The Unexpected Bride (Montana Born Brides) (8 page)

He cleared his throat. “Hey…” he began, but Emma cut across him.

“Laurent, I’m so sorry for what happened in the kitchen last night. I’m not quite sure why it happened, but it was very silly of me, and I do hope you won’t think any the less of me.” Her voice was shaky, breathless and she talked very fast. “You have to know that I am very committed to the children and my job, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it. I—“

“Whoa!” Laurent held up his palm to her to stem her anxious flow.
“Why are you sorry? It’s me who should be apologizing.”

Emma distractedly smoothed the folded item of clothing on the top of her laundry pile, then tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear.
“But I let it happen, and I don’t want you thinking…” She trailed off.

“I’m not thinking anything,” he replied firmly, “except that it was me who overstepped the line.
And I want to say sorry to you for that.”

Her aquamarine eyes met his.
“So you don’t expect me to…comply?”

“Comply?”

Emma drew in a ragged breath and he saw that haunted look again. “…Sleep with you.”

“Hell, no!”
Laurent could hear the certainty in his voice, while his body told him otherwise. But as he witnessed the stress falling away from her exquisite features, he saw that she seemed a little happier and reassured by his denial and he carried on, “Let’s just put it down to a late night when we were both feeling tired and needing a little mutual support, and move on.”

“Okay,” she agreed slowly, and then asked, “So you won’t be asking me to leave?”

He was startled by her question. Where had that come from? Hell! It was exactly what he’d feared. “No, absolutely not…Unless you feel you wanted to.”

“No! No…” Her voice rose agitatedly. She was getting upset again. “Like I said, I’m very committed to the children and my job.
I want to stay.”

“Good.
So let’s forget it.” He silently thanked Heaven that she wasn’t about to pack her bags. “Hey! What is it…?” He watched in bewilderment as Emma’s shoulders slumped and started shaking, as she burst into quiet sobs.

She put up a hand to shield her face.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that…it’s just that I thought it was happening all over again.”

“What’s happening all over again?”
Laurent felt compelled to step closer to her and reached out a hand to stroke her arm reassuringly. But that was the wrong thing to do: she froze when he touched her and he heeded her reticence, withdrawing his hand very quickly. “Look, how about I make us a hot drink?” he offered, grasping at the only action he could think of to take to bring the situation, and her distress, back under control.

She dragged her hand down her teary face and nodded.
“Okay,” she sniffed.

Minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table, Laurent with coffee and Emma with tea.
He pushed the milk carton at her. “Here you go, English lady.”

She smiled wanly at his attempt at humor and poured some milk into her mug, then stirred it with a teaspoon.

He watched her defeated expression and reluctantly accepted he had to get her to tell him what the matter was, though he’d prefer it if they could just put the whole incident behind them. He sensed he’d have to go carefully with her, so he softened his tone. “No pressure…but do you want to tell me what you meant when you said you thought that it was happening all over again?”

Emma sighed.
She glanced up at Laurent, her eyes teary again. He could see that she was wrestling with strong emotions and trying to work out if she should talk to him.

“You can talk to me, Emma,” he found himself telling her. “You know what they say.
A friend in need, is a friend indeed.”
That sounded lame but he had to say something to calm her.

But Emma seemed to respond to the cheesy saying. She hesitated for a moment, then she said, “You see me as a friend?”

“Yes, I do,” Laurent said, knowing in that second that he meant it. “You’re delightful to spend time with, you’ve become an integral part of our household; my kids think the world of you.”

She gave a small smile.
“So, as a friend, can I trust you?”

“You can. “ Laurent surveyed her, feeling himself on firmer ground.
But she still appeared troubled. What was it that was hurting her—him? “It sounds heavy. Is there anything I can do to help you?” he asked a little formally, feeling out of his depth.

She fiddled with her teaspoon, then took a deep breath. “I need to tell you about some things
that happened in my past. Before I came here, I…I worked for a family in England. He was a peer of the realm…a lord—“

“That was Sir Giles
Fortescue?” Laurent interjected. “Wilton’s sent me the reference he and his wife had given you. It was full of praise, as I recall.”

“His wife promised me that they would give me an excellent recommendation,” Emma confirmed.
“And, as far as the childcare I provided went, I think it was justified.”

“I’m sure it was,” Laurent said, hoping he sounded encouraging, “if how you’re taking care of Evie and Jerome is anything to go by.”

Emma seemed pleased by his affirmation and relaxed a little more.

“So what was the problem?” Laurent prompted, wanting to get to the truth.

Emma swallowed. “Sir Giles…he sexually harassed me,” she blurted out.

Laurent was momentarily dumbstruck, and then it hit him.
“You think
I
sexually harassed you too?”

“No!” she cried, then fell silent.

Laurent rubbed the back of his neck. Hell, this was really awkward. “But I’ve clearly made you feel very uncomfortable.”

“I…I…Yes…No…”

“Emma, what happened was a lapse on my part. It shouldn’t have happened. I apologize unreservedly, and you have my assurance that it won’t happen again.”

“Thank you,” she replied in a small voice.
“But the thing is…you need to tell me…what it was that I did to make you think it could happen.”

Laurent was stumped by her question.
She thought it was her fault? “You didn’t do anything, Emma. Beyond being very warm and friendly, and pretty.” Her face fell, and he paused, realizing that might have been the wrong thing to say, even if it was the truth. “Look. I’m a guy who’s been on his own for a year…”

“I thought your wife had been dead two years?” Emma interrupted, frowning.

“She had. I had a brief…relationship last year,” Laurent admitted. “It didn’t work out. But what I’m trying to say, and possibly not very well, is that when a woman like you comes along…”

He stopped when he noticed her cheeks flaming.
“
A woman like you
,” she said heatedly. “That’s exactly what Sir Giles Fortescue said. He said that he couldn’t help himself, that I tempted him.” Her voice cracked, and Laurent could tell she was near to tears once more. “And when I tried to tell him that I didn’t want him to…touch me, he got angry and said that it was my fault…that I’d led him on.”

She started to cry again.
Laurent sat fixed to his seat while he groped for the right words to comfort her. “Emma, oh, Emma. Please know that you did nothing wrong with me. I was lonely.” A silence hung between them as Laurent inhaled;
why
had he admitted to that?

However, she gazed at him, her eyes glistening, and he sensed it was as if she understood what he’d been trying to say, though her reply was unexpected.
“I know,” she said softly. Then she began to wipe her face with her hands.

At that moment, the door was flung open, and Evie and Jerome rushed in. “Daddy, Daddy!
We saw a bear in the woods,” Evie relayed excitedly.

Laurent pulled Evie close to him.
“Hey! You saw a bear?”

Evie nodded. “It was very, very big,” she said in an awed voice.

“Think it had woken up after the winter.” Linda came into the kitchen, Bobo trotting beside her. “Livin’ in the caves at the bottom of the mountain, and probably looking for food. Better be sure the trash is safely stowed away.”

Laurent stole a look at Emma, but she had her back to him, helping Jerome out of his coat and snowy boots.
The kids didn’t appear to notice that she’d been crying, though he saw Linda giving her a concerned look.

“Sounds like a great idea, Linda.
Grizzlies can be very hungry at this time of year. Grrrr…” He growled playfully into Evie’s ear and tickled her, and she giggled with delight.

Emma’s pale face told him how tired and unhappy she was, and he felt another huge pang of guilt.
She was already feeling shaky and insecure about what had happened to her in England and he, in a moment of madness, had piled on even more pressure. He needed to back off fast. God knew that he couldn’t afford to lose her…

A few days later, Evie and Jerome were busy drawing pictures of the bear they’d seen when they’d gone walking in the woods with Linda.
In fact, Evie had talked of little else since their encounter with the animal, and Jerome had begun to worry that it might come and eat him because it was hungry after its winter hibernation. So Emma had decided that a little bit of art therapy was necessary to lessen the bear’s menace in their minds.

The children were happily occupied at the large, low coffee table, splashing their brushes into pots of paint and water, and adding scribbles with crayons.
Emma was sitting on the couch near them, Bobo sitting quietly for once on her lap, watching the activity as she absently tickled his ears. She was thinking about Laurent again, about that kiss, and their conversation the morning after. She had seen very little of him since; he’d retreated into his workshop, saying that he had more orders that he could handle. He’d stopped eating with her and the children, persuading Linda to make and leave him a series of snacks in the refrigerator, which he could pick up at his convenience. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was avoiding her. Perhaps he was embarrassed? Ruminating, she ran her finger along the silky cleft on Bobo’s skull and the little dog raised his head in appreciation at being stroked in his favorite place.

Visions of Laurent’s kiss and how it had heated and inflamed her body kept on returning; try as she might to think about other things,
he
kept filling her brain. And the admission that he’d made when he’d apologized the next day had also branded itself on her.
I was lonely
. Her heart had gone out to him when he’d admitted that. But, at the same time, her heart had sunk too, because of the truth that his words belied: he had reached for her to fill his emptiness, nothing more; there’d been no deep emotion involved.

Though that had to be a good thing, hadn’t it?
Laurent wasn’t Sir Giles, trying to force her against her will, threatening her when she wouldn’t do what he wanted. He wasn’t Tom, either, loving and affectionate to begin with, then jealous, controlling and unpredictable, especially once her employer had started pestering her. Laurent had pitched up and said sorry as soon as he could. He hadn’t terminated her employment. In that regard, he was an honorable man.

She sighed heavily.
Try as she might to not admit it, she realized that she had wanted him when he’d touched her like that. It shocked her as, until that moment in the kitchen, she’d felt like she wouldn’t want to get close with a man again for a very long time. Oh, dear; somehow, she needed to put her unexpected attraction to Laurent to one side and concentrate on what she’d come to Copper Creek to do: care for two delightful children. There was no way she was ready for another relationship with a man, even if Laurent had been willing…which she knew for sure he most definitely wasn’t…

“Da-da!” Emma was catapulted out of her tumbled, whirling thoughts by Jerome’s happy cry, and Bobo stirred on her lap as, unexpectedly, Laurent came striding into the den.
Evie slid off her chair and ran towards her father, grabbing his hand and insisting, “We did pictures of the bear!”

Laurent let himself be dragged over to the coffee table, where he hunkered down to admire the paintings.
“He looks pretty darn fierce in yours, Jerome.”