Cardiff Siblings 01 - Seven Minutes in Devon (31 page)

His pursuit might not stop, but her
heart did. What had she gotten herself into? She’d been hopeful she
might find one gentleman upon whom to set her cap, but now she had
two vying for her attentions.

Aidan stood next to Emma in the
drawing room, her gloved hand upon his arm causing it to tingle
erratically. Or perhaps it was the fact that the entire houseful
was staring at them, cheering for them, as though what had just
been announced was a blessing. He had to physically force himself
not to grumble aloud, because he hated every blasted moment of this
so much that even his teeth were on edge.

A man ought to feel his impending
marriage was to be a blessing. Aidan could only feel that his was
doomed from the start.

Yet he wasn’t sorry in the slightest
that they were to marry—which was a thought that shocked him
straight to his core. Now that the deed was done, or at least now
that it had been agreed upon and announced, he would no longer have
to feel guilty about looking at Emma with lust, or about his
libidinous thoughts, or even about sneaking off to steal a kiss (or
more) from her.

How such a change in his thinking came
to be, Aidan could never say. He’d tried to discover the origin of
the shift last night, as he lay awake for hours in his bed,
thinking about what had taken place in such a short
time.

In some small degree, it had likely
started when Emma had defended Morgan at supper that first night.
How could she possibly be the hateful, loathsome creature he’d made
her out to be all that time and then also be such a true friend to
his sister? It wasn’t entirely possible for her to be both at the
same time, so perhaps his initial impression of her was
unjust.

And then, over the course
of the house party, Emma had continued to prove herself the kind
and thoughtful woman who had championed Morgan, and
not
the inattentive chit
who’d supposedly
allowed
Morgan to hurt herself all those years ago. She’d
befriended Morgan and made certain to include her at every turn.
She’d found a way to give Morgan more freedom to do things on her
own than any of them had ever dreamed would be possible. And Morgan
had been thriving like Aidan had long ago stopped allowing himself
to believe would ever happen again.

All of the things he’d held to for so
many years, it seemed, had been a figment of Aidan’s imagination. A
falsehood he’d allowed himself to believe—but why? Why would he
have spent such time and effort, so many years of his life, hating
a girl for something she could never have prevented in the first
place?

Sometime before dawn this morning, it
had finally hit him like a gale—he’d blamed her all this time
because he couldn’t bear to blame the one person in this world who
truly was at fault. Not Emma, not himself, not Niall, and not even
Stoneham could be faulted for the state of Morgan’s
misery.

The only person in the world who bore
responsibility for Morgan’s repeated attempts to claim her own life
was Morgan herself.

Aidan supposed he’d finally recognized
it that day in the hermitage, when the ladies had discovered him at
work with his sculpture. With Emma standing next to the angel, it
was as clear as the sky on a cloudless day—the angel he’d been
sculpting was Emma. He’d crafted her long nose, her downturned
eyes. But her hands were reaching out. Down. Into the water, toward
Morgan, trying to rescue her.

The angel’s tears and the reach of her
arms were a permanent reminder of who Emma truly was as a
person—always helping those who needed help, heedless of her own
needs and safety.

He’d watched Morgan explore
the marble with her hands, running her fingers and palms over every
contour and crevice he’d created, and her face had come alive. He
knew then that she would forever bear the reminders of how deeply
she’d been wounded—but she had moved on. She
was
living again, and taking all life
had to offer her with open arms.

He, however, was stuck living with his
anger.

Or he had been. That didn’t mean he
had to continue with his life in that way.

The problem now was that he didn’t
truly know how to go about letting it go. Not entirely. Aidan had
no intention of redirecting it onto Morgan, but he couldn’t very
well continue directing it toward Emma. Especially not since now,
he had to marry her.

But in some odd way, it seemed only
fitting that he would. He’d spent three years of his life wishing
her to Hades. Now he would spend the rest of his life in making up
for it.

There was only one problem. As they
stood there, surrounded by the rest of the houseguests, by his
siblings and hers, Emma didn’t seem all that happy about any of it.
In fact, she seemed downright morose, staring across at Sir Henry
Irvine with a queer combination of anxiety and embarrassment.
Before he spent much time in attempting to decipher why she would
look upon the baronet in such a way, Aidan caught Sir Henry’s
expression—sheer, unadulterated desperation. Likewise, the man
couldn’t seem to take his gaze away from Emma, aside from those
moments when he turned to glare at Aidan with what seemed to be a
decisive threat.

Had he been so caught up in trying to
determine what he felt for Emma Hathaway and why that he hadn’t
noticed a growing tendre between Sir Henry and her? Had he forced
Emma’s hand, and all the while her heart belonged to
another?

And now that he thought of it, another
realization struck him—for all that he lusted after Emma, and all
that he admired her for how she had been with Morgan, he really
didn’t know her at all. That didn’t seem the best grounds upon
which to begin a marriage, so he would have to do something about
it. And soon.

Not to mention the fact that he would
have to get to the bottom of whatever was taking place between his
betrothed and Sir Henry.

Damnation, why did everything have to
be so bloody complicated?

Aidan waited while David announced the
other betrothal between Muldaire and Miss Weston to the gathered
crowd, doing his best to avoid glowering or sulking over the fact
that his intended was looking at another man instead of
him.

Finally, after the crowd came forward
to offer them all their congratulations and well wishes, they
dispersed to take part in other pursuits for the remainder of the
afternoon. Lord Muldaire and Miss Weston stood with the marquess’s
brother, Lord Jacob, off to the side, speaking in hushed
voices.

With a smile as wide as the Thames,
Morgan excused herself along with Miss Selwyn, Mr. Deering, and Sir
Henry in order to go out to the grounds to find Kingley. He wanted
to speak to Morgan, to see how she felt about the recent changes,
but Emma caught her breath at Aidan’s side. She looked up at him as
the group made their way out of the drawing room. “Would you mind
terribly if I joined them? I had hoped to work with Morgan and
Kingley today.”

Allowing her to run off with the very
man who appeared to be competition for her affections didn’t seem
the wisest course of action, but Niall and David were making their
way across the room to speak with him. Reluctantly, Aidan nodded.
“Go on. I’ll join you all later.”

He might have focused a bit too long
on Sir Henry when he promised to join the group, but he couldn’t
really be faulted for that. Could he?

The five of them left, and Aidan tried
to settle his thoughts so he could focus on David and Niall. That
wasn’t as easy to accomplish as he might have liked, because the
image of Emma and Sir Henry’s mutual glances kept invading his
mind.

David came to a stop and scowled at
Aidan. “You’ll have to meet with her father, of course. I promised
Sir Phillip I would only send those men worthy of his daughter his
way, and believe me, I’m having difficulty in convincing myself you
are, but he will have to be the one to work out the marriage
contract with you.”

That caused Aidan’s head to snap
around. He’d been staring at the empty space Emma had vacated, but
the thought of meeting her father and talking about the terms of
their marriage returned him to the moment.

“
I thought we could stop by
Kingsbridge and work all of that out before taking Morgan back to
Tavistock Manor.” Niall’s lips were pinched together, and his
posture was even more erect than normal.

Aidan wondered for a moment what had
come over his brother, but he couldn’t seem to force himself to
think about it for too long. Niall was an impenetrable fortress,
more often than not. If he wanted Aidan to know what was bothering
him, he’d bring it up. Otherwise, there was no point in wasting
thought on it.

So he nodded. Short of racing Emma off
to Gretna Green, there really wasn’t an alternative to speaking
with her father. It would be better to do it sooner rather than
later. Procrastination had never really served him well.

“
You should be aware that
Trenowyth has agreed to my terms on the matter,” David
said.

Aidan looked up at that,
unable to miss the steel behind David’s words. “Your terms?” How
the man thought he would have any right to insisting upon terms in
regard to
his
marriage, Aidan would never know.

“
Yes. Emma will stay at
Tavistock Manor and you’ll remain in the dower house as you have
been. If you decide to leave, she’ll still be with the family, so
the gossip won’t be as bad as if she stayed here.”

“
We’ve already discussed
this,” Aidan grumbled. His patience would only hold out so long,
and Emma was outside with Sir Henry while they stood there talking
about inane things.

David crossed his arms over his chest.
“There’s one bit you haven’t heard yet, though. If your brother
sends me word that you have hurt her in any way, I will find you,
and I will make certain you can never hurt anyone again. Am I
clear?”

“
You realize you’re being
ridiculous, don’t you? Once I marry Emma, she’ll be my wife, and
you won’t have any right to be involved in our affairs in any
way.”

Aidan turned to stalk off, but Niall
grabbed his arm.

“
This isn’t about what the
law allows, Aidan. It’s about what’s right.”

As always with Niall, everything was
black and white. Never a shade of gray. And now, David was starting
to act exactly the same way.

How charming.

Emma was still in a daze from the
announcements while she and Morgan made their way across the
lawn.

“
I couldn’t have asked for
something better if I’d had the chance!” Morgan said. She linked
her arm through Emma’s and nearly skipped in her excitement.
“Sisters. I’ve never had a sister before, and I can’t think of
anyone I’d rather have for my first sister than you.”

Emma laughed at her friend’s
enthusiasm, wishing all the while she shared in it. “I’m sure we’ll
get on rather well.”

Being sisters with Morgan was easy to
be enthusiastic about. What was a bit more difficult was the fact
that she’d be married to Morgan’s brother…and she wasn’t certain
she’d made the right choice in refusing Sir Henry’s
offer.

Even as her thoughts turned to the
baronet, he came back across the lawn with Mr. Deering, Miss
Selwyn, and Kingley. He waved happily as they came.