“Please do,” Emily encouraged. The change was instant. He discarded his top hat on the nearest chair and rounded Charity, heading straight for Emily. He took her hands in his, a gesture she had once loved that now made her nervous. “Why are you here?” she whispered.
“Because Miss Drew kissed me, I did not kiss her.” Aaron spoke with wide eyes, not blinking once as he held her gaze. “She drew me into the garden saying we needed to speak about Hugh. That was why I was there. Then she kissed me. I was shocked and pushed her off, just as you arrived. If you want the proof of it, then you can speak to her maid. She saw it all! She can concur exactly what happened.”
“She can?” Emily asked, feeling a jolt of hope within her.
“Emily, there is much I need to tell you.” Aaron held tightly onto her hands. “Hugh and I stayed up for most of the night talking about what Miss Drew has done. It seems she has set us against each other for years, telling each of us she cared for us, all for her own amusement, simply to make us enemies. Yet when I moved on, realizing that I did not love her anymore, but loved you, she couldn’t stand it.”
Emily could not find words. That hope was beginning to bloom and all she wanted was for Aaron to keep talking.
“She was determined for me to stay away from you. Simply so that she could cause more trouble between Hugh and me. She took a sadistic pleasure in it.Sheis the one who wrote you those horrid letters.” The words cut deep, making Emily’s lips part.
“The reticule? The gown?”
“All Miss Drew.” Aaron confirmed with a nod. “Hugh even took her to Bond Street for her dress fitting with a modiste this week. He confirmed dropping her at the door and I heard it from Miss Drew’s own lips how she couldn’t believe her luck when she saw your named pinned to the box.”
Emily could see it all so easily in her mind’s eye, the way that Miss Drew would have pulled back the lid of that box when the modiste was looking elsewhere and taken some of the tailoring scissors off the side to cut the dress into shreds.
“We have sent her out of our lives and Hugh will no longer marry her,” Aaron’s words brought her back to the moment. “Please, Emily, I need you to know the truth of how I really feel.”
“You do not care for miss Drew?” Emily asked, feeling her excitement return as a small smile appeared on her face.
“Not a jot.” He confirmed, his own smile appearing as he recognized hers. “I love you. No other.”
“You do?”
“I do. Please say you believe me.” He begged of her, lifting her hand to his lips. Just like the night before, he turned it over, placing one of those stolen kisses to the inside of her wrist. Emily felt a tear slide down her cheek at the touch, but it was a tear of happiness this time, not of sadness.
“I believe you,” she whispered breathily. “And I love you too.”
At her words, there was a whimper on the other side of the room. Both Emily and Aaron looked toward Charity, who was waving a hand madly in front of her face, apparently trying to quell her own tears.
“I think we have had quite an effect on my mother,” Emily said in jest, pulling a warm smile from Aaron as he turned back to her.
“I want to prove how serious I am about you, Emily. Just how much I love you.”
“This was a good start,” she said, gesturing at the way he was holding onto her hands.
“I am just getting started.” He adjusted his hold on her, so that one of her hands was firmly in his grasp before turning to Charity. “Lady Dowding, where is your husband?”
“I-in his study,” she said, stammering as she tried to hold back the tears. “That was very romantic indeed.”
“Why are we going to see my father?” Emily asked as Aaron towed her out of the room. Charity followed the two of them, bustling on behind them as they crossed the hall, heading toward the study.
When they reached the door they found it ajar, with Archibald looking slowly up from paperwork on his desk.
“May I guess from the way you are clutching to my daughter’s hand, Lord Tattershall, that whatever led to the tragedy the other night has been forgiven and explained?” he asked slowly. Aaron looked to Emily, clearly hoping she would answer to confirm it was the truth.
“It has been,” she said softly, startled as Aaron drew her fully into the study to face her father, with Charity watching from the doorway.
“Then I truly hope you will not hurt her again, my Lord,” Archibald said as he stood to his feet. “Courtships can end in many broken hearts, after all.”
“I do not want that to ever happen again,” Aaron spoke with conviction, drawing Emily’s eyes toward him as he stood taller. “What that in mind, Lord Dowding, I would like to make sure at this moment that it can never happen again.”
“What do you mean?” Archibald asked, his brows knitting together.
“I would like to ask for your blessing, for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
Emily reeled, half stumbling back. She thought she might fall over had it not been for Aaron’s grasp upon her hand, pulling her back to his side.
