Wedding Wagers(59)

"I need a bath, remember?" Eli said. "And we need to pay the cook. It is Friday. She will not come tomorrow."

"Yes. Of course. You bathe. I'll pay Mrs. Judd. I'll prepare the table  for dinner. I'll-" Emily pulled him close once more, as their mouths  found one another again.

"You are not as shy as I had supposed," Eli said, breathing heavily when at last they broke apart again.

"Neither are you as gentle as I had believed."

I will be.

They smiled at one another, both unwilling to move from their embrace  until Eli finally, regretfully stepped back. "A half hour," he promised.  "I'll bathe at the pond."

"I'll pay Mrs. Judd and prepare the table."

He wished she wouldn't. He wasn't hungering for food at the moment. "I love you, Emily."

She smiled in return. "Perhaps almost as much as I love you."





Emily, wearing a long white apron over her pastel gown, hummed to  herself as she laid out the plates and silverware. Noting that the cloth  covering the table was fraying, she decided she would begin  embroidering a new one. She adored the cottage as it was, but had begun  to see small improvements she might make here or there, which would make  it even cozier.

When she had finished the tasks indoors and Eli still had not returned,  she left the kitchen and walked along the tidy rows of the vegetable  garden, stooping now and again to snap beans from the vine. It was one  of the few outdoor tasks Eli had allowed her to help with thus far.

When her apron pockets were full, she wandered from the garden, past the  roses he had tended earlier, and the bucket and dipper still lying on  the ground where they had fallen. Emily touched her lips, remembering  Eli's kisses and yearning for another. Any minute now he should be  coming up the path; she decided to walk toward the pond and meet him  along the way.

Her light steps had not carried her far when voices-Eli's and one  other-stopped her. Emily paused, undecided if she should return or  continue on.

"You know this is not why I married her."

Eli's words persuaded her to the latter.

"Nevertheless, Claymere is yours-if not by rights of our wager, by right as the firstborn and legitimate heir."

Lord Rowley? Wager? Emily left the path to hide behind a tree where she might listen but not be seen.

"My mind has not changed," Eli said. "I want no part of the earldom. I wish to be left in peace with my wife."

"You call this peace?" Lord Rowley sounded incredulous. "I saw you  earlier-laboring in the dirt then getting a face full of water."

"Ah, but did you see what followed? I assure you Emily's warm affection  counteracted any ill effect of the cold water. And laboring on her  behalf, for her support, does not seem a labor at all."         

     



 

She heard the smile in Eli's voice and hoped Lord Rowley had not  witnessed their kissing by the roses, though could not exactly fault him  for spying when she was doing the same.

Eli continued. "There is a great satisfaction to be found in living this  way, truly earning one's bread or growing the food brought to one's  table."

Fingers curling around the beans in her pocket, Emily silently agreed.  After only a short while here she was beginning to understand what he  meant. To have purpose, to be useful …  To be thankful for what one has.

"Madness," Lord Rowley muttered. "As would be your refusal of Claymere. I  intended to hold you to your bargain and would have made you work  without wages the ten years. Take now what is yours."

Emily flattened herself against the tree as they passed. Ten years. Was  that the new position Eli had alluded to before it was decided they  would marry?

"Had you lost our wager," Lord Rowley suggested, "I doubt you would find digging in the dirt as satisfying."

"I would not," Eli agreed soberly.

Peeking from behind the trunk, she saw that he walked with his hands  clasped behind his back, as if he did not wish any chance of receiving  the scroll Lord Rowley held clutched in his fist. Eli's hair was still  wet from the pond, and he had changed from the clothes he wore earlier.

"I would have been pleased to work at Claymere-under any  circumstance-but I would have mourned your victory and my loss greatly. I  love Emily. Already she has brought more joy to my life than I had  imagined possible."

Not wishing to diminish that joy by eavesdropping further, Emily stepped out from her hiding place.

"I wish you the same happiness with Lady Grayson," Eli said.

"Then I beg you to accept this deed." Lord Rowley stopped walking and  extended his hand with the papers. "You are aware of my selfish nature.  On my own I should have been extremely reluctant to part with this  property. Sophia insists I must, or she will withdraw from our  agreement-a most awkward situation as the banns have been posted two  weeks already. If nothing else, her mother will have my head if the  wedding is off."

"Why banns? I thought you'd obtained a license." Eli stopped as well,  turning toward Lord Rowley and catching sight of Emily hurrying to catch  up with them.

"Yes, well …  I'd hoped to make better use of the £5 Sophia gave to  purchase the license. I gambled it-and lost. Seems to be rather the way  of my luck lately." Lord Rowley gave a short cough. "Ah, here is your  lovely wife now."

"Lord Rowley." Emily curtsied and allowed him to take her hand and kiss  it, feeling somewhat awkward as only a month earlier he had been  courting her.

His eyes lingered on them as she stepped closer to Eli and he put his  arm around her. "Marriage suits you both, it seems. You are looking very  well, Lady Rowley."

"Thank you." She found she did not care for that title anymore than Eli  would likely enjoy being called the earl. "I regret that I cannot say  the same of you." Lord Rowley's trousers and boots were dusty, his face  drawn, eyes bloodshot. "Were your travels overly tiresome?" Selfishly  she hoped he would not ask to stay with them tonight.

Lord Rowley's mouth turned up curiously. "I do not believe I have ever  heard you speak your mind like that. I must say it is a vast improvement  over your previous reserve. And yes, my travel was tiresome. I came by  horse, as quickly as I might. Perhaps you can talk some sense into your  husband. If I cannot persuade him to my way of thinking, I am in danger  of losing your sister, and I have grown to care for her a great deal."

"Her? Or her money?" Emily asked, concerned as she had been before, for Sophia.

"Both, if I am being honest. Though I do not believe I shall have much  control over the latter. Sophia is rather put out with my gambling at  present. I shall have to toe the mark if I am to win her affection as it  appears Eli has so readily won yours."

Lord Rowley held out the scroll. "I have here the deed to all of Claymere. It is Eli's for the taking."

"By right of birth-and wager," Emily added, her eyes shifting from one  man to another. "You made a bet who would be the one to marry me?"

"When I was twelve, Sherborne ten." Eli's hand tightened at her waist as  if he was afraid she might flee. "I was lovestruck-even then-and  foolishly let my desire to make you mine be known."

"I forced him to the wager, believing it impossible that he could win,"  Lord Rowley admitted. "Eli was to have all of Claymere if he married  you. If he did not, if he lost, he was to work for me, ten years without  wage."         

     



 

"My time and labor was the only thing of value I had to offer," Eli said  quietly. "And it had to be a great deal of both, if Sherborne was to  risk Claymere."

Emily's lips pressed into a thin line until she remembered the way her mother appeared when wearing such an expression.

"But I don't want Claymere anymore." Eli turned her toward him, taking  both of her hands in his. "I was a boy then, one who had just found his  father only to learn that he had another son-a brother I could not  claim-and that boy was to have it all. Sherborne asked what I wished if I  won, and I named the place that had been dear to my parents." Eli  caught her eyes, his own pleading. "All I really wanted was what they  had shared together-a tremendous love, to be happy here and never alone.  I have found that in you."

"Yet you would have left Shrewsbury, would have allowed me to marry  another, without even attempting to win my hand? When all you had to do  to ask for it yourself was to reveal your true identity?" Emily's head  was spinning, questions, accusation, and hurt firing through her mind at  rapid speed.

Eli's face crumpled with distress. "Until that night in the stable, I  believed I had no hope of winning your hand or heart. I thought you  content being courted by Sherborne, and I knew such pleased your  father-and that you would wish to please him. As soon as I realized you  were not happy, I did what I must to marry you. Have you any idea how  difficult it was for me to go before the Archbishop? I didn't want what  came with my parentage. I'd had the education I yearned for years  before, and had known since then-after seeing the expectations and  restrictions placed upon those who are titled-that I did not wish for  that life."