Prince of Dreams (Stokehurst #2)(4)

Emma squared her jaw. “I'll talk to my stepmother,” she said. “Somehow I'll make her understand that you and I belong together. Then she'll convince Papa to allow the match.”

“That's my good girl.” Adam smiled and kissed her. “You return to the ball first, Em. I'll wait out here for a few minutes.”

She hesitated, staring at him wistfully. “Do you love me, Adam?”

He pulled her close against his lean body, nearly crushing the breath from her. “I adore you. You're the most precious thing in the world to me. Don't be afraid—nothing is going to keep us apart.”

Emma found her stepmother in the circular ballroom, a sumptuous cavern of gold leaf and carvings and mirrors. Sipping from a glass of wine and smiling at the easy chatter of her friends, Tasia looked like a girl in her teens rather than a matron of twenty-five. She had the same air of mystery that made her cousin Nikolas Angelovsky so fascinating. They were both full-blooded Russians, compelled by circumstance to make their home in England.

Emma went over to her stepmother and pulled her aside. “Belle-mère,” she said urgently, “I have to talk to you about something important.”

Tasia regarded her without surprise. There was little that escaped Tasia—at times it seemed she had the power to read minds. “It has to do with Lord Milbank, doesn't it?”

“Who told you?”

“No one. It's been obvious for months, Emma. Every time you disappear at a ball or soirée, so does Lord Milbank. You've been meeting each other in secret.” Tasia gave her a chiding glance. “You know I don't approve of doing things behind your father's back.”

“I've been forced into it,” Emma said guiltily. “All because Papa won't be fair about letting Adam court me.”

“Your father doesn't want anyone to take advantage of you, least of all a fortune hunter.”

“Adam is not a fortune hunter!”

“He's certainly given everyone that impression. There was that dreadful business with Lady Clarissa Enderly last year—”

“He explained that to me,” Emma said, wincing at the reminder that before he had begun courting her, Adam had been caught trying to elope with a naive young heiress. The outraged Enderly family had threatened Adam within an inch of his life, and quickly married their daughter off to a wealthy old baron. “It was a mistake. A misunderstanding.”

“Emma, your father and I want to see you with a husband who values you, who is worthy of you—”

“Who's rich enough,” Emma interrupted. “That's what this is all about. You and Papa don't like it that Adam doesn't have a great family fortune behind him.”

“And if you were penniless?” Tasia asked softly. “Would Adam still want to marry you? Of course money isn't the only reason he wants you—but you can't deny that it's a factor.”

Emma scowled. “Why is it so impossible for everyone to believe that a man could actually love me? He doesn't care about my fortune, not in the way you think. All he wants is for me to be happy!”

Tasia's eyes were soft with sympathy. “I know that you love him, Emma, and you believe he feels the same way. But your father would think so much more of Adam if he had the courage to come to him and say, ‘Lord Stokehurst, I want you to reconsider your decision about forbidding me to court Emma, because I want a chance to prove how much I respect and love her’…but no, Adam has talked you into this very suspicious hole-and-corner arrangement—”

“Can you blame Adam for being afraid of Papa?” Emma asked in a fierce undertone. “I certainly don't! There are quite a number of people who think Papa is an ogre!”

Tasia laughed, her pale blue-gray eyes finding the broad-shouldered outline of her husband in the crowd. “So did I, once. But now I know better.”

As if he sensed Tasia's gaze, Lucas Stokehurst turned and glanced at her. He was striking rather than handsome, with strong masculine features and vivid blue eyes. Some people were disconcerted by the sight of the silver hook in place of his left hand. Long ago he had lost the hand in an accident, trying to save Emma and her mother from a deadly house fire. Emma had lived through the disaster, but her mother hadn't. Sometimes Emma wondered how she might have turned out if she'd grown up with a mother. Instead there had only been her father, loving, domineering, and far too overprotective.

At the sight of his wife and daughter, Luke excused himself from a casual conversation and began to make his way over to them.

“You deserve a man like your father,” Tasia murmured as she watched Luke approach. “He would do anything for the people he loves, even sacrifice his life for them.”

“There are no other men like that,” Emma said ruefully. “Good Lord, if I have to hold every suitor up to those standards, I'll never find anyone to marry.”

“You'll find someone who's worthy of you. It will just take a little time.”

“It will take forever. If you haven't noticed, there aren't exactly crowds of frantic bachelors running after me.”

“If you would show them the side of yourself that your family sees, you would have crowds of bachelors chasing you. You have so much natural warmth and charm, but when you're around men, you turn as stiff as a statue.”