The Game (Wagered Hearts Series, #3)(34)

My mother stood there and eyed Emilia up and down surreptitiously before breaking out in a cautious smile. "Nice to meet you, dear," she said, leaning in for a kiss.

Emilia ignored it and instead dropped into a low curtsey.

"Very pleased to meet you, my lady," she said as she stood up with a flourish. "You've got some nice digs here."

I snapped my head up and pinned Stella with a glare when I heard her unmistakable snort. She tried to cover it up as a cough, but her watery eyes gave her away. My mother's reaction was a mix of confusion, horror, and amusement. She looked at me silently, as if waiting for me to explain Emilia's behavior, but I was just as surprised and caught off guard as she was.




"Thank you. That's very kind of you," she said, smiling tightly. "Why don't you come into the sitting room and have a seat. We were just about to have tea."

***

We all followed her inside where my father stood up and greeted us jovially, as he always did.

"Rob, my boy! You finally made it, did you? Thought you'd find a way to weasel out of this one. Oh, and this must be your fiancée," he said, turning his attention to Emilia. "You're even more beautiful than I could have imagined."

"Thank you. And you're not as old or stodgy as I thought you'd be," she said taking my father's outstretched hand.

A collective gasp went round the room and we all waited for my father's reaction. It was quite a rude thing to say, and I felt keenly embarrassed for Emilia. Our fears, or mine at least, were put to rest when my father let out a bark of laughter.

"I like this one, Rob. She's speaks her mind!" he said, looking over at me.

"Thanks Dad," I mumbled.

We all took a seat around the table. All eyes in the room were on Emilia. Far from shying away, she seemed to blossom under the attention, like a peacock strutting her feathers to be admired. I supposed she was suited to this role--she was an actress after all.

"So tell me Emilia, how did you and Rob meet?" my mother asked.

I stifled the groan I'd been holding. So here we go, the interrogation starts, I thought dryly. Stella shot me a mischievous wink over the top of her tea cup, and I wanted to be anywhere but here right now. I was sure Stella and my dad were having a good laugh at my expense.

"We met a whiles ago. What was it, hon? A year ago? Two years?" Emilia replied, looking at me with her head cocked to the side.

"It was about a year ago--er--hon," I replied. I was a little taken aback by this new side to Emilia. I'd never heard her sound so uncultured or uncouth before, and judging from the look on my family's face, they thought she was an object of ridicule.

My mother's lips turned down into a slight frown and her eyes narrowed. I could tell she had already written Emilia off as some trashy social climber. The thought made me more upset than I wanted to admit. For some reason, I really wanted Emilia and my mother to hit it off.

"Yes Mum, we met her while out to dinner with Rob's friend, Ryan Marsden," Stella added, a look of unholy amusement in her eyes.

"Is that right? And you and Ryan are good friends?" my mother asked Emilia.

"We used to go out sometimes, if that's what you mean, my lady. But it wasn't never anything serious," Emilia answered in an exaggerated New York accent.

"Please call me Esther," my mother said.

"So tell us about your engagement. We saw the pictures in the papers, of course. And look Mum, she's wearing Grandmother's ring," Stella said pointing at Emilia's finger.

My mother nodded her head and made some kind of choking sound. I hadn't told her I was going to be using my Grandmother Celeste's ring when I proposed. It had a lot of sentimental value to my mother, but since my grandmother left it to me, I figured I could do what I wanted with it. Judging from the pained expression on my mother's face, though, she had other ideas.

"It was so sweet. We were having dinner at Flemings. They have the best surf and turf there. Anyway, all of a sudden Rob gets this look in his eye, like he's constipated or something," Emilia began.

Stella and my father let out a loud laugh and I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Emilia continued talking, ignoring their little outburst. "I was like 'Hon, you feelin ok? You're looking kinda green', but he waved me off and reached into his coat pocket and pulled out this blue velvet box. I knew it was an engagement ring. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I said yes," she finished.

"That's quite...moving," my father said, his eyes watering in delight.

"Yes, very," Stella added. "The ring looks beautiful on you by the way."

"Yeah, it's grown on me but to tell you the truth, I wasn't much feeling it when Rob originally opened the box. I always told myself that whenever I get married, I'm going to have a huge rock on my finger, like at least 10 carats. But you can see this isn't close. It's not even a diamond. But Rob says it's very valuable," Emilia explained.

Everyone in the room went silent and we all watched the conflicting emotions flittering across my mother's face. She was equally angry and incredulous. I knew we'd probably pushed her over the edge, and thought it was best to take myself and Emilia out of the room before any more damage could be done. I was feeling a little peeved at Emilia myself, and couldn't stand for her to make one more crass remark.