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She was afraid she was going to cry, and there was only so much humiliation she was willing to undergo. The telephone rang, and she ignored it. “I know it’s not your fault, but I’m quite furious with both of us right now, so please excuse me.”
The phone rang again. She began to move away, then bumped into a barstool and nearly knocked it over. Furious, she snatched up the receiver. “Hello!”
“It’s Torie. Grab Kenny and get over to the house!”
“What’s wrong?”
“You’ll see when you get here. Hurry!” Offering no more information, Torie hung up.
Emma slammed down the receiver. “Your sister is having some kind of crisis.”
“What’s wrong now?”
All she wanted to do was flee to the privacy of her bedroom, which apparently was no longer possible. “I don’t know, but she wants us both over at the house right away.”
“We’d better go, then. She prob’ly murdered Dex and wants us to bury his body.”
The trip to the Traveler estate was agonizing. She couldn’t bear being trapped with his pity or his embarrassment, and she immediately turned up the radio just loud enough to make conversation impossible. He didn’t turn it down, so she knew he didn’t want to talk either.
Shelby appeared as soon as they entered the house. Her eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed with pleasure.
“Oh, Lady Emma, we’ve had the most unexpected visitor. A business acquaintance of Warren’s—a big investor—but I don’t think he’s here because of Warren. I think it’s because of you! Just wait until everybody in town hears I’m entertaining a real, live duke!”
Chapter 18
Emma froze.
“A duke?” Kenny said.
“The Duke of Beddington!” Shelby chirped. “He’s in the living room! Warren calls him Hugh.” She dropped her voice to something approaching a stage whisper. “Apparently they’ve known each other for years—the duke’s been an investor in the company since the early eighties—but this is the first time they’ve met. Go on in and introduce yourself. I have to get another tray of hors d’oeuvres. He has quite an appetite.”
Emma felt as if she’d been turned upside down. First realizing she was in love with Kenny, and now this. She’d known that Hugh had made a fortune through investments in high-technology companies, but there were so many. How could she have known that TCS would be one of them? And she was going home tomorrow. Why had he decided to come all this way to see her now?
Kenny clasped Emma’s arm. “You’re going back to the ranch. You don’t have to put up with this.”
His protectiveness comforted her. How tempting it would be to go along with him, but she knew she couldn’t. She gave him a shaky smile. “Thank you, but I’ll take care of it.”
Gathering her determination, she headed for the living room.
“Emma, my dear.” The chair creaked as Hugh got to his feet. He was impeccably dressed in a dark gray three-piece suit designed to minimize his stout figure. His thinning auburn hair was combed neatly back from his round face, and his shaggy eyebrows topped a pair of small, pale eyes. The air around him reeked of expensive cologne.
Behind her, she heard Kenny whisper, “Sonovabitch is a dead ringer for frigging Henry the—”
She quickly moved forward. “I’m stunned, Your Grace. What on earth are you doing in Texas?”
Hugh’s fleshy fingers clamped around her own. “Wanted to surprise you. I have to be in the States on business for the next few weeks, so I wasn’t going to be able to see you when you got back. And your descriptions of Texas have been so tantalizing, I wanted to visit the place for myself.”
It was a blatant lie. He was the least curious traveler she knew. He had come all this way to make certain she was still under his thumb.
She couldn’t imagine why he cared. There were thousands of women in England who were prettier than she, and a lot more willing. With his title and his money, he could have his pick. Why had he locked in on her?
Sonovabitch! Kenny watched Hugh Holroyd’s eyes settle on Emma’s mouth, and he understood exactly why the Duke of Beddington was so obsessed with St. Gert’s headmistress. The horny bastard.
Kenny’s fingers clenched at his side. Emma was so naive she thought all Holroyd cared about was her title and her respectability, but Kenny was willing to bet the ranch it was her curvy body that had turned the duke into an upper class stalker. Hugh’d been having visions of Lady E’s sexy little mouth doing to him exactly what it had been doing to Kenny.
Which wasn’t ever going to happen. Kenny still hadn’t adjusted to Emma’s startling revelation in the kitchen. It wouldn’t have been so surprising coming from another woman—he was used to fending off declarations of love—but Lady E was extremely smart about people, so how had she managed to convince herself she’d fallen in love with him?
He reminded himself that, for all her big talk, she was pretty much a prude. For her own peace of mind, she probably needed to convince herself that she was engaged in something more important than recreational sex. She had to believe she’d fallen in love. But it wasn’t true, and he needed to explain that to her.
