The McKenzie Brothers: Windemere Part 4

"I never thought about it because n.o.body ever asked me what I wanted." He ran both hands through his hair. Although he was only two years older, gray streaks were slowly overtaking his dark hair. "And until a few weeks ago, I never questioned what I wanted, either. But now..."

Emma's heart sank at the quiet determination in his voice. This wasn't going to be quite as easy as she'd hoped. But that didn't mean she had to give up entirely. "You know what Miss Penrose is like, George. You've known her as long as we have. She's a terrible gossip. Everyone knows that. Remember the stories she spread about Miss Martin? She almost ruined that poor girl."

"No-" George shook his head "-she isn't. She isn't at all. And there was nothing about Miss Martin that wasn't true."

"Wasn't true, my foot. She took a simple little kiss and twisted it into something sordid."

"That's neither here nor there. You don't know her. You know what you choose to believe about her, and there's a vast difference."

This was not going at all the way she thought it would. She glanced around at the small office as she struggled to think of what move to make next. Everyone knew Darcy loved a juicy tidbit, and the juicier the better. And she wasn't above making it even more succulent.

Emma s.h.i.+fted. The corner dug into the back of her thigh, and the crackling fire made the small room feel overheated. "Rose loves you, George. And I've never seen her as upset as she was when she learned what happened-"

"Because you told her!" His nostrils flared again. "It was none of your concern, Miss McKenzie. Just as what happens between Miss Adams and me is none of your concern. And whether or not I ask for her hand is none of your concern. In fact, this might come as a surprise to you, but none of this is your concern." He shook his head, his jaw tightening. "I know your brothers tolerate your pus.h.i.+ness, your need to know everything and control it as you think it should be controlled, but I will not stand for it. My decision is that, mine. Is that understood? Now, if you don't mind, I'm expecting several patients in the next hour."

If the floor opened up beneath her and swallowed her whole, she'd be grateful. He was right. Overstepping didn't even come close to describing what she'd done. He didn't answer to her.

But his being right, which made her wrong, only intensified her need to fix everything between him and Rose. G.o.d, why did everything she tried to do only make matters worse? And how did she make them better?

And why didn't the floor just open up and swallow her before she made matters even worse still?

But that didn't happen. "Rose is my dearest friend in the world," she told him, her voice quavering, "and I won't apologize for telling her something she should know. Nor will I apologize for wanting to do whatever I can to ease her upset. She didn't sleep at all last evening, George. That's how upset she was. When I left Stonebridge, she was finally napping in the parlor."

He shrugged. "You pushed your nose in where it didn't belong. The blame is entirely on you."

She kicked him as hard as she could.

The moment her foot made contact with his s.h.i.+n, she regretted it. Pain exploded through her toes.

George swore swiftly, grabbing his leg with both hands and jumping away from her. "What the-are you insane? What was that for?"

"Because you are an idiot, George. A blithering fool of an idiot." If she could do so, she'd have rubbed her foot, it ached so badly. It felt as if she broke at least two toes, and it did nothing to ease her temper. "Rose is too good for you."

She didn't wait for him to reply, but turned and stomped her way out of the office, letting the door slam with more than a little satisfaction. Icy raindrops stung her face, cooling it as she looked about for the carriage. Where the devil was Joseph?

But wait, hadn't Julian said she should meet him at the Harrington Building? It wasn't far from Eagleton's warehouse on the waterfront. The Harrington Building housed Chelten s.h.i.+ps' home office.

The warehouses were the eastern part of town, along Lighthouse Lane between Peach and Maple Roads. As soon as there was a big enough break in the carriages rocking along the street, she turned her head away from the freezing rain and darted across.

The stairs leading to the offices on the second floor were slick with frozen rain. She slipped twice trying to hurry up to the top. Finally, she made it, and the door swung open at her light touch. "Mr. McCallister?"

"Over here." His voice came from the desk in the far corner, nearest the windows overlooking the water.

She limped her way around the clutter of desks belonging to whomever Julian shared his s.p.a.ce with. The lighting wasn't good and her eyes took their time adjusting. "Where?"

His hand rose up between two high sheaves of paper and waved from the far corner.

When she wove her way over to him, she plunked down in the chair at the desk next to his. "I should have let you come with me."

"Ol' Georgie needed a choking?" Julian looked up from the paper he'd been poring over.

A hint of graphite smudged his cheek, leaving Emma with the wildest urge to drag her thumb over it.

His eyes narrowed. "Were you limping?"

She winced as pain flared through her foot again. Perhaps she had broken something. "Yes, and don't ask. In that order." She leaned forward, half-rising from her chair to peer at the drawing on the desk in front of him. "What is this?"

"Preliminary drawings for a clipper I've been commissioned to build. It's why I need to go to Boston."

She peered down at the drawing. Although she didn't see many, even to her untrained eye, this s.h.i.+p wasn't like any other plan she'd ever seen. "Is this your own design?"

His brows rose half an inch. "This is what I do, remember?"

"True." She let the paper slip from her fingers as a feeling of total idiocy swept over her. "It's just that I've never seen what you do. I didn't realize you created them from nothing. I thought they were all basically the same."

"And now you know they aren't all the same." His chair squeaked as he sat back. His hands clasped, resting against his stomach. "How did your talk with George go?"

Wouldn't it be lovely, if she could just lie and say everything went just fine, and hope that he forgot she was trying to fix this mess?

She shook her head. "Not as well as I hoped."

Setting down the pencil, Julian said, "He didn't cave, did he?"

"No. Just the opposite. He's not sure if he even loves Rose." She winced. "I think I might have made matters worse."

"Is that why you're limping?"

"No. I don't want to talk about that." As Julian started to smile, she scowled. "And it isn't funny. Not in the least."

"Let me guess." The pencil tapped the desk again. "Ol' Georgie said something you didn't like, and you kicked him in the s.h.i.+n."

"You know me too well, Mr. McCallister." Despite her warm cheeks, she smiled back. "He told me to mind my own business. Maybe I should have, but I kicked him anyway."

After his long look, she nodded. "I know, I know. I shouldn't have done it, but I was just so angry. With him. With myself. I just want to make everything right between them again. No matter what I try, things just get worse instead of better. I'm at my wit's end."

"Sometimes the best thing you can do is just to step back and do nothing. Your heart was in the right place. I know you don't want to hear it, but I think you ought to consider leaving everything be and leaving them to work it out for themselves."

"If only my brain would join it."

"Don't we all wish that."

As she glared at him, he quickly added, "I meant for ourselves, not for you."

Shadows stretched through the office, making it even gloomier despite the candles' glow. It was a small office, crammed with furniture and practically covered with tubes that most likely held more drawings. She sat back in her chair, staring up at the window high on the wall. The sky was a darker shade of gray and rain pattered against the panes, beading it with droplets that slowly slid into rivulets down the gla.s.s. "The rain's coming down even harder now."

"Wonderful." Julian turned to look out the window. "This weather is wreaking havoc on my schedule. I need to get these drawings up to Boston by the first, or this could fall through." He riffled through the sheaf of drawings and plans.

She nodded. No McKenzie liked foul weather-especially when a McKenzie was at sea. And since two of them were out now..."Momma's worried something is going to happen to Drew or Garrett if this weather doesn't break soon. I can't wait for warm weather."

"Amen to that."

Julian bent over his drawing again.

She sat back to watch as he added a notation, adjusted an angle, then checked it with one of the many small instruments cluttering his desk.

"You look so serious."

He looked up. "I beg your pardon?"

"You. I don't think I've ever seen you look so serious." Because she'd never seen him in any situation aside from social ones. For so many years, she saw him as not exactly a boy, but not quite as a man, either. Until now. Now, for the first time, she saw him as he was, and now, as she sat back in her chair, warmth flooded her. With it came all the feelings she thought she'd managed to lose all those years ago.

"Would it be better if I smiled while I worked?"

"Oh, absolutely."

And smile he did as he bent back over his drawing. The candle flickered in its bra.s.s dish, the golden light softening Julian's features, casting an ivory glow over the left half of his face. The light danced over the unruly waves of his hair, showing the gold highlights she never knew existed. Hidden among the dark strands were those highlights and some reddish ones as well. He'd been blessed with a head of thick hair, one any lady would give her eyeteeth to lose her fingers in.

He suddenly looked up again. "Now what is it?"

She jumped. "What is what?"

But if her face did betray her, he didn't let on. No brow rose. No knowing look came into his eyes. He didn't even smile. Instead, he shook his head. "You look as if you've just solved every problem you've ever had. What's brewing in that mind of yours?"

She brought her thumb to her mouth to nibble at its edge. He didn't repeat the question, but sat there, watching her as she pondered the entire situation with Rose and George.

Then, she smiled, lowering her hand to say, "I think I might have a solution. A perfect solution."

The pencil went still and a suspicious look came into Julian's eyes. "I know I'm going to be sorry I asked, but what's this perfect solution?"

She sat up in her chair. "Well, I'm sure George is jollying Rose along, playing with Darcy for now. And when he tires of Miss Perfect, he a.s.sumes Rose will be right there waiting for him. We need to find a way to make him jealous. Something to make him think he could, in reality, lose Rose forever if he doesn't yank his head from his backside."

At Julian's wide-eyed surprise, she wrinkled her nose at him. "Don't look at me as if I've said something shocking. And besides, it would serve him if he stewed in jealousy."

At the first mention of the word jealousy, Julian sat up straighter.

She ignored the wary look that accompanied it. She had to convince him to help her, but first she had to convince him that it would work.

"We need to make George jealous. Wild with jealousy. Crazy-out-of-my-mind-if-I-can't-have-her kind of jealousy and there is only one way to do that." And with that, she turned her brightest, most beaming smile on him. "Only one way."

"No." He shook his head. "I want no part of it, Emma. You're really overstepping now, and Rose will never forgive you."

"She most certainly will, when I tell her that her new suitor is none other than you."

"Emma, that's a terrib-wait a minute? Me? Why me? Why not Garrett or Drew?"

"Because they aren't here and you are. And let's be honest, you're far better looking than those two combined. And more importantly, you are here and they aren't. This needs to happen as soon as possible." She bounced up from her chair, over to crouch before him and clasp both of his hands in hers. "It's the easiest solution there can be. Make George so jealous that he has to come crawling back to her."

"And you want me-"

Even though she couldn't believe what she was about to say, she still drew in a deep breath to blurt, "You, Mr. McCallister. You are going to court Rose."

Chapter Five.

SHE WAS MAD. She had to be, if she thought for one minute he wanted any part of her insane plan. Julian could only stare at her as if she'd lost her mind.

He shook his head. "No. I am not doing this, Emma. I'm going to wait for the weather to break, and then I am going to Boston. I don't have the time to spend on a courts.h.i.+p that isn't real."

Her eyes grew pleading. "But I can't do this without your help."

"No, Emma. I'm sorry, but you'll have to talk one of your brothers into helping you when one of them wanders home. I'm not taking part in what I think is a terrible idea."

"Why is it so terrible? She'll be flattered and he'll steep in jealousy. The only one who might be hurt is the only one who deserves to be hurt."

Julian groaned. "Do you even hear yourself? I'm not playing about with anyone's feelings, especially not a lady who was just devastated by the man she thought she was going to marry. People get hurt that way, Em, and I'm not torturing Rose more than she's already been tortured."

"No one is going to get hurt," she insisted. "Oh, George might, but who cares? It'd be his own fault for stirring this pot in the first place. I'd hardly feel sorry for him, in that case."

"And Rose? What about her?"

"We'll tell her what we're doing," she shot back.

Julian gritted his teeth. "No," he ground out. "It's a terrible idea and I want no part of it."

"Julian, please." To his dismay, a wheedling note crept into her voice. "You have to help me. No one would believe Drew or Garrett, but they would believe you."

He'd never seen her beg so openly. It made him wish he was anywhere but here.

He leaned back in his chair, the ominous knot forming in his stomach the only indication of how much he disliked this idea, and he didn't even know exactly what she had in mind. But still, he wanted no part in it.

Another denial lay on the tip of his tongue. He didn't want to do it, but he had the sinking feeling that, before the day was through, he'd be doing whatever it was she asked. In fact, he'd go through with marrying Rose if Emma thought it needed to happen.

The h.e.l.l he would.

"Emma-" he sat forward, clasping his hands on the desk "-you do not want to play this game. You can't manipulate Hadley into doing what you want, and what makes you think Rose will even be interested in such nonsense?"

She stood and glared down at him. Her scowl deepened, and tiny grooves creased her forehead as she brought her brows together. He'd seen that look before, usually whenever one of her brothers teased her to the point where she would either kick one of them or cry. Fortunately, she wasn't normally one for tears, although he didn't relish being kicked much more. "It isn't nonsense, and I'm not manipulating anyone."

"Yes, you are. You want to create an illusion to get what you want from George. If it were me, I'd be furious when I found out, and he most likely will find out. Then what? Do you think he'll want to marry her then? Are you so certain that's something you'd want on your conscience?"

"My conscience will be just fine, although I thank you for your concern." Her stare turned hard. "Besides, what if he doesn't find out? All is well, isn't it?"