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Good. So far their plan was working. “I see,” he said. “Please send a note to Lady Hartsfield. Inform her that we need her medical experience, but it is not for her sister. I wouldn’t wish her to worry.”
“Very good, my lord.” Nelson gave him a strange look before turning away to write the letter.
He walked with leaden feet back to the study. What were they going to do with Emily? “I sent for Mia.”
“Thank you,” Emily whispered.
“What do we do now?” Jonathon asked. “I can’t let her go back to him.”
“I won’t go back to him,” Emily said resolutely. “I will divorce him now.”
“Divorce is extremely difficult,” Braden said. “Very few women ever achieve it. I know Eldridge has been unfaithful and now this. But I need to understand what drove him to beat you.”
Emily blinked her tears away. “Your visit this morning. I believe he heard more than I had imagined. He demanded to know if I was meeting Jonathon. And how I was doing it.”
“Did you tell him?” Jonathon asked.
“No, of course not. Then he thought he could beat it out of me. If my maid had not come in, I don’t know what might have happened.”
Guilt spread throughout his body. She had been injured purely due to his visit. He should have known Eldridge would suspect her of harboring Jonathon. “Perhaps she can stay with Mia and Hart.”
Jonathon went silent for a long moment before shaking his head. “That makes sense, but will Hart allow it?”
“Yes,” he said without a thought. Hart had a soft spot for women. And knowing his past, he would want to assist Emily.
Within a few minutes, Mia and Hart arrived. Mia blustered into the room much like her mother would have done.
“What is wrong? Where is Tia?” She scanned the room. Seeing Emily, she went to her. “Who did this to you?”
Emily stared at her hands without saying a word.
“Can someone please tell me what is going on and where my sister is?”
“Lady Hartsfield, this is Emily, Lady Eldridge,” Braden said. “I don’t know if you have met my brother, Mr. Jonathon Tavers.”
“Yes, I met him over the summer at the estate,” she muttered. “Now that we all know who we are, I will ask again—where is my sister?”
Braden cringed. “Quite possibly on her way back to the estate.”
“And why would she be doing that when you and she are to be married tomorrow?” Mia asked in an all-too quiet voice.
“There will not be a wedding tomorrow.”
She glared back at him with eyes the same color as Tia’s. “Why not?”
Braden sat down with a sigh. “I cannot tell you the specifics, but right now she does not want to marry me. Before you say anything, I will tell you that once this little mess is done, she will forgive me and marry me.”
“I would not be so certain if I were you, my lord,” Mia said, fishing some items out of her small valise.
“Why not?”
“We Featherstone women have long memories and don’t always forgive so easily.”
It was probably a good thing she did not see her husband shaking his head and mouthing the words not true to Braden. “I will take your words under careful consideration, Mia.”
“You had best do that,” Mia replied, wiping the dried blood off Emily’s face. “How long ago did this happen?”
“Two hours ago,” Jonathon said as he watched the wise woman.
