Amanda Scott (18 page)

“I know that one!” he cried. “It’s from
Hamlet
, the third act, I think. Part of that devilish silly stuff he puffs off to the king when the king wants to know where Polonius is and Hamlet don’t want to say he’s killed him. I didn’t understand the half of it when I read it.”

“‘I am glad of it,’” said Scopwick. “‘A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.’” He plowed forward through the water with the net.

Giles chuckled. “That’s from the same place. Rosenkrantz tells Hamlet he don’t understand him, and that’s Hamlet’s reply.” He peered into the net. “A good big one, just as I said. Now, sir, ‘bait the hook well; the next fish will bite.’”

“Misquoted,” retorted Scopwick with a chuckle, “but ’tis from
Much Ado About Nothing
. You’ll not catch me with one so simple as that, laddie.”

“‘Thou deboshed fish thou,’” quoth a third voice from across the brook, a voice that Emily had least expected to hear in such a setting as this. Looking in the direction from which it had come, she espied Miss Lavinia in a heavy green jersey and an ancient, well-worn stuff skirt, perched upon a boulder and nearly hidden in the overhanging branches of a huge weeping willow tree. Her rod was propped up in a pile of stones beside her, its line disappearing into the water some yards downstream from her, and she had a book propped open on her lap.

Scopwick’s laughter startled Emily, and she looked back at him. “You never had that line out of Shakespeare, Lavinia.”

Miss Lavinia favored him with a look down her thin nose. “‘Thou liest, most ignorant monster,’” she said sweetly. “‘I am in case to justle a constable. Wilt thou tell a monstrous he, being but half a fish and half a monster?’”

“By Jupiter, she’s right, sir!” Giles exclaimed, chortling with glee. “It’s from
The Tempest
. I don’t know which act.”

Scopwick bowed to Miss Lavinia, and then just to show that he had recognized the source at last, he added, “‘Lo, how he mocks me! Wilt thou let him, madam?’”

Miss Lavinia chuckled. “You’ve misquoted that one, Eustace. Caliban calls Trinculo his lord, not madam.”

“You’d not have thanked me for following suit, Lavinia, so ‘keep a good tongue in your head.’”

Realizing belatedly that none of the anglers had noted her presence, Emily started guiltily and moved to show herself. Just at that moment, however, a muscular arm snaked around her body from behind and a large hand clapped tightly over her mouth. Though she struggled, her strength was as nothing compared to that of her captor, and the noise of the brook covered the sound of her efforts. Not one of the three fishermen so much as glanced in her direction.

Kicking wildly now with both feet, she tried at the same time to bite the hand over her mouth. When her heel connected soundly with her assailant’s right knee, a familiar voice muttered furiously in her ear, “Dammit, Emily, if you do that again, I’ll drop you on your backside right here and now.” She ceased struggling at once, and a moment later, well away from the fishermen, Jack set her on her feet again.

She whirled to face him. “Whatever possessed you to do such a thing, you idiotish man? You scared the liver and lights right out of me.” She raised her hand. “I ought to—”

“If you’re going to do it,” he said gently, putting his fists on his hips and smiling down at her in a way that could only be described as challenging, “you’d better get it done. Just be very sure it is truly what you want to do.”

Glaring at him, Emily lowered her hand to her side. “You deserve that I should,” she said. “You frightened me witless.”

“Impossible. ‘To be furious is to be frightened out of fear.’ Good God, it’s contagious!” He looked over his shoulder, then shook his head and turned back to her. “Don’t, for the love of heaven, ask me where that quotation comes from. I haven’t the least idea. I’m not even altogether certain it’s Shakespeare, only I never memorized much by anyone else, barring pages and pages of Latin, of course, so it’s bound to be. That’s why I grabbed you before you made your presence known. Can you imagine what a fool I’d have looked if Scopwick had asked us to join that ridiculous game of theirs?”

“It is not a ridiculous game,” Emily said. “Only consider how much Giles must have read and studied to be able to keep up with the vicar like that. No one else has ever stirred him to study at all before. And what a memory he must have! I am certain I could never remember so much, no matter how hard I tried. And,” she added, giving him a searching look, “I don’t believe you would be put so much out of countenance as you claim you would by an invitation to join their game, sir.”

“Well, you’re out there,” he replied. “I don’t want to join the game. I wasn’t looking for a party, only for you.”

“Me? Is anything wrong?” Thoughts of Melanie and Sabrina flashed through her mind, bringing a worried frown to her face.

“Nothing’s amiss,” he said, though he looked more serious now, “except for your having come into these woods unattended. Do you think that was wise, lass, after what happened yesterday?”

“Now, look here, Jack,” she began, forgetting her own brief fears earlier, “don’t you start—”

“Don’t rip up at me, you little shrew. I was concerned about your safety, nothing more.”

“Well, you needn’t concern yourself. I am a full-grown woman, and I am well able—”

“To take care of yourself? Like yesterday? By rights, you probably ought to be still laid down upon your bed, and that’s precisely where you’ll soon find yourself if you …”

“If I what?” she demanded when he broke off.

He grinned ruefully. “I don’t think I would be altogether wise to say what I was about to say.”

“Say it.”

“No. Look here, Emily—”

“Say it, Meriden. You were going to threaten to send me back to bed if I don’t do as you tell me to do, weren’t you?”

“Something to that effect,” he admitted, “but I didn’t say it, and that ought to count for something. Oughtn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” she said, pretending to take the matter under consideration. “So quick a reaction, the involuntary nature of your words, the fact that you thought such a thing at all—” Her own words ended in a shriek of laughter when Meriden grabbed her by the shoulders and proceeded to shake her. “Stop it, Jack! You will make my head ache again!”

“You deserve that your head should ache,” he muttered grimly, and although he did stop shaking her, he did not take his hands from her shoulders. “Have you got any idea what sort of thoughts passed through my mind when William told me you had walked out alone? Have you?”

She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “No, I don’t. Tell me.”

Jack’s hands tightened with bruising strength upon her shoulders. “Don’t tempt me, Emily. Oh, damn you, Emmy love, you’ll drive me—” Where she would drive him she never heard, for instead of finishing his sentence, he pulled her into a crushing embrace, bent his head, and pressed his lips to hers.

Emily made no attempt to evade his kiss. Indeed, she had seen his intent perhaps even before he knew himself what he meant to do, and she had waited with bated breath, wanting him to kiss her more than she could remember wanting anything before in her life. Her breath came raggedly now, and the feelings she remembered from the last time he had kissed her coursed through her body anew, making it tingle with vibrant energy. His hands moved over her, exploring the contours of her figure as though they would memorize every line, every curve.

When his tongue sought entrance into her mouth, she sighed with longing, moving her hands to his waist and upward, standing on her tiptoes, responding instantly with a passion to match his own. After several moments Jack set her back upon her heels and looked searchingly down into her eyes, not speaking for a long moment. When he did, his voice rasped deep in his throat.

“I hope you don’t expect an apology for that, because you won’t get one. I am not at all sorry. In fact, I should very much like to do it again.”

Emily looked at him, scarcely knowing what to say. Her body was still aflame with the sensations his caresses had stirred to life, but lifelong training kept her from telling him so. She, too, wanted him to do it again, all of it, for she had not known that a man’s touch could be so electric, so stimulating to one’s nerves. Indeed, the way he was looking at her now made her feel as though he still touched her. Her body strained beneath her gown, inviting further caresses. Her fingertips itched to do to him what he had done to her. His gaze held hers. At last he reached toward her, his hand feeling gentle upon her arm.

“Emily?” His voice was mild, curious.

She blinked. “I don’t want your apology,” she said. “I think I would cry if you apologized. And don’t mock me, Meriden, or I shan’t be responsible for my actions. I don’t understand the things I’m feeling just now. Perhaps I had better go back to the house. Indeed, we should not be here alone like this.”

His gaze was still searching but gentle, and he did not reply at once. When she moved to turn away, his hold on her arm tightened. “Don’t go back,” he said. “We’ll walk a little until you have recovered your composure.”

“There’s nothing amiss with my composure,” she said tartly. When she looked pointedly at his hand upon her arm, he released her. She lifted her chin. “You think too highly of your charms, my lord, if you think a simple kiss can disconcert me.”

He grinned at her. “The same old Emily. That was no simple kiss, and you know it. There were sparks enough to light a blaze between us. You cannot say one minute that you will weep if I apologize and then tell me I underrate my kisses. I’ve a strong fancy to prove you wrong on that last point just for the sake of feeling those sparks again, but I shall bow to my gentlemanly instincts and resist temptation. Unless, of course, you are afraid to walk with me.” He paused, raising his eyebrows.

Emily made a rude noise. “I don’t fear you,” she said, “though I doubt you’ve a gentlemanly instinct in the whole of your body.” Blushing as she found herself thinking thoughts about his body that no lady ought to think, she turned quickly away. “We can walk if you like. It is a fine day for walking.”

“Aye,” he said amiably, falling into step beside her, “or for any other activity that might tempt us.”

Shooting him a speaking look, she found herself unable to look away again and would have stumbled over a raised root in her path had he not steadied her with a firm hand beneath her elbow. After that, she did not look at him again, but she was unnaturally aware of his presence beside her, and the tingling in her body did not decrease for some time.

Finally, as though he were fully aware of the unfamiliar thoughts and feelings creating a tumult in her mind, Jack began to speak calmly about Giles and the vicar. “It appears to me that we both underrated Scopwick,” he said. “The man seems to have a gift for dealing with that young scamp. Imagine Giles spouting Shakespeare. I’d have laughed to scorn anyone who had suggested a fortnight ago that he would ever do such a thing.”

Emily remained silent, but she was grateful for his conversation. Her emotions were settling down at last, and when he began to tell her tales of his youth, of adventures he had had in the woods then, she soon found herself laughing, comfortable again. By the time they returned to the house, the incident by the brook was, if not forgotten, put into a clearer perspective for her.

She had, she decided, overreacted. She had allowed Jack to stir her body and thus her mind with his practiced charms. Heaven knew, she told her reflection as she prepared for dinner that evening, that he had known precisely what he was doing to her. No doubt he had meant to teach her a lesson, to have some sort of revenge upon her for her lack of response to his attentions at Christmas or for all she had done to him since. Certainly he had said nothing to indicate that his interest in her now was anything more. He had often called her cool, even chilly. He had once told her that such an attitude put a man off. Surely his behavior today had been meant only to warm her up. He had been vexed with her for going into the woods without an attendant, worried that she might be assaulted again. Perhaps he had wished to punish her a little. She had been refining too much upon his ability to stir her senses. No doubt any man of experience could stir any woman just by wishing to do so. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing that she had set any great store by his actions or by her own response to them.

If a kind of sadness colored her thoughts once she had reached these conclusions, she ignored it, telling herself that to pay heed to such feelings would only be to play into Jack’s hands. Probably he was bored—a little bored, at any rate. There was no personable female around to practice his wiles upon, only herself. Dolly was too young and impressionable, and he was responsible for her.

Emily knew how the game was played. She knew the rules set down by the
beau monde
for such flirtations, and so, she decided, Jack probably trusted her not to read too much into his actions. Very well, she told herself firmly as she shook out her skirts and prepared to join the family, she would take his attentions as he meant them to be taken. She would ignore the little voice deep inside her that insisted she wanted those attentions to mean more, because even to consider such a thing was to lay herself open to another heartache such as the one she had suffered when Stephen Campion had chosen to wed a lady other than herself.

When the evening meal passed as others before it had passed, without so much as a teasing remark from Meriden to Emily, she was certain she had read him correctly. To show him she understood his intent, she was as coolly polite to him as ever, confining most of her conversation to Miss Lavinia and Sabrina. When she glanced up once to find his gaze upon her, his expression one of slight mockery, she flushed and looked away, annoyed with herself for giving him such an opportunity. He left for Meriden Park directly after the meal, and Emily told herself she was glad he had done so.

W
HEN JACK DID NOT
appear at Staithes the following day, Emily decided that he had been called away upon business of one sort or another, but she refused to ask about him, and no one offered a reason for his absence. The day after that, however, when he still did not appear, when there was not so much as a note from him to explain his absence, she could not stand it any longer. Seeking out Miss Lavinia in the knot garden while she waited for Melanie to join her for their swimming lesson, she got directly to the point.