A Valentine Wedding Read Free Page A

frowned down at the carpet at her feet. She traced the pattern with the toe of her blue satin slipper. “There is no way, I take it, that this will can be set aside?”
    “None, Lady Emma.”
    Emma nodded almost absently. “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, her voice distant as she walked over to the door to the music room. She disappeared, the door clicking shut behind her.
    “Well, I always said she had very odd manners,” Lady Grantley announced, rising to her feet. She sniffed. “Of course, with such a fortune, she’ll not be short of offers, regardless of her manners. We’ll just have to pray she doesn’t squander herself on a fortune hunter.”
    “Her fortune has always been large and she hasn’t succumbed as yet, ma’am,” Alasdair pointed out gently.
    Lady Grantley gave him a look of supreme dislike. “She was seriously in danger of doing so once, as I recall.” She sailed to the door. “I shall go to my apartments. Maria, would you send the housekeeper to me. I wish to review the menus for the week.”
    “I believe Emma has already done so, Lady Grantley,” Maria said.
    “Emma is no longer mistress of this house.” Lady Grantley swept from the room. Her husband, with an apologetic look at Maria, muttered something about a glass of claret and followed her.
    “Well,” declared Maria, two bright spots of color on her cheekbones. “Well!”
    “Well indeed, Maria.” Alasdair pushed himself away from the bookshelves. “The sooner you and Emma are established elsewhere, the better for all, I would have said.” He smiled at the woman, and the rather harsh cast of his features was immediately softened. His eyes lost their sardonic glitter and became warm; the thin line of his mouth took a less uncompromising turn. He patted her shoulder. “You have no need to take instructions from the countess. If she wishes to interview the housekeeper, let her summon her herself.”
    “Yes … yes, I think I shall do just that.” Maria nodded decisively. “Mr. Critchley, I’m sure you’d care for a glass of wine before you leave. If you’d like to come with me …” She went to the door. The lawyer gathered his papers, bowed to Lord Alasdair, and followed his hostess with an eager step.
    Alasdair flung himself down in a chair with earpieces and closed his eyes, waiting. He guessedBeethoven. He didn’t have long to wait. The first notes of the pianoforte were soft, tentative almost, as Emma found her mood. Then they grew and strengthened and he found himself listening to the
Kreutzer Sonata.
    He nodded his satisfaction. He still knew her as well as ever. He rose and entered the music room. If the player noticed him, she gave no sign. Alasdair took a violin from a lacquered marquetry cabinet and came to stand behind her. The sweet sounds of the violin joined with the pianoforte, but Emma didn’t acknowledge him until the piece was over.
    Her hands were still on the keys as the strains of the sonata slowly faded in the air. “Oh, how I
wish
we didn’t play so well together.” It was a cry from the heart.
    Alasdair contemplated a response and decided against it. He placed his violin on a marble-topped table with gilded legs. “Do you have any idea how much you’re worth, Emma?”
    She turned on the thimble-footed stool. “Not exactly. A great deal, I know. Does it matter precisely how much?”
    “I think so,” he said dryly. “And if you don’t think it matters, then I have to say that you’re definitely not the best person to be managing such a fortune.”
    Emma flushed but was obliged to acknowledge the justice in this. However, she said, “That’s not why Ned made this arrangement, and you know it.”
    “You are now worth something over two hundred thousand pounds,” Alasdair said steadily, ignoring her statement. “You are an extremely wealthy woman.”
    “And you’re going to make me even wealthier, Igather.” She rose from the stool. “But that isn’t why Ned made this