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CHAPTERTHREE
He stared down at the delicate beauty, glad for the excuse to spend a few more minutes in her company and curious as to why she’d volunteered to share with him after all. What did she hope to gain by telling him what Mirabelle had told her?
“Just that you started a business to support the family but that it isn’t going well.”
A wave of irritation coursed through him. Just? That was a great deal. “She shared that, did she?”
Emily bit at her lip again and his thumb itched to smooth the worried flesh. “Don’t be angry with her. It’s a burden that she struggles with, I think.”
He shook his head. Somehow, despite the roughness of the brothers in the family, or perhaps because of it, both of his sisters were sensitive. “I am not angry with Mirabelle.”
Emily smiled at him then, a smile that lit her entire face and stole the reason from his thoughts. “Good. Because she loves you dearly.”
He shifted, realizing that Mirabelle had shared far more with Emily than he’d even imagined. And he understood why. Emily was so easy to trust. “What else did she say?”
She hesitated, her lips pressing together and his own body tightened with impending dread. “That you met your half-brother, the new earl, and that isn’t going well either.”
Christ. Ace raked a hand through his hair. Mirabelle had told Emily about Ash? Was there a secret that Emily didn’t already know?
He’d never met his father’s only legitimate child, his half-brother, until a few months ago when he’d started at the Den of Sins.
Those lords all masked their identity with fake names so he’d had no idea that his half-brother worked there until he himself was too far embroiled in the deception to back out.
And also, if he were being honest, he might have been able to leave the Den of Sins. But he’d gone for good reason, to help his family and his business, and he could confess, he’d been curious.
They shared blood with the new Earl of Easton.
And family was everything to Ace.
“Is there anything Mirabelle didn’t tell you?” he scoffed.
He’d have to chat with his sister tomorrow. Not that he’d give her too much trouble. He never could. Not where either of his sisters were concerned. But still. She’d broken a direct rule by bringing Emily into her confidence and she’d put him in even more danger. The more people in whom they confided…
Emily shrugged. “Anything she didn’t tell me? I wouldn’t know, would I?” She licked her lips stepping a bit closer as her eyes pleaded. “I promise your secrets are safe with me. Mirabelle and I understand each other, and I’d do anything to protect her. She’s my friend.”
“You understand each other?”
Emily’s chin dropped then. “We’re both on the outside looking in, I suppose.”
Ace stared at her, perplexed. “Why are you on the outside? You firmly belong in this world.” He said the words as much as a reminder to himself as he did to her.
She pressed her hands to the flat of the stomach. “I have a tendency to say too much or too little. Or exactly the wrong thing. I babble when I’m nervous and then I say way more than I should—like how I revealed I knew your sister or like…right now.”
She stopped again, clamping her lips shut.
He could feel her hurt and embarrassment like a palpable force and he had the distinct urge to comfort her. But he fundamentally didn’t understand the problem. Did men really care about social propriety?
He supposed there were times when it was inconvenient for a person to say too much. But the woman before him was lovely and warm and— He stopped. He’d found himself wishing for a future he’d never wanted before. One with a wife.
A sweet little brown-haired wife who snuggled close to him all winter long and whispered words of encouragement in his ear.
That was exactly the sort she was. He just knew she was tender and kind as surely as he knew that future would never be his. Inwardly he winced even as he straightened up and away from her. This sort of proximity was not to either of their benefits.
“I shouldn’t have said all that, should I?” She fisted her hands, her teeth catching her lip again. “Now you’re realizing everything I said was true, and you wish that you’d never asked, and—”
“Emily,” he said, testing her given name on his tongue and finding that he liked it a great deal. “I wasn’t thinking any of those things.”
“Oh.” Surprise rounded her mouth as she tilted her chin to look in his eyes.
