‘Give them to me.’ He strode down to the bottom, found money in his pocket and tipped the two sailors. ‘Thank you.’
Emily was at his side, rather pale around the mouth. ‘Blake I am sorry for what I said back there. You had no reason to trust me, you hardly knew me. I should not have let it hurt so much. But making love was so special and I suppose I suddenly wanted more than it was reasonable to expect.’
‘I understand.’ He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. ‘Come on.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘To change something,’ he said. ‘Perhaps everything. Will you come with me?’
Emily did not ask where, or what he was talking about, only smiled. ‘Anywhere,’ she said simply.
‘That will do.’ He crossed the square and turned towards the narrow street leading to the quay where the Mermaid Inn occupied the corner.
‘Not a great adventure then,’ Emily said prosaically. ‘I was prepared for ocean voyages.’
‘Later perhaps,’ Blake murmured as he opened the door for her. A man in a vast white apron appeared. ‘Landlord, have you a private parlour where we can take luncheon?’
The man nodded. ‘Aye, sir. Just through this door. Best one in the house, the lady will be comfortable here.’
‘Send up some food, wine. Whatever is good.’ He turned to Emily. ‘Will you be all right here alone for a few minutes?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded, puzzled but willing, it seemed, to go along with his mysterious behaviour.
‘Good. I won’t be long.’ Blake closed the door and turned to the landlord. ‘I need the use of a chamber for fifteen minutes.’
The man’s eyebrows rose. Whatever situation he had been imagining, it obviously did not include the lady in one room and the gentleman in another. ‘This one is free, sir.’
‘Thank you.’ Blake carried the bags into the room and began to open them. His mouth felt dry, his stomach was apparently home to a small flock of butterflies. This was how it felt going into battle or stalking and being stalked undercover. All he had to lose then was his life: this felt considerably more important.
Emily sat and regarded a plate of bread and butter, a raised pie, a platter of crabs and a small mountain of sliced beef. She did not think she could manage a mouthful. With a hand that shook slightly she poured herself a glass of wine and sipped it.
Why was Blake being so forbearing? She had made a scene in public and in front of troops, just to make it worse for him. She had so nearly betrayed how she felt about him, which would have embarrassed him even more because, probably, he would have felt it necessary to be kind to her about her inconvenient, and no doubt ill-bred, folly of falling in love.
He had demonstrated all too clearly that his marriage was very much second-best in his life and that his wife was an afterthought. I did not know you… It did not occur to me to confide in you… And yet she had seen real anger in his face when she had turned from the shelter of the lieutenant’s arms and saw Blake bearing down on them like an avenging angel.
The door opened and a stranger came in. Then she looked again and it was Blake, in civilian clothes. She had never seen him wear them, never imagined him without the scarlet coat, the braid and the epaulettes. If she had thought about it she would have imagined him looking somehow diminished by the loss of his martial plumage, but that was not the case.
‘Emily? What are you thinking? I did not expect to strike you dumb.’ He closed the door but he did not sit, only stood there and regarded her gravely.
‘I am thinking,’ she said, startled out of all attempts at concealment, ‘that without your uniform I am seeing the real man and that there is even more to him than there is to the gallant major.’
‘You approve?’ She nodded. ‘Thank goodness for that, because I do not intend to wear uniform again, not even when I go to Horse Guards to sell out. I am a civilian now, Emily and I will remain one.’
‘Are you certain?’ She had to understand, had to do what was the right thing for him, for her love. ‘I know you are not doing this for me, but for the estate and those responsibilities. But if you have to go, I can cope. I will do my best to manage things as you would wish them.’
‘What about the children?’ Blake enquired.
‘You would come home occasionally, wouldn’t you?’ she ventured and found she could not keep the yearning out of her voice.
To her relief, he grinned. ‘And spend every day of my leave ensuring that the nursery stayed full? No, Emily, King and country have had their due from me. Unless we are invaded I will grow oaks for the navy and beef for the army.’
‘And sons for the succession?’
Blake came and sat on the corner of the table, one leg swinging. He caught her right hand in his and raised it to his lips. ‘Sons and daughters in their mother’s image.’ Her pulse stuttered and then steadied as she looked down at the long fingers holding hers. ‘A little while ago you asked me why I married you, Emily, and did not wait for my answer.’
‘I should not have asked, for I know it.’ This was where Blake explained, kindly, the rules of their marriage. ‘You needed an heiress for all the reasons you said. And we got along well enough.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed and, despite knowing what he would say, her heart still sank. ‘And I found a most delightful heiress – charming, intelligent, lovely. All very pleasant and really far less trouble than I imagined.’ She swallowed the hurt and then saw he was smiling. ‘Then I went away and I found I missed my new wife and I had to make myself concentrate on what I was doing and not think about her. And when I was wounded and feeling pretty grim, I found that thinking about her was all I needed to keep going, to keep my courage up.’