Page 16 of A Foolish Flirtation

Emmeline paled at this more businesslike approach. “Yes,” she agreed in stifled tones and bent over the card. “There are at least seven employees I’m afraid. They will all need some sort of recompense for the loss of their living.”

He nodded. “I can see to that.” Once she had written a few lines, she handed it back to him along with his pencil. He glanced it over. Stockton. So that was the bastard’s name.

“Mr. Thomas Hardiman is the oldest and most trusted of my father’s clerks. He wrote to me last month and tried to warn me…” She trailed off guiltily. “Poor Mr. Hardiman.”

“Poor Hannah, poor Mr. Hardiman,” he mocked softly as he tucked the card away for safekeeping. “What about my poor Emmeline?”

She drew in a sharp breath. “I’ll be fine!” she said bravely. “At least, I will now you have stepped into the fray.” She struggled a little over the last sentence.

“Will you though?” he asked softly. “Is it not a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire?” He did not really want the role of savior. Count Stefano was much more in his line.

“You would be a better judge of that than I,” she responded hotly, and Jeremy could not hold back his laughter. She looked so much better with a little color in her cheeks.

“We will do very well together, Ballentine, I have no doubt.”

Their drinks and cakes arrived at this point, so the conversation ceased while their fare was laid out before them.

“What a treat,” Emmeline said in dazed accents as her eyes traveled over the array of cakes. “Hannah would love this. Cream horns are her favorite.”

“Teddy likes the Genoese fancies. Maybe we should take some back for them?”

Her eyes lit up at his suggestion. “Oh yes, we could take back what we do not eat,” she suggested frugally.

He frowned. “I can easily buy more. What are your favorites?”

“Whatever’s cheapest,” she responded, then flushed. “I have a great eye for a bargain.”

She would have no need of this skill once they were wed, he thought, but did not voice. “What about when you lived in London?” he asked, thinking this must have been before she had monetary woes. “What sort of cake did your father used to buy you for a treat?”

“My father? He always thought I needed to reduce my waistline and as such discouraged my eating cake at all.” Jeremy swiftly revised his impression of Ballentine’s father, from doting papa to that of monstrous tyrant. “Do you often buy such treats for your little boy?” she asked with a flicker of interest.

“All the time,” he admitted. “Why not?”

“You are a fond parent?” She looked encouraged by this notion.

He inclined his head. “I am. I hope you will be too, Emmeline.”

A small pucker appeared between her brows as she lifted the teapot. “Do you think Edward will be well-disposed toward a stepmother?” she asked hopefully, though he had not only been thinking of Teddy when he said it.

“Certainly, he has intimated as much. He thinks a year is too long for me to languish without a wife.”

This made her pause, but all she asked was “Will you not choose a cake?”

“You choose first.”

After some deliberation she took a madeira tartlet. “Thank you.” She took a dainty bite.

“I will head to London this afternoon to set the wheels in motion,” he decided, helping himself to an almond slice.

“You will? And by that, you mean…?”

“The usual things.” He shrugged. “Put an announcement in the Times, procure a special license…”

“Visit Ballentine’s Trading Company?” she suggested, setting her cake down on its plate.

He nodded, lifting his cup to his lips and taking a sip. That was the most pressing matter after all. “We could pick out a ring after this,” he suggested. “There’s a decent jeweler close by in Abbey Lane.”

Emmeline glanced down at her still-gloved hand. “I quite forgot to give Humphrey back his ring,” she said in a stricken voice.