Daring Miss Danvers by Vivienne Lorret

he was a man of his word. Wasn’t he?
    His grandmother picked up her tea again and nodded. “That is wise, I suppose, though you cannot truly know what marriage is like until the deed is done. I see no true reason to tread. No, you must dive in headfirst . . . So to speak .” She turned to address his mother. “What about you, Victoria? Do you get along well enough with Emma’s mother, even though she considers herself an artist ?”
    “Celestine Danvers is a lovely woman,” Rathburn’s mother said with a small smile. She hadn’t actually smiled, not like she used to, in years. Not since his father had died. In fact, she still wore gray as if on the fringes of mourning. He hoped that once Hawthorne Manor was repaired, her smile might return. “While we don’t often attend the same functions, when we’ve had the Danverses over to dinner, I’ve found them quite charming. Regardless, none of that matters. Oliver will be marrying Emma, not her parents.”
    His grip on the door handle froze. Oliver will be marrying . . . He’d never heard those words before and certainly never imagined that Emma’s name would follow. He expected an icy flood of panic at any moment.
    “He’s marrying into her family as much as she is into ours,” his grandmother interjected. “Their children will be a product of both houses, whether we like or not. Although there must be someone respectable in the line, or else Miss Danvers would not be here.”
    Their children . He waited for the swift dampness of his palms, or, in the very least, a headache.
    Yet, as the minutes ticked by, he felt perfectly calm. The only sound he heard in the pause of conversation was the steady beating of his heart inside his chest. He wasn’t sure what to make of that.
    “Emma has merit on her own,” his mother added smoothly. “Besides that, Oliver is fond of her. That should count for something.”
    He caught himself nodding in response to the statement, as if it were a well-known fact. Of course, he was fond of her and her family. Yet, he couldn’t help but notice how the way his mother had said it gave the words an entirely new meaning.
    No . He shook his head. This was not how this was supposed to go. He’d come here for a purpose and then found himself lingering like a fool who didn’t know his own mind.
    “Merit enough for you and I, perhaps,” his grandmother added. “However, that isn’t to say he isn’t using the poor girl to gain his inheritance.”
    “Mother!” His mother sent Emma a look of apology.
    “It’s all right,” Emma said, not displaying an ounce of the panic he knew she must be feeling. “Lord Rathburn’s interest left me suspect as well. At first.” Perhaps only he noticed the slight tremble in her hands as she set her teacup and saucer on the table.
    It was time to stop lingering in the shadows. He only hoped the right words would form on his lips that would save them both from certain disaster.
    “He is quite my opposite in both appearance and unreservedness,” she continued, without noticing that he’d opened the door to the gallery. “When he first approached my parents and then me with his intentions, I thought he was joking, playing a trick to tease me and see how gullible I was. However, those thoughts were more from my own insecurities than from his true self. Once I pushed those aside, I saw him clearly for the first time. He requires my company because I am his opposite, not despite it.”
    “So true,” he announced, striding toward the group. Emma sounded downright convincing. Once he got them out of this, he would buy her a new pair of gloves. “She is the chain at my ankle that keeps me tethered to the earth. Hello, Grandmamma.” He bowed formally and then leaned in to buss her papery cheek. “Mother.” He repeated the action after stepping around the table. Then he simply smiled at Emma. “The incomparable Miss Danvers.”
    She blushed, granting him a poetic greeting without saying a