Free Pretty Poison by Lynne Barron Page A

need. What did a husband ever do for you, Maggie?”
    “Lord Morris gave me his name and financial security,” Margaret answered promptly, her hands on her hips, her chin thrust out defiantly.
    “I have a name, and it’s revered up and down the Bay,” Emily replied as she plopped onto the bench at the foot of her bed. She tugged off one boot and sent it flying across the room. “And I have financial security, more than I would if I’d married your lover’s son and handed my fortune over to him.” The second boot landed beside the first.
    “I know you want children, Emily,” Margaret murmured. And Emily did not have the heart to taunt her aunt with the obvious reply.
    “Do you know, Maggie,” Emily said as she rose to stand before her aunt. “Illegitimate children are a rite of passage in Calvert County. Everyone who’s anyone has one. So, you see I don’t need a husband even for that.”
    Margaret sucked in a shocked breath.
    “I’ve a mind to make good use of this little house party you insisted I attend,” Emily continued. “Perhaps when I return home I’ll be bringing more than one addition to Emerald Isle.”
    “You cannot be serious.”
    “Why not? I’ve seen more than one handsome gentleman who would make a fine stud.”
    Emily looked up from the shirt buttons she was wrestling to free to find her aunt staring at her with wide eyes.
    “Oh give over,” she relented. “I’ve no intention of frolicking with any of your guests.”
    “Why?” Margaret asked softly. “Why do you take such joy in aggravating me?”
    “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I suppose because you think you know what’s best for everyone. But you don’t. Leastwise you don’t know what’s best for me.”
    “Perhaps not,” Margaret agreed. “You are not the girl I thought you were.”
    “Well, I’m not the girl I thought I was either.” Emily whipped her shirt over her head to stand before her aunt in her shift and trousers. Margaret looked at the long puckered scar that ran from her niece’s right shoulder over the swell of her breast before disappearing under her cotton shift. They both knew it ended between her breasts in a jagged circle.
    It was a constant reminder of her battle to free herself from the laudanum addiction that had nearly cost her life.
    “Let it be, Aunt Margaret,” Emily pleaded. “I cannot be that girl. I won’t be that girl. I will make my own future. And if that future includes a husband and children that will be fine. But if it doesn’t, that, too, will be fine.”
    Margaret sank wearily into a chair before the window and looked up at her niece. “I’m sorry I did not see what was happening to you.”
    “How could you know?” Emily asked.
    “You are right when you say I think I know what’s best for everyone. I’ve a colossal ego. I should have realized you needed to be eased off the damn elixir. You never would have… That night would not have happened.”
    Emily knelt before her aunt on the hard floor and took her shaking hands in her own. “I have never blamed you for that night, or for what led to it. My God, I have felt so terribly guilty for putting you through it all. The Sleeping Wraith nonsense, the broken Almost Betrothal , the humiliation of having to retire to the country and letting them all believe it was shame that drove you away.”
    “Oh, Emily.” Margaret raised her hand and tucked a wayward red curl behind Emily’s ear. “I’d rather they think I was driven away in shame than to think you an opium addict.”
    Emily started to rise but Margaret stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
    “You misunderstand me, child. I am not ashamed of you. But I would not want anyone to judge you by that one fact. You are so much more than that. You are so much more than I could have imagined. There is strength in you, Emily. And determination. I’ve never seen such fierce determination in a woman.”
    “Thank you, Aunt,” Emily replied with a soft