Harlequin Historical September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: The Lone Sheriff\The Gentleman Rogue\Never Trust a Rebel by Lynna Banning

Author:Lynna Banning
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4603-4572-6
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Emma’s eyes were fixed upon the page of the book in her hand, but she was not reading it. Fatigue blanketed her shoulders and head, the result of a night spent with little sleep and much regret. She knew she should not have kissed Ned. It did not matter what she felt in her heart, it was what she knew in her head that counted. He was seeking a titled and powerful alliance. She had known that before she kissed him. But when she looked into his eyes, she saw a mirror of her own feelings. She saw desire and connection and care. She saw respect and admiration and tenderness. And she saw love. Or maybe she only saw what she wanted to see.

He had no serious or respectable interest in her. He had told her plainly to her face. She could not trust him. Worse than that, she could not trust herself. It was just lust on his half, just physical desire, she told herself. But she knew in her heart that was not true, that physical desire was just one part of it.

Whatever it was that existed between them, this love and desire and passion, it would ruin her. It would cast her from society for a second time. It would destroy her only chance of finding her brother and make a mockery of the vow she had sworn to her mother. It would dash all of her father’s hopes. And it would destroy her own pride and self-worth.

Emma had to stay very far away from Ned Stratham.

Far enough to watch him court a title. Far enough to watch him marry another woman and feel nothing.

And she would do it. No matter what she felt in her heart. She had to do it, for her family and for herself. She had to do it, because it was the right thing to do.

‘You look tired today, Emma.’ The dowager interrupted her train of thoughts.

She glanced up to find her employer no longer engrossed in her romance novel, but watching her. ‘Do I?’ She returned her eyes to the book in her hand, placing her bookmark within its pages. ‘I am quite well.’

‘And yet you do not seem your usual self.’

‘Perhaps I am a little tired after all,’ she admitted.

‘You need not worry so over your papa. I am sure he is all the more at ease for knowing you are here.’

‘You are right.’ More so than Lady Lamerton could ever realise. But it was not her father she was thinking of. With his new job she had less cause to worry over him. The new job made her think of Ned again.

She was saved by the knocker sounding at the front door. Lady Lamerton exchanged a look with Emma. It was her look of intrigue and curiosity. ‘I wonder who that might be. I was not aware that visitors were expected.’

‘They are not,’ said Emma.

The butler came in and announced that the Earl of Stanborough had come to call upon Lady Lamerton.

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