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As soon as his tremors rescinded, he caught her under the arms and dragged her up his body to lie over him, dragging a throw to cover them both and cradling her in his arms. At his urging, she laid her head on his chest and at some point, she must have fallen asleep.
CHAPTER12
25th December1817
“Happy birthday, my love.”
She woke with a start. Emmett’s scent surrounded her, his arms around her, his breath on her ear. She was nestled against him in the library. It was still dark except for the now-smoldering fire.
“You really do wake at five o’clock every morning,” she said into his shoulder.
His laugh was a rumble. “Yes, I’m sorry. But it’s a useful trait today, as otherwise we’d be caught. You can slip into your own room and no one will be the wiser.How does it feel to be an independently wealthy heiress?”
“Much the same as yesterday,” she replied. That was a lie.
“Anything else that changed last night?”
“Not the thing I asked for. But I’m still hopeful I might receive that for my birthday,” she said, feeling very cheeky and bold.
“You don’t want to see what I bought for you for your birthday?”
“You didn’t have to give me anything.”
“I wanted to,” he said simply and reached an arm out, stretching until he snagged the collar of his coat and dragged it to him. Feeling around in the pocket, he withdrew a small pouch. “I’ll wrap it for you properly later. Or some of it anyway.”
She shot him a confused look.
“Here.” Shifting them more upright, he put the pouch into her hands and lit a candle.
She held the velvet pouch but looked at him. She could almost make out the black stubble on his jaw that had rasped against her skin last night. He was beautiful, even in the dark.
“Aren’t you going to open it?”
She nodded. But she didn’t deserve a gift from him. He’d been nothing but kind, and she no idea how this resolved.
Easing the string of the pouch open, she withdrew a necklace of rubies set in gold, all evenly matched and gasped.
“It’s beautiful.” When she would wear such a thing, she had no idea, but that was hardly the point.
“No, not really. They’re paste. It’s a fake,” he said with a sly grin. “Your favorite thing.”
Gina looked back at the necklace. “They look real.”
“A good fake,” he agreed. “And the gold is real. Look inside the pouch. That’s your real gift.”
He was right, there was something in the pouch. Gritty when her fingers pressed. She tipped out the contents onto her palm, and this time she really did gasp. A dozen rubies winked up at her.
“When you travel you’ll need a portable form of money. This necklace is disposable, nothing. But will fool a would-be thief. And you can sew these real rubies into your clothing somewhere. Into some excessive embroidery of one of your hideous gowns, since you like that. Maybe with a red rose motif.” His smile was a little sad. “Just don’t allow your mother to see the necklace when I give it to you later. I bet she’d spot the fake at a hundred yards.”
“This is too much.” She stared at the stones, so perfect they’d break your heart. And considerate. He’d thought about what she might need. “I haven’t finished your Christmas present,” she confessed in a rush. Or rather, Miss Chilson hadn’t.
“The embroidery?” A pleased smile lit up his face despite the fact he ought to have been disappointed. “I don’t mind. I’ll wait for you to finish. The only thing that matters is that you made it for me.”
She smiled back and the voice at the back of her mind chanted,liar, liar, liar. She told it to shut up. He’d have the perfect embroidery he deserved; It didn’t matter she hadn’t sewn it herself.
He waited, as if for her to reply, but she didn’t know what to say.
“We need to go to our own rooms.” He held out his hand and she tipped the rubies back into their pouch with the necklace and returned them to him. Their fingers brushed, and somehow that was more intimate than her legs on his. He pocketed the necklace and pressed the gems in their velvet pouch back into her hand. Then he lifted her to standing, retrieved her wrap and smoothed it over her shoulders, before picking up his own clothes and dressing quickly.
