Emmeline felt the coach tip to the side as one of the wheels hit a rut in the road. “We all have secrets,” she admitted.
“Not like mine.”
“Then I shall be mindful not to press you.”
Oliver acknowledged her words with a tip of his head, but he remained quiet. She couldn’t help but notice that his eyes had grown guarded.
A yawn escaped her lips and she brought her gloved hand up to cover it. “Pardon me,” she said. “I must be more tired than I realized.”
“Why don’t you get some sleep?”
As she lowered her hand to her lap, she remarked, “I believe I shall, assuming you do not mind.”
“Not at all,” he replied. “We have a long journey ahead of us, and I would prefer it if you were well rested.”
Emmeline leaned her head against the side of the jostling coach as she closed her eyes. It wasn’t long before sleep overtook her.
With the sun high in the sky, Oliver rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as he watched Emmeline turn the page of her book. She had retrieved it out of her valise when they stopped to swap out the horses.
“What are you reading?” he asked, lowering his hand to his side.
Emmeline glanced over the top of the book at him. “Mansfield Park.”
“Ah,” he replied. “Jane sings praises about all the books written by ‘A Lady’.”
“They are extraordinarily well written.”
He smirked. “How good can they be if they are written by a woman?”
Emmeline visibly tensed as she lowered the book to her lap. “That was rather harsh of you to say.”
“I am only teasing you,” Oliver said. “You see, I am rather bored at the moment.”
Emmeline’s lips twitched. “Would you care for me to read to you?”
“I would much rather converse with you,” he replied honestly. “It has been hours since we last spoke.”
Placing the book on the bench next to her, Emmeline asked, “What would you care to discuss?”
“How do you suppose Lord and Lady Taylor will react to your elopement?”
Emmeline sighed. “They very well may disown me.”
“You think that they would be so cruel and unfeeling as to disown you?”
“I do.” A pensive look came to Emeline’s face. “They haven’t been the same towards me since Charlotte died.”
“In what way?”
Emmeline shifted her gaze towards the open window. “At times, I believe that they wished it was me that died that fateful day and not Charlotte.”
Oliver lifted his brow. “Have they said as much?”
“No,” she replied with a shake of her head, “but they have grown increasingly distant from me.”
“I am sorry to hear that.”
She brought her gaze back to meet his. “I am not sure if you were aware, but the duke saw me at the opera and decided I would be his next bride.”
“I was not.”
“Shortly thereafter, his solicitor approached my uncle, and they entered into a contract on my behalf,” Emmeline shared. “I wasn’t even consulted on the matter.”
“That was poorly done on their part.”
Emmeline gave him a timid smile. “After the contract was signed, my aunt and uncle started showing favor to me again, and I naïvely went along with their plans.”
“What changed your mind?”
“It was when I met the duke,” she said firmly. “He had me sit on his lap and he told me how beautiful I was. He said I would be the crowning jewel of his collection.”
“And what did Lord and Lady Taylor say of his inappropriate behavior?”
Emmeline frowned. “They allowed it. They didn’t dare do anything to offend the duke.”
“That is terrible.”
“The duke is not a good man, but my aunt and uncle refused to listen to my concerns,” Emmeline said. “They would just inform me that I was lucky to be marrying a duke, despite not having a dowry.”
Oliver shifted in his seat as he attempted to find a comfortable position. “You don’t have a dowry?”
Emmeline shook her head. “I do not,” she revealed. “It went to cover my father’s debts when he died.” There was a slight panic in her voice as she rushed to add, “But I do have a three-thousand-pound inheritance from my grandmother. It will belong to you after we are wed.”
“I am not marrying you for your money, Emme,” Oliver said, leaning forward in his seat. “I do not care if you have a farthing to your name.”
“It pleases me to hear that,” she murmured, and he could hear the relief in her tone.
He leaned back and asked, “Coaches are blasted uncomfortable, are they not?”
Emmeline let out a light, airy laugh. “Yes, they most assuredly are.”
Hearing her laugh caused a smile to touch the corners of his mouth. “You have always had the most wonderful laugh.”
“Do I?”
He nodded. “I daresay that it is infectious.”
Her eyes lit up at his remarks. “I suppose I haven’t had a reason to laugh for so long,” she replied. “It feels good to laugh again.”
“And why is that?”
“I am still struggling with the death of my parents,” she admitted as she lowered her gaze to her lap.
Oliver waited until Emmeline brought her gaze back up before saying, “That is to be expected.”
“Is it?” she asked. “Because my aunt and uncle believe I have grieved long enough, and it is time to accept their deaths and move on.”
“They are wrong,” Oliver asserted. “The pain of losing a loved one is not something that you can get over. I have learned that from experience.”
“I was sorry to hear about the death of your father,” Emmeline said, compassion in her voice. “He was a good man.”
“Yes, he was,” Oliver agreed, “but it took me nearly a year before I could speak about him to anyone.”
“Has the pain diminished at all?”
“I suppose the pain has faded some, but I still miss him desperately. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him.”
Tears came into Emmeline’s eyes and she wiped them away with her gloved hand. “I think of my parents constantly,” she said. “At times, I wish I had
