The Royal Takes a Bride by Blythe Carver

Author:Blythe Carver [Carver, Blythe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BCP

19

Emma sat on the porch, graciously accepting a cup of tea from the Englishman.

“Wait here, if you would, while I search my room?”

“Of course. Do you want any help?”

He shook his head. “I have been humiliated enough today. I do not need you seeing my chambers to add to it.”

Emma had to laugh. “Surely it’s not that bad. You aren’t an unclean person, are you?”

“Untidy,” he said vehemently. “Untidy is the word my mother always said.”

They both laughed, and he disappeared through the door. She thought she could hear him ransacking his own room, but it could have just been her overactive imagination.

She sipped at the tea, surprised by how good it was. The sun was shining, and the day was warm, but the hot tea didn’t make her feel overheated at all. It was sweet and savory.

Ten minutes later, a sweaty Alfred came back out on the porch. She was delightfully amused to see he had his own cup of hot tea, even though he looked like he was swimming in sweat. He sat down beside her in a chair on the other side of the small round table, looking frustrated.

“As I expected, the money is not there. I knew I hadn’t taken it out or put it back in my safe box. It should have been in my wallet.”

“So the only possible explanation is that someone took it out.”

Alfred nodded, sliding his blue-green eyes in her direction. “Someone took it out.”

“And it wouldn’t have been Lily or Bea.”

Alfred shook his head, leaving his eyes on hers. She admired him silently as she continued.

“And Brady wouldn’t do something like that.”

“So it had to be Adam,” he confirmed.

“Yes, I suppose it does.”

Alfred felt a twinge of guilt. “I’m sorry if that makes you feel bad,” he said. “I know you liked him.”

Emma’s eyes opened wide, and she gazed at him. “I reckon that depends on what kind of like you mean.”

“It does, does it?” he grinned at her.

With her own return smile, Emma asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

Alfred appeared to think about it for a minute. He took a few sips of his tea, and remarkably, he looked like he was cooling off instead of heating up.

“I don’t see how I can do anything. I can’t prove it was him who took it. Even if I demanded to see the money in his wallet, that wouldn’t tell him if it was mine. I’m going to have to start earmarking mine somehow, so this doesn’t happen again. All these years of traveling with this group of friends, and this has never happened before.”

“Is Adam hurting for money? His parents in Ireland aren’t sending him any?”

“They are, and no, he’s not. He didn’t take that money–if he did take it–because he needed it. He wanted me to be caught by surprise. He wanted me to be humiliated.”

“Well, that’s not the kind of thing a man does to his friends, is it? Why would he do that?”

“He is envious.”

Emma was quiet, thinking about the difference between the Englishman and the Irishman.

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