Free Proper Scoundrel by Annette Blair Page A

ramparts?
     
    Bloody hell.
     
    He had gone too fast. Frightened her.
     
    If he allowed it, this affinity they seemed to have for each other—almost as if they’d shared a life before—would frighten him as well. Frighten him senseless, if truth be told.
     
    Perhaps they did need to slow down. Backtrack. Start again.
     
    Fine. He would give her the business relationship she desired until she begged for something more. Denying his feelings would be difficult, but if he must be firm and businesslike to win a woman who needed gentling more than any other of his experience —no small amount of experience—he faced a challenge that should cool him while it warmed her. A double challenge.
     
    “Emmy,” he said, ready to make a start. “Jade is my employer, so I must request a few minutes to take you and bring you back to Lacey.”
     
    Emily nodded and regarded Jade. “Mucks miss Jade.”
     
    Marcus rolled his eyes. “So much for business. You see, Jade, I care for Emily and she cares for me, and people who care for each other help each other. Ours is a non-business relationship. It’s called friendship.”
     
    He moved toward the door, but Emily puckered her lips to give Jade a goodbye kiss and so he brought Emily to Jade.
     
    Marcus turned away from the love Jade revealed when she kissed Emily and fought the yearning to be the recipient of such unfettered devotion from Jade.
     
    Business-only, he reminded himself in frustration. “You can deduct from my salary an amount equal to the time it takes me to get Emmy settled. That’s the best I can do business-wise at the moment,” he said as he left.
     
    The door slammed behind him.
     
    Jade stood alone in the centre of her study in pain, as if something tangible had crushed her, her arms and legs weighted down.
     
    Friendship, she thought. There was the middle ground. “Marcus! Marcus, wait.” She went after them.
     
    In the hall, Marcus turned, losing his smile when he saw her, making Jade think she’d hurt him. But he was a man; he couldn’t be as confused and vulnerable as her. Men didn’t get their feelings hurt. They had none to injure.
     
    But she looked for signs of emotional wounds anyway; Gram might have been wrong about that. Just look at the way Marcus sensed Emily’s—
     
    “Well?” he said with impatience. “What have I got, fifteen minutes? Ten?”
     
    “No. No, it’s not that. This doesn’t have to do with business.”
     
    The sardonic look he threw her conveyed a silent, Damn it, make up your mind.
     
    Jade looked down, feeling foolish, and focused on Emily’s cute, little, naked foot. She cupped it then raised it in her palm. “Do you believe how tiny her feet are?”
     
    Marcus softened and became the old Marcus, ready to listen.
     
    Jade warmed. “I ... I just realized that—”
     
    Lacey came rushing around the corner and nearly ran into them. “Emily Patience Warren, you naughty girl, where have you been?”
     
    Emily hid her face in Marcus’s neck.
     
    “I wondered about that,” he said.
     
    A man shouted for Jade. A woman screamed.
     
    Jade regarded Marcus and Lacey—both shocked—and ran.
     
    The spectacle in her foyer reminded Jade of a village fair where the greased pig got loose. She could hardly take it in. The front door stood open, a mama cat at the threshold, a kitten by its scruff, looked to be considering the suitability of lodgings. Calm amid chaos.
     
    Children ran in circles chasing Tweenie—or she chased them—through a crowd of conjecturing spectators.
     
    Abigail, Lilly, oh several of the women, and Lester, Harry and Dirk were bent over something on the floor.
     
    When Jade stepped closer, she saw the body. “Oh my God.”
     
    Whether man or woman, alive or dead, she didn’t know, but her heart started pounding. “Move aside. Somebody—Lester —get Beecher.”
     
    “I think she’s in labour,” Lacey said paling when she saw the woman. “She ... she has to be moved to a