A Companion for the Count: A Regency Romance by Britton, Sally (story reading .txt) 📗

place as ambassador and a guest in the duke’s home. Lady Josephine hadn’t come into his thoughts once. Only Emma.

Everything that made Lady Josephine a suitable wife was matched in her companion, but Emma had the added qualities of showing a true interest in politics and other cultures and an understanding of what his duties entailed that had surprised him.

Might Emma be a match for him? A better match than her friend?

By the time the castle came in sight, standing on its hilltop with the setting sun turning it shades of orange and pink, Luca knew he had to speak to Emma. He needed to discover her true opinion of him. And soon.

Chapter Sixteen

Although Emma ate dinner with the family on the night of Luca’s return, she didn’t have the opportunity to have a private conversation with him. They barely spoke at all, and when they did speak, he seemed oddly reserved. As he had been when they’d first met. Perhaps she had imagined the way their relationship had shifted from mere acquaintance to friendship.

The day following his return, she lingered in the library, her fingers tracing the outline of countries on the enormous globe.

So many places in the wide world to see, and she had never left the little island tucked up near the European continent. Her world was so small. But Luca had already traveled from a little province in Sicily to Rome, Austria, and Spain. Where else might he go at the behest of his king?

She turned the globe. West to the Americas? She turned the sphere the other direction. Or east, to India or China? Perhaps he would venture to Cairo, in Egypt. Perhaps he would never travel further from home than England. Some ambassadors spent their service in one country for a few years or for the entirety of their lives.

A click echoed through the quiet room as the door between the duke’s study and the library opened. Emma stilled, her hand upon Egypt still, and watched from the corner of her eye as the ambassador’s secretary exited the room, his expression one of disgust. He caught sight of her and took several long strides into the room.

“Miss Arlen—what business do you have here? Listening at doors?”

Emma pulled her hand slowly from the globe, fixing the man with a stony stare she had learned from the dowager duchess. “That is not a kind thing to say, Mr. Torlonia.”

“Nor should you speak back to your betters. Do not think I have not noticed how you attempt to distract the ambassador from his purpose. While his pursuit of your mistress borders on the ridiculous, his time spent given in attention to you is far worse.”

Her face blazed with heat even while anger tightened her chest. “Mr. Torlonia, need I remind you that I am under the protection of His Grace, one of the most powerful men in England?”

His nostrils flared, and he opened his mouth with enough of a glare that she expected a rebuke rather than an apology.

The study door opened again.

“Miss Arlen—here you are.” Luca came out of the room. His expression was far different from his secretary’s—in fact, Luca appeared cheered by the mere sight of her. “I had thought I must search you out to continue our last conversation. Thank you for saving me that difficulty.” Then he looked at Torlonia. “You may finish the letter to His Majesty, and I will sign it when I return to my rooms. Good afternoon, Torlonia.”

The dismissal in his tone did not allow the secretary to argue or hesitate any longer in the formal library. He met Emma’s stare with a dark glare, then left the room, his heavy footfalls communicating his frame of mind quite clearly.

Emma rubbed at her left wrist with the opposite hand, lowering her gaze to the carpet. “You wished to speak to me, my lord?”

Never in her life had she felt such uncertainty, and she found she hated the feeling. Torlonia’s unexpected rudeness had shaken her. Usually when people spoke to her in that way she had but to tell the duchess or duke and that person found themselves in the ducal couple’s disfavor.

It was one advantage of people thinking her nothing more than a companion—she discovered the true character of many a person simply by being in the same room with them.

“Yes, Emma. I haven’t had a moment yet to tell you how good it is to see you again.” He came closer, his head ducked slightly as he examined her.

“What?” She laughed, disbelieving him. The awkwardness diminished somewhat with his use of her Christian name. “You cannot have missed my company when you were among so many important men.”

The study door had already closed. The duke was still inside—close, if she needed him—and she and Luca were alone. They had been alone several times before, yet this time Emma sensed a difference. A humming energy in the air.

“Ah, but I did miss it.” He lowered himself to sit on the arm of one of the chairs—a casual and comfortable move as though he were completely relaxed. She rather liked it. Perhaps she hadn’t lost any ground in their newly formed friendship while he’d been away. “You see, I was surrounded by men with political ambition and interests. All they wished to discuss was the law, and when they were not discussing the law, they were hunting, and when they were not hunting or discussing the law, they were eating.”

She stepped closer and tried to forget the reason she had wished to speak to him. “Isn’t that why you came to England?”

“To eat?” he asked with feigned surprised and raised eyebrows.

The feigned surprised in his tone made her laugh. “To speak of politics.”

He snorted and folded his arms. “I came to learn, to teach, and to change things for the better for both our kingdoms. Politics is an essential part of that mission, but it is not the whole of it.”

With him on the arm