Page 54 of Along Came a Rogue

He stared down at her, momentarily stunned as her quiet assurance swirled through him. She meant leave the room, of course, but her soft words underlying so much more about his life than she realized.

Good God, could she be correct? Did he really have to leave for Spain, or was the future he now wanted sitting right there all deliciously sleep-rumpled and welcoming before him? The enormity of it made him tremble. Would he ever be ready for something like that?

He shook away the sudden confusion gripping his chest. “We’ll leave whenever you’re ready. Go back to sleep if you’d like.” He leaned over her and kissed her, plundering her mouth as his hand tugged down the quilt to bare a single plump breast. “After all, you had a thoroughly exhausting night.” He placed a delicate kiss on her nipple, and it pebbled enticingly against his lips. “And morning.”

She moaned softly and lifted her arms around his neck to pull him back into bed with her. But he resisted her siren song and slipped from the room. As he closed the door, he looked up and stopped.

Hedley stood in the hallway outside the room where he and Dalton had slept. From the expression on the sergeant’s face, he knew Grey had spent the night with Emily.

Bloody hell.

Grey blew out a harsh breath at being caught but said nothing. What was the point? There was no use denying the truth or attempting to lie his way out of this. Nor, for once, did he want to.

“Be careful, lad,” Hedley warned grimly. “I’d surely hate to see either of ye get hurt.”

Then he walked down the stairs and left Grey standing in the hallway, cursing himself beneath his breath.

Chapter Ten

You can do this,” Grey encouraged quietly as he stood beside Emily at the bottom of the front steps of Chatham House.

She stared at the massive door, her feet refusing to take another step. This was the moment she’d dreaded since leaving Snowden Hall, when she’d have to face her family, explain about the baby…and say good-bye to Grey, uncertain when she would be able to see him or be alone with him again. If ever. Now that it was happening, it was just as gut-wrenching as she imagined.

None of it was helped by Grey’s contemplative quietness today, ever since he left the room that morning. But if he was as troubled by this moment as she was, he chose not to confide in her, instead keeping to himself the heavy thoughts furrowing his brow.

“After all, what’s the worst your parents can do?” he asked wryly as he placed her arm reassuringly around his. “Marry you off to an indebted gambler in Yorkshire?”

Jittery laughter bubbled from her, and his teasing proved enough of a distraction to allow him to lead her forward and knock at the door.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered, her hand tightening on his arm.

“You’ll be fine. Thomas will be happy to see you.”

Her throat tightened. “That’s not what I—”

The door opened, and Jensen, the family’s longtime butler, scowled down his nose at them, not recognizing her. “Major Grey.” He bowed stiffly in greeting with all the arrogance of a man who ran a duke’s household and brought to his position a solemn responsibility befitting his employer’s rank. “Miss.”

Emily took a deep breath and forced a nervous smile at the old butler. “Hello, Jensen. How have you been?”

The butler swung his startled gaze from Grey to Emily, staring at her blankly for a moment. Then recognition sank in, and an old affection replaced his scowl. He was so surprised that he actually smiled. “Miss Emily…my goodness! I mean Lady Emily—I mean, Mrs. Crenshaw.” The normally imperturbable butler stammered in stunned surprise. “My apologies, miss—ma’am—my lady.”

“Quite all right.” She smiled reassuringly, surprisingly touched by his befuddlement. “The last time I saw you I was still just a miss.”

Immediately, he collected himself, and his shoulders shifted back, his chin returning to its normal, haughty position. “If I might say so, my lady, you have been missed.” His voice choked with emotion. “Greatly missed.”

“Thank you, Jensen.” She rested her hand briefly on the butler’s arm, her eyes misting. She hadn’t realized until then how much she’d missed him and the other servants. At least someone in London was happy to see her.

With a low bow, Jensen stepped back and opened the door wide to allow her to pass. Emily drew a deep breath for courage and, letting her hand slip away from Grey’s arm, entered the grand house.

She glanced nervously around the entrance hall and up the wide stairs to the first-floor landing. “Where is my family, Jensen?”

“The duke is at the Lords, and the duchess is in the drawing room,” he informed them as he took Grey’s coat and gloves from him. “And Lord Thomas is resting in his room.”

Grey remained at her side, but in his peculiar distraction today, he seemed a hundred miles away. Already, she sensed the impending loss of him, and her eyes stung at the heavy emptiness in her chest. For the past several days, she’d come to rely on him, confide in him…love him. How would she be able to go on now without him when he left for Spain?

“Would you please tell them that Lady Emily has arrived home?” Grey asked, his expression grim.

Jensen bowed and retreated quickly down the hall.