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bold, forthright attitude, and she had been grateful many times over the years for her friend’s advice and support.
    Especially recently. She didn’t know what she would have done if she hadn’t had Jenna and Miles to turn to for help when this whole ordeal had started.
    â€œYou know.” Jenna’s slow drawl drew her from her musings, and Emily looked up to find the girl watching her through narrowed brown eyes. “You never did tell us just what ’appened between you and Peter that night before ’e lit out.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Miles mused, his expression curious. “Every time we’ve tried to ask you about it, you’ve put us off. Did you ’ave an argument or something?”
    Emily quickly avoided their too-perceptive stares. “Not precisely,” she murmured.
    An argument. If only it had been that simple.
    She had first met Peter Quick eight years ago, soon after the late earl’s death and Tristan’s return home. Angry with her brother for the years he’d stayed away and left her in the care of their indifferent father, she’d fought him at every turn, and had finally decided to teach him a lesson by running away.
    It had been Peter along with his band of pickpockets, the Rag-Tag Bunch, who had taken her in off the streets, who had offered her shelter and taught her the art of picking pockets with the best of them. And it had been Peter who had listened to her endless complaints about Tristan and eventually made her see things from her brother’s point of view. By the time Tristan had found her, she had come to the realization that he deserved a second chance and that she’d been far from innocent in their battle of wills.
    It was through Tristan’s search for her, she had discovered, that he had met Deirdre. He had enlisted the widow’s aid to locate Emily, and the two had fallen in love. An angel of mercy for the people of the rookeries, Deirdre’s past as a pickpocket had led to her dream of opening a home for former street urchins, and after her marriage to Tristan, that dream had become a reality.
    And so Willow Park had been born, and the Rag-Tag Bunch had come to live there. From that moment on, Emily and Peter had been inseparable, and she had watched in awe as he had set out with fierce determination to better himself. Older than the rest of the children, he had found school lessons to be even more difficult for him than they were for the others, but he had never given up. Before long, he was reading and writing as well as Emily. He’d also managed to eradicate every last vestige of the Cockney accent he had spoken with for most of his life, though not without a struggle.
    He had never seemed able to comprehend how very far he’d come, Emily thought now, resting her head against Artemis’s side. But she’d seen it and had admired him all the more for it. And over time, their bond of friendship had grown and developed into something deeper, stronger.
    In fact, she’d given him her heart.
    She squeezed her eyes shut in remembered pain at how very foolish she’d been. She’d truly believed thatPeter had felt the same way, that all of the words of love they had exchanged, the sweet kisses and caresses they had shared, had meant just as much to him.
    But in those last few weeks before Peter had left Willow Park, something had changed. She couldn’t quite put her finger on the exact moment when it had happened, but suddenly he had become withdrawn, distant. She had felt him drifting away, and it had frightened her. Frightened her so much that it had tempted her into doing something altogether rash on the night of her eighteenth birthday. All in an effort to regain Peter’s attention.
    Well, she’d gotten his attention, that was certain. But it hadn’t at all turned out the way she’d planned. They had come so close to making love that night, had shared the most