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“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 sunhigh 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?”
