ized despite being a baron. And if he’s here, it likely means that Bash has decided to match Abigail with the financially unfortunate and heathenistic baron.” Then she looked back at Menace. “Am I correct?”
Emily gasped as her hands covered her mouth. Abigail deserved the best sort of man. Not the worst.
Brandon cleared his throat. “He is a baron. She’ll be titled.”
“He’s a beast,” Eliza fired back. “You can be certain that he won’t go around rescuing Abigail the way that you have with Emily.”
Emily choked a bit. She’d been lamenting how her sisters were stronger and they’d forged better futures for themselves, but she wasn’t doing terribly.
Unless one considered being in love with your future husband while he married you for your inheritance bad.
Which she did.
Brandon looked at Eliza, grimacing. “Are you also trying to convince me to marry Abigail instead of Emily? Because I won’t.”
“Who else did that?” Eliza gasped.
“Eliza,” Emily started.
“You didn’t.” her sister turned to look at her, glaring in the dark.
Oh dear, Emily thought as she spread her hands out on her knees. She was about to get it and she rarely bested Eliza.
Chapter Eight
Brandon watched as Eliza ranted at her sister.
He knew the words came from a place of love, but Emily’s head sunk lower with each sentence until her chin rested on her chest. He didn’t like it one bit.
Emily shrunk into herself, hardly saying a word, as Eliza continued on. “You know that both of you need to marry. Why would you nearly ruin such a prospect by being so foolish?” Eliza’s voice was growing louder. “You have such a good heart but not a lick of sense.”
“Excuse me,” he cut in, and Emily’s head snapped up as Menace shifted beside him. “But I’m not just some prospect. I’m a man who is sitting right here.” Then his eyes met Emily’s. “And Emily has the good sense to put her family first. Always.”
Emily’s mouth opened and then closed as she stared at him.
Then Brandon looked back at Eliza, these words coming from his heart. “I only hope that after we’re married, she counts me in the people she protects so wholeheartedly. I will be a very lucky man indeed.”
Eliza made a squeaking noise as her chin notched higher. “My point stands. She might have completely frightened you away thinking that she didn’t care a whit about you if she were willing to just pass you off to her sister.”
Well. That was true. And she might have scared him off except that he couldn’t imagine wanting another woman the way he wanted her. Ever.
“Oh,” Emily exhaled the word as a hand pressed to her throat. “Is that correct?”
He shrugged then. “I have to confess to you that your father asked me to keep an eye on you. And I did. Long before you were aware of it.”
Emily nodded. “I assumed as much. How else would you just happen to come to our rescue so often?”
He raised his eyebrows. “So I happen to know you are a person of unfailing kindness.”
She didn’t answer but slowly scooted forward and then touched his knee. “Thank you for saying that. But my family would tell you that kindness is not a trait that is very helpful. Especially during a crisis such as we are in now. I’ve done very little of the actual work of saving us.”
His jaw hardened then. Because, in this moment, he understood several things about Emily that he hadn’t before. She was passive, and caring, and being trampled by her stronger sisters, and she needed a hero again.
Not from bandits, thieves, or kidnappers but from well-intentioned family who were stealing her confidence. “Then your family has never had to go without such emotion. If they had, they’d understand its value far more keenly.” He reached for her hand then and pulled it into his own. He wished she had no gloves; he’d like to feel her skin. “You are far more valuable than you realize.” Then he looked at Eliza, his face set in hard lines. “Or your family gives you credit for.”
“I am not as smart or determined or personable…” she started, but he gave her hand a squeeze and she quieted.
“What you lack is not determination or intelligence.” He needed her to understand this. “It’s confidence. And you won’t build yours up while others are tearing you down.”