Page 24

She was smiling widely now, her eyes alight with humour. He’d always adored the small frown she got between her eyebrows when he was teasing her, but this expression, full of joy, lit something within him.

‘What is the score?’ she asked.

‘It is five hundred and thirty-six to me, three hundred and twelve to you.’

She flung back her head and laughed. Freddie became transfixed by the length of her throat; the skin of her neck was becoming an obsession for him, which seemed to be getting stronger with every moment spent in her company.

‘We have argued nearly eight hundred and fifty times?’

He nodded decisively. ‘Yes. ’

‘Aside from being very dubious about these numbers, I am surprised you think I have won at all. I usually come up with my best reply hours later when you are long gone.’

The thought that Emily was thinking about him long after they’d spoken made something swell inside him, like a huge bubble of air trapped inside his lungs that made him want to laugh or shout or do something equally ludicrous.

‘This is not true. There has been many a time I have been struck dumb in the wake of something you have said.’

‘What utter rot. You always win.’ She paused, her grin still wide. ‘Probably because you are the most annoying man I have ever met.’

Somehow, that didn’t seem like an insult. ‘See, you won that round. I cannot reply because anything I say would be ungentlemanly.’

She laughed again, the sound waking Charlotte, who laughed too without understanding the joke.

‘Lotte agrees with me. Do you not, sweet girl?’ Emily addressed her question to his niece, who clapped her hands together in delight.

‘I see you two ladies are going to gang up on me.’

Charlotte giggled and head-butted him in the chest, which made Emily laugh again.

Freddie was almost drunk on the sound. He had no idea why he had not spent his entire life trying to make Emily laugh.

As charming as her frowns were, the high he was experiencing from entertaining her was unparalleled.

‘Cake,’ Charlotte said, turning to him with her hand raised questioningly.

‘I am afraid I do not have any on me.’ Freddie slowly began to shift into a more upright position, because although he didn’t want to leave the warmth of this room, he knew that he had to.

Charlotte, despite not meaning to, had called an end to the morning.

It should have been a good thing that he was leaving; he was so busy spilling his secrets and unchecked he might reveal the true extent of his adoration of Emily.

Imagining her look of horror if he confessed just how much he thought of her made him shudder.

Their relationship was improving, becoming less fractious, but he was not so foolish as to believe someone as perfect as Emily would feel the same way as he did.

So, yes, it was as well that the morning was ending but, unfathomably, getting up to leave the room felt like a small bereavement.

Charlotte frowned. ‘Cake,’ she repeated, her lips puckering.

‘I can ring for some,’ said Emily, pushing herself forward as if to stand.

‘That is very kind of you but my brothers and I found out the hard way that “cake” does not actually mean “cake”.

It is really short for, “If you do not feed me a full meal within the next ten minutes, I will make your day, and the day of everyone around, a living nightmare.”‘ He plopped Charlotte off his leg, before standing and lifting her into his arms. It would be better to get this ending over quickly.

‘Of course, it sometimes does mean simply “cake”. There is no way of telling, but believe me when I say that you do not want to be around if I get it wrong.’

Charlotte’s bottom lip trembled as Freddie carried her to the sitting room door. He knew he only had a short time to get her home before the situation deteriorated.

‘Emmeme, come too,’ Charlotte whined.

‘I would love to, my favourite girl, but I have to stay here. My mother is taking me out this afternoon and will be very cross with me if I do not accompany her.’

Freddie had a lot to say about Emily’s mother, but he clamped his lips shut. He had already made a fool of himself in the ballroom and he was not about to do it again. Besides, Charlotte’s lip wobble was becoming pronounced, meaning he had less than five minutes to avert a major meltdown .

‘You will see Emily very soon,’ he soothed.

‘But now we are going to go and get some lunch with Uncle Tobias.’ Next to Emily, Tobias was Charlotte’s favourite, although he and his other brothers could not quite understand why.

The two of them seemed to share a special bond that defied Tobias’ normal aloofness.

‘Tobis,’ crooned Charlotte, the crisis momentarily averted.

‘Exactly. And we do not want to make him sad by arriving late.’ He wasn’t sure whether Charlotte understood this, but she seemed to settle and he was able to leave without the threatened tears.

It wasn’t until Charlotte was eating her lunch with the gusto of a young man after a day’s hearty exercise that Freddie realised he’d called Emily by her given name for the first time and that she hadn’t seemed to mind.

He toyed with the end of his fork, pressing his fingertips into the sharp prongs.

He was heading in a dangerous direction with Emily.

He’d always known his body craved her attention, but now it seemed his mind did as well.

The stolen moment in her mother’s house had been…

he wasn’t even sure how to describe it. He had never been so open and honest with another soul and telling her about his problem with reading had been like stepping off a cliff unsure of whether there would be a safe landing.

She had been sympathetic; of course she had. With a mother like hers, she understood, probably better than anyone, what it was like to live with someone who did not support you. She was one of the best people that he knew, if not the best, and she deserved the world, but did that mean Tobias?

He glanced at Tobias; his brother was still occasionally calling on Emily with Charlotte in tow, but he had not stated any intention to court her. If they’d had a different relationship, Freddie would have asked his brother what his intentions were, but they did not talk of personal things.

Freddie picked up his fork and moved some food around .

‘Something bothering you, Freddie?’

Freddie put his fork back down; he had forgotten his other brothers were here too. Edward always seemed to be sticking his nose into other people’s business. ‘No.’

‘You look a little peaky. Did everything go well at the Hawkins’ residence earlier?’ asked Edward. ‘The two of you did not have one of your fallings-out?’

‘I am able to conduct a civil conversation.’ And he was; he was famed for it.

It was a skill he had put a great deal of practice into.

Not only that, he could always tell if a woman wanted to indulge in a little flirtation with him and Emily had given him no indication she wanted such a thing from him.

‘You can,’ agreed Edward. ‘Although you do not seem to employ your normal method of communication when conversing with Miss Hawkins. Something about her appears to set you on edge.’

‘I am wondering,’ continued Edward, ‘how that will work if…’ His gaze flicked to Tobias, who was interacting with Lotte and not paying them attention.

Freddie’s heart plummeted to his shoes as he understood what Edward was asking.

How would Freddie cope when Tobias married Emily?

Freddie moved his plate away, his stomach turning over at the thought of eating any of the food on it.

Whenever he was with Emily he was able to push that awful thought to the back of his mind.

It was a match that made sense; the duke and Emily were a good fit for one another.

He rubbed his temple with a forefinger; a headache was building.

Images swirled in his mind: Emily drifting down an aisle towards Tobias, her polite Society smile on her face; silent meals where neither of them spoke more than a few civil words to one another; Emily curled up in Tobias’ library, alone and thinking she was content; Tobias, his lips against her forehead, his palm on the curve of her hip. No. That was enough.

‘If you will excuse me,’ he said, pushing his chair away from the table and standing. ‘I have much to be getting on with this afternoon.’ Before anyone could say anything he strode from the room. Unfortunately, his thoughts followed him.