a sentence—Emma could feel it
all the way to her bones—the very sentence that would seal her
fate. She fought down her panic, tucked the hair that had escaped
its knot behind her ear, and moved to stand beside Mr.
Cardiff.

Now was not the time to attempt to
hide. They’d already been discovered, so it wouldn’t serve any
purpose.

Lord Trenowyth passed his gaze
solemnly over her and then pressed his lips together in a tight
line, like a disapproving papa. “I do sincerely apologize, Miss
Hathaway, but I’m afraid both you and my brother are fully aware of
what must be done.”

What must be
done
? She shook her head, as though such a
simple action might possibly alter what his words
implied.

“
There’s no reason we have
to marry, Niall.” Such a horrified tone carried in Mr. Cardiff’s
voice, a gasp escaped Emma’s lips.

She jumped back slightly. He hated
her. He had always hated her, and he always would, and he certainly
did not want to spend the rest of his life married to her. She
ought to have trusted her initial instincts, not allowed herself to
be fooled by overheated emotion. There was no need or love on his
part. Merely lust.

She couldn’t bear to spend her life
tied irrevocably to a man who so plainly loathed her mere presence.
She shook her head but before she could speak, Lord Trenowyth moved
closer to them.

“
There’s
every
reason. Every
reason in the world.” He crossed his arms over his chest and
leveled his brother with a commanding stare. “If you don’t marry
her, she’s ruined. Do you really think Burington will ever forgive
you for such a thing? Do you think
Morgan
would forgive you? Miss
Hathaway is one of her dearest friends in this world.”

“
She doesn’t have to be
ruined if you don’t say anything,” Mr. Cardiff nearly shouted. He
dragged a hand through his hair, glaring at his brother. “If it
stays between the three of us, no one will know. Not Burington. Not
Morgan. Not any one of those blasted people in the drawing room who
can’t mind their own matters to save their lives.”

“
The whole house will know
soon enough if you keep shouting like that,” the earl shot back.
“For that matter, half the countryside is probably well aware of
the fact that you’ve compromised Miss Hathaway right this very
moment.”

“
If you would have just
stayed inside—”

Lord Trenowyth advanced on Mr. Cardiff
and poked a finger into his chest. “Stayed inside? You can’t think
to blame this on me, Aidan. I came after you because you’re my
brother, and I thought it would be better if I were to find you
than—”

“
Than who?”

“
Better than
me.”

When David came around the corner of
the house, his sandy-brown hair shining in the moonlight like a
beacon and disappointment etched into his brow, Emma couldn’t stop
the tears from pooling in her eyes.

How had this happened? How
had she
allowed
it
to happen? It was devastating enough that Lord Trenowyth had found
them, but with him, there was a possibility he might agree to his
brother’s suggestion. But David…David would never let something
like this pass.

“
David,” she started, but
her words were hardly more than a blubbering, gibberish sort of
sound coming through her tears.

“
You’ll make this right,
Aidan,” David said, ignoring Emma’s protestations. “You were warned
what would happen if you mistreated my wife’s sister in my home,
and yet you have done worse than I ever would have
imagined.”

“
Which is precisely why I
can’t marry her,” Mr. Cardiff growled. “Do you really want your
sister-in-law to be subjected to me for the rest of her
life?”

“
Oh, no you don’t.” David’s
eyes narrowed to slits as he advanced toward Mr. Cardiff. “You
don’t get to escape this one.” His hands were fisting at his sides,
his jaw hard and unyielding.

Emma had never seen him so angry
before, with veins bulging in his throat and violence in his eyes.
He had such intent purpose in his stride, she feared he might
actually rip Mr. Cardiff’s head from his shoulders. She couldn’t
allow that to happen, not on her account, so she stepped between
the two men and put out her hands as though she could stop David’s
intent.

“
Let him,” Mr. Cardiff spat
out. He took her by the arm and forcibly moved her out of the way
before closing some of the distance himself.

They were going to come to blows, if
something didn’t stop them…or someone. Emma tried to move between
the two men at the same time as Lord Trenowyth attempted to do the
same, but it was no good.

But instead of either of them landing
a blow upon the other, David put a hand around Mr. Cardiff’s throat
and nearly lifted him from his feet.

Emma took half a step forward, nearly
stumbling from the tears blurring her vision. “Put him down,” she
begged. Her voice cracked, more of a warble than
anything.

“
You’ll marry her. You’ll
marry her so she’s not subject to public censure, but then you’ll
leave her here with me and Vanessa so we can protect her from
you.”

Emma shook her head. She
didn’t want to love the man who would be her husband
until
he was her husband,
but she did want to love her husband eventually. The thought of
being married to a man whom she would never see? She couldn’t even
fathom such a thing. As ridiculous as it seemed, the thought of
being kept away from Mr. Cardiff—or rather of
him
being kept from
her
—left a hollow feeling
in her gut, stinging like an open wound.

“
No,” she said, but none of
the men heard her. She swallowed, but her tongue felt too large for
her mouth. After trying to swallow again, she cleared her throat to
repeat herself, but nothing came out.

“
No,” Lord Trenowyth put
in, and Emma’s gaze shot to him. “The censure of such an
arrangement will be almost as bad as if he weren’t to marry her at
all. Miss Hathaway deserves a better fate than that. After all
she’s done for Morgan…”

“
Yes.” David released his
grip on Mr. Cardiff’s throat and gave a curt nod. “What would you
suggest then?”

Mr. Cardiff massaged his throat, his
eyes mere slits which never left David.

“
My brother will marry her,
and she will come to live with my family. Then at least it will
appear they have a normal marriage. Morgan and I can—”

“
Protect her from me?” Mr.
Cardiff drawled. He straightened his coat and neck cloth, smoothing
his hands over the superfine fabric, but it did little good. Emma
could well imagine her gown was in a similar state, which caused
her to blush.

“
Precisely,” his brother
answered.

Mr. Cardiff tossed his hands in the
air, but the other two men eyed one another
thoughtfully.

“
That could work,” David
mused aloud. “To the outside world it would appear they were
perfectly content together.”

“
But we will not be
perfectly content together,” Mr. Cardiff shouted, then winced and
returned his hand to his neck, “because we won’t be
marrying.”

Lord Trenowyth turned on his brother.
“You will.”

“
Or you’ll answer to me at
dawn,” David added.

“
This is outside of
enough.” Emma couldn’t stand there and listen to any more of their
arguments without having her voice heard. She stepped forward into
the middle of them, planted her feet firmly into the ground, and
put her hands on her hips. “He will not, and we won’t be marrying,
because I won’t have him.”

It took every ounce of fortitude she
possessed to keep from blanching at the brief flash of pain that
swept through Mr. Cardiff’s eyes. But she swallowed hard, steeled
her spine, and managed it somehow.

David took her hand, his gaze filled
with compassion. “Emma, you don’t really have a choice. And you did
come here to find a husband, didn’t you?”

Vanessa had told him that? She must
have, or how else would he have known? Every moment she didn’t
spend with Morgan and Serena, she was with Sir Henry and Kingley.
Emma pressed her eyes closed, saying a silent prayer for an excuse
they would accept to come to mind.

Her prayers were in vain. “I did,
but—”

“
Excellent,” Lord Trenowyth
said. “We’ll announce your betrothal to the party tomorrow
then.”

“
We’ll do nothing of the
sort, since I haven’t agreed to anything,” Mr. Cardiff
said.

“
But you will.” David’s
hand clenched over Emma’s, almost hard enough for it to hurt, then
released. “You will, and you’ll be happy about it tomorrow when we
make the announcement. After that you’ll never again do anything to
harm my wife’s sister.” Then he looked down to where their hands
were joined. “I’m sorry, Emma. This isn’t what Vanessa and I wanted
for you, but…”

Mr. Cardiff spun around to go back to
the house. “But I’ve left her with no other choice,” he spat out
over his shoulder. After standing still for a moment, he turned to
face Emma. For the first time in their acquaintance, he seemed
almost apologetic. And broken, just as he’d claimed to be. “They’re
right. I’ve left you with no other choice. As much as you and I
both hate the thought of it, you have to marry me.”

Then he spun again and stalked back
into the house, grumbling beneath his breath the whole
way.

Dragging a hand down over his face,
Lord Trenowyth sighed. “I must apologize for my brother, Miss
Hathaway. I promise you, this is all for the best. It will be all
right.”

For the best. All
right
. Those words bounced around in her
mind, but none of them felt like they would settle and become
reality. She nodded for the earl’s benefit, and he left her alone
with David.