“Relatively,” Roger said. “I have other things on my mind at the moment than thrashings.”
There was another rustling and Jasper appeared in the hallway. He was grinning. “Now I can blackmail you, Rog,” he said. “Em would probably be very interested to know where that letter and rose were really destined to go.”
A moment later his toes were dangling a tantalizing half-inch from the floor, the lapels of his coat clutched in his cousin’s fists.
“Let me be fast and clear on this point, my young lad,” Roger said. “If Emmy ever learns the truth, your rear end will be in grave danger of the worst thrashing of its life. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Rog,” Jasper said briskly.
“If you care for her,” Roger said, lowering Jasper until his big toes were scraping the floor, “it should not be just the threat that will keep your mouth shut.”
“No, Rog,” Jasper said.
He was lowered until he was able to stand flat on both feet.
“What I really came out here to say,” Roger said, “was thank you, you fiendish little brat. Depending upon the events of the next half-hour, I may be eternally in your debt. Let’s not exaggerate this too much, though. Suffice it to say that I owe you something.”
“Cakes?” Jasper said hopefully.
“Perhaps later,” Roger said. “Back to your hiding place, now.” He returned to the salon, closing the door behind him. He was standing with his back to the fire when the door opened again and Emily came hurrying in.
She stopped when she saw him, and turned pale. Her eyes grew large.
“My aunt knows I am here,” he said. “She sent you to see me.”
She stared at him.
“Your father knows too,” he said.
She frowned in incomprehension. “Papa?” she said.
“I have been to see him,” he said. “And your mother and all seven of your brothers and sisters, who talk enough for twice as many. It is no wonder you are so quiet. It must have been difficult to get a word in edgewise.”
“You have been to see them?” She was looking at him rather as if he had two heads, he thought.
“I have your father’s permission to ask you to marry me,” he said.
Her hands crumpled the gray fabric of her dress at the front. Her face was suddenly flooded with color.
“You did not compromise me,” she said. “I went willingly with you, and no one saw or knew about it.”
“I want to marry you,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the fact that I kissed you rather intimately outside the Assembly Rooms. I want to marry you, Emmy, because you are the most beautiful and the most precious thing in my life. Thing!” He laughed softly. “I have practiced this over and over in the last four days, and I cannot remember a word of what I planned to say.”
She looked at him, handsome and rather dusty in his riding clothes. And for the first time she realized that he had come as he had said he would. And he was asking her to marry him. The fact was beginning to register on her mind.
“But I am very dull and very ordinary,” she said.
“If you were a man,” he said with a faint smile, “I would call you out as a consummate liar. You are golden, Emmy. I cannot think of a better word to describe you. You shine from within like the sun. A rose cannot even begin to compete with you.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Emmy,” he said, “I have nothing to offer you except money and position and security. I am twenty-seven years old, and I have wasted my youth in gambling and drinking and rioting and . . . debauchery. I don’t know why you would even think of accepting me, but I am offering myself. Will you have me?”
She hesitated. She could not quite understand. What was the attraction? Why would a man like him, who had everything, want her? There could be only one reasonable explanation.
“Is there nothing else?” she asked. “Nothing else you can offer me?”
He smiled, a look of mockery on his face. “Only my love,” he said, “for what it is worth, Emmy. I have never given it before. That at least is untarnished.”
