the sudden, hideous image of Emily white and still, a dead infant in her arms. No. That would not happen again. He would not hurt another woman like that again, he would find a way to stop it.
“It won’t be that way for Lady Emily and me,” he said. “We can live contentedly together after a time, I’m sure. Besides, I’m the duke. You and our sisters have been telling me I need to marry, to find a duchess. Why not her? She is quite suitable.”
“Suitable!” Stephen burst out. “Nick, she is pretty, of course, and of good family. But she is so—so cold. How can you find contentment with someone they call the Ice Princess?”
Nicholas laughed. Emily was certainly not cold. Sometimes she burned like the hottest summer day, until she remembered herself and drew away again. “Things are not always as they appear, Brother. I will marry Lady Emily, because I must, and I will find a way to make the best of it for us both. You and the others have to welcome her into our family.”
Stephen scowled, but at last he nodded. “I will do my best, for you. And Justine always cares for everyone. I’m not sure about Annalise or Charlotte, though.”
Nicholas’s youngest sisters did have minds, and iron wills, of their own. But they always did what was best for the family in the end. “Once they come to know Emily, all will be well.”
“I hope you are right,” Stephen said doubtfully.
“Of course I am. Dukes are always right,” Nicholas said with confidence. Inside, though, he was simply not so sure. Emily was a strange lady, impossible to read or decipher. One minute he was sure he understood her at last, and then she went and did something utterly unpredictable.
“Let’s go,” he said. “It seems I must shop for a new ring.”
“I think you should go home and bathe first, Nick,” Stephen said. “You smell like a dockside tavern after all the sweat you’ve shed today.”
Ah, yes—that was what families were really for. Keeping things honest in a painfully polite world.
“Fine,” he said. “Home first, then the shops. Then I must call on my bride.”
They soon left the Saloon, Nicholas moderately tidied up, and set off for Manning House. The carriage had been left at home that day, so they were on foot. After the fifth person stopped them to wish him happy, though, he thought better of that decision.
“Shall we hire a hackney, Stephen?” he asked. Then his gaze was caught by a figure moving purposefully down the street, dodging around the other pedestrians as if she did not see them at all. But the light glowed on the golden curls peeking from beneath the plain straw bonnet.
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