“No talking,” he warned softly. “No one should be awake yet, but you never know.”
Leading the way, Nick pulled Emma into the corridor and started the journey to her bedchamber. They reached the door to her room without mishap, the house as dark and slumbering as each of them had hoped.
After a last glance in both directions, Nick gave her a swift, hard kiss. “Go back to sleep. I shall see you later today.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
Reaching out, he turned the doorknob and urged her inside. She went on stealthy feet, closing the door soundlessly at her back.
Nick had just turned away from Emma’s door when a faint creaking noise echoed behind him.
Spinning around, he peered into the darkness.
But the corridor stood empty, and as he continued to watch, nothing moved in the shadows. Slowly, he walked toward the source of the sound.
Still nothing. The noise did not come again.
Nerves, he decided, recalling times in the past—usually before a battle—when every little squeak and rattle took on ominous characteristics.
After one last check, he shook off the feeling, then retraced his steps to his room.
Chapter 26
Emma awakened late that morning, the hours spent with Nick feeling like a dream—the most wonderful dream of her life.
But then she remembered his determination to ask Rupert for her hand in marriage. Had he gone to speak with Rupert yet? Was there still time to stop him? But Nick had been so adamant about doing the honorable thing by her that she didn’t think there was any stopping him. She huffed out a breath as she sat up between the sheets, knowing she would simply have to let matters take their course.
Even so, she couldn’t help fretting, her anxiety growing as the day went on.
She was seated in the drawing room that afternoon, sewing and drinking tea with the other ladies, when Ariadne laid her embroidery aside. “It seems a lovely sunny day outside,” Ariadne said. “Why do we not get our cloaks and take a walk in the garden?”
Mercedes looked up, while Emma’s needle stilled over her own stitchery. Emma studied Ariadne for a long moment, reading the significant look in her friend’s green gaze.
Emma’s pulse accelerated. “Yes, all right.” She tucked her embroidery into her sewing box, then rose, along with her two friends.
The baroness glanced at them from across the room, but returned quickly to her conversation with one of the other guests.
The three of them retrieved their cloaks and made their way outside into the wintry air. Brilliant sunshine streamed down, the light making the temperature seem less frigid. Their slippers crunched on the gravel path as they wandered into the neatly trimmed garden with its tall hedgerows of shiny green boxwoods and holly bushes, dark leafless trees spreading their wizened branches overhead.
They were near the center of the garden when Ariadne drew to a stop. “Go through that break in that hedge,” she murmured, gesturing toward a narrow, almost invisible gap in the greenery. “Mercedes and I will stay here and keep watch. If you hear a nightingale calling that means we have been joined by company.”
Emma stared for a moment, then gave a quick nod of understanding.
When she slipped through to the other side of the hedgerow she found Nick waiting for her in the narrow, mazelike corridor beyond. Warmth spread through her at the sight of his beloved face.
“Nick,” she cried, rushing into his arms.
He pulled her close and kissed her. “Darling.”
“Did you talk to Rupert? I worried when you weren’t at nuncheon.”
A bitter line edged his mouth. “I spoke with him this morning. You were right. He wouldn’t so much as consider my offer. Your hand, he informed me, is already promised. He said I had a great deal of nerve to even approach him considering that I am not of royal blood. Apparently no man of lesser rank will do for you.”
She brushed her fingers over the fine black wool of his greatcoat. “I am sorry.”
“Don’t be. You did warn me of the likely results. But at least I tried to do the right thing. Now we’ll do what we must and elope.”
“When? Now?” she asked, her pulse doing a jagged little dance of excitement.
He shook his head. “I fear my interest in you has put your brother on the alert and that you are likely to be watched. We’ll have to plan more carefully.”
“All right. Then, when?”
“I’m not sure yet. I shall get word to you through the princesses to let you know the details. In the meantime, I think it best if I play the dejected suitor and leave. That will alleviate any suspicions.”
Her heart dropped to her stomach. “Leave? I wish you would not.”