An Early Engagement by Bárbara Metzger Read Free Book Online Page B

bast—hell, Emmy, you know what I mean.” He straightened his shoulders. “There’s nothing for it; I’ll go call him out.”
    “Don’t be a cabbagehead, Geoff, he wouldn’t meet a puppy like you, and anyway, you’re not a good shot. Too bad I can’t challenge him—I already thought of that—and it’s just so unfair, being a woman and all. I can’t take care of my own money, I can’t decide where I’ll live or whom I’ll marry, I can’t even defend my own honor!”
    “Now who’s being harebrained? You need a husband for all that. Tell you what, Em,” he said after a long moment’s considering, “I’ll marry you myself. It won’t be so bad,” he conceded, “you’re a dashed fine rider, for a girl.”
    Emilyann giggled. “Is that how you’ll pick your bride, by how well she rides?” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “But thank you for the compliment, and thank you for the offer, my good friend. You can rest easy. I won’t take you up on it, for we’d never suit, you know. I’m a restless, managing sort and I like you too much to make your life a misery. It wouldn’t fadge anyway. Uncle would just have the marriage annulled because we’re both underage. If not, he could withhold his permission, so he would never have to release my inheritance to us. There’s no way we could live, unless you’ve come into a fortune recently.”
    He grinned cheerfully. “Not a sou. I’m even below hatches till next quarter-day. There’s no appealing to Thornton either. He’s as tight as a clam when it comes to parting with the blunt. I already tried.” He shook his head, rearranging the dark curls. “It’s the deuce of a coil all right.”
    Emilyann kicked a pebble out of her way. “I bet Smoky would know what to do.”
    Geoff nodded. “Downy cove, m’brother. Even Wellington said so, asked him to join his own staff. Too bad Ev’s not staying around long enough to set your uncle straight.”
    “He’s leaving tomorrow?”
    “That’s what Thorny said.”
    “But he’s in London tonight?”
    That sudden note of hope warned him. “Don’t even think it, girl. London’s over six hours away. It took Thornton the better part of two days to get here, and putting up at an inn overnight.”
    “But he had the carriage, and Cynthia. If we took the horses, and rode cross-country ...” She was thinking aloud.
    Geoff gulped. So was he. “We?”
    She didn’t hear him, or pretended not. It was a good idea, maybe brilliant. It was also her only idea. She had enough of the household money left to change horses, and they could carry food and ...
    “Listen, Emmy, we don’t really know that Ev didn’t leave early. We don’t even know if he can do anything about this mess.”
    “You said he was a knowing one.”
    “But he’s got no time, and he sure doesn’t have any of the ready to spare. If he did, he would have sent it down to Aunt Adelaide like always. And besides, a girl can’t ride into London in the midde of the night! Even I know it just ain’t done.”
    * * * *
    So it was that Lady Emilyann Arcott crept up the back stairs of her home and changed into some mismatched, foul-smelling, overlarge clothes pilfered from the grooms’ room over the barn while Jake and the stable crew were at dinner. She used a likewise borrowed shears to lop off her hair any-which-way, consigning the hatcheted locks to the bottom of her wardrobe, with good riddance to the plaguey mop.
    While she was at it, she cut a piece of the drapery pull cord to hold up her falling breeches. She stuffed money in her sock, a pistol in her boot, and some bread and cheeses and apples into one of the deep pockets of her filched friezecoat. Into the other pocket she tenderly placed Smoky’s gift, still wrapped for safekeeping. The coat looked, and smelled, like something used to transport a poacher’s booty but, she told herself, beggars—or borrowers—cannot be choosy. She rolled the sleeves up twice, crammed a