Free Emma by Katie Blu Page B

those she is with, but in good hands she will turn out a valuable woman.”
    “I am glad you think so, and the good hands, I hope, may not be wanting.”
    “Come,” said he, taking her hand, “you are anxious for a compliment, so I will tell you that you have improved her. You have cured her of her schoolgirl’s giggle, she really does you credit.”
    “Thank you. I should be mortified indeed if I did not believe I had been of some use, but it is not everybody who will bestow praise where they may. You do not often overpower me with it.”
    “Giving you any such credit would only allow you greater leverage for similar diversions in future. I prefer you to take your successes and rest upon them so that you may turn your attentions to more suitable tasks.”
    “What tasks might be more suitable to me than bettering a friend or seeing to her eternal happiness?”
    Mr Knightley covered her hand with both of his, tracing her fingers with one of his own. “Matrimony would suit you well, I think. You should be more diligent in seeing to your own future than the future of a woman with uncertain birth.”
    Emma withdrew. “Mr Knightley, you of all people know I have no designs to attach myself anywhere, and why should I when all I require is within the walls of Hartfield? No, I do not seek matrimony for myself. I have no need of it to change my current state of affairs, but Harriet can only use it to her benefit.”
    “There is no one who strikes your interest in the subject? No one man who holds your heart?” he asked.
    “Should I choose to hold designs upon a man’s heart, it would not be for marriage, I assure you.”
    “Then to what purpose?”
    “Diversion only. I have all I need here. I am the mistress of the house with the esteem of my society. I possess the unlimited reserves of my father’s affection and the regard of my friends. I require nothing and thus should I wish to explore the intricacies of a love match, I can do so at my leisure without the confines of matrimony.”
    “Not so! You mean to have an affair? You would lose each of those gains mentioned with such an indulgence, with my respect topping all.”
    “Contrary to your belief, it is not your respect which governs my activities, Mr Knightley.”
    “No, I do not suppose it is, for you hardly alter your chosen course when I am in disagreement of it—though you should. Just as you should change course now.”
    “I have no reason to. As I said—all is as I want it. Should I desire more, there is no reason to assume I could not obtain it without the discredit to my reputation or placement in Highbury.”
    Mr Knightley kept his silence for a moment, pondering the alarming direction Emma travelled and wondering again that Miss Taylor had ever managed to dissuade her from such musings in the past. Had she, and how had she managed it?
    “Very well, then you must know what you would be against,” Mr Knightley concluded. “I shall offer my services to show you the error of your ways.”
    “Of course you shall. You ever offer to correct me. It is a wonder there is anything left of me to fix!”
    “Silence, Emma, and take your instruction.”
    Mr Knightley clutched her chin such that she could not free it. Then presuming upon her person, he claimed a kiss from her lips—at first chaste, then demanding as was his nature. Emma gasped against him and Mr Knightley intruded his tongue into her mouth. Emma pushed at his shoulders, for this act was much beyond her experience, and having now been acquainted with it, her hands became weakened. Instead of warding off this advance, they betrayed her in every manner by bringing Mr Knightley towards her until the kiss consumed her senses. She did not know where she ended and he began, only that a strange heat built up inside her and shook her nerves more than she had had occasion to experience before.
    As quickly as he had begun, so he stopped, setting her back from him as though nothing more important had