She entered his office and he followed, closing the door behind them. His mother stopped in front of his desk, arms propped on her hips. “How could you simply leave without a word on your wedding day?”
His jaw flexed. “Forgive me for not believing you had anything planned to honor Georgina and I. You and Nick made it abundantly clear how you felt about our nuptials.”
She sighed, looking away from him as if guilt wouldn’t allow her to hold his eye. “I am sorry I did not organize a breakfast in your honor.”
Adam cursed. “It isn’t about the breakfast, Mother.” How could his family not realize it was their treatment of Georgina he could not forgive? “Surely you cannot think I’d ever allow anyone to disparage my wife, including my own family?”
“No, no, I know that,” she said in a very un-countess-like stammer.
Adam was unrelenting. “She is going to face condemnation from most of society. I never expected she would face it from you and Nicholas.”
Mother dropped her head, looking properly shamed.
“It is not my intention to make you feel badly, Mother.” He walked over to where she stood in front of his desk.
She looked up at him. “I just,” she paused. “We just want to see you happy, Adam. When you disappeared…” Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head. “You cannot imagine any greater heartbreak than worrying after your child’s whereabouts.”
“I wrote you,” he reminded her. It wasn’t altogether a lie. Whenever he’d been off on a mission, he’d be sure to write—until his capture. Then The Brethren had seen to writing his mother.
“But Nicholas believed differently.” Her gaze scoured his face as though she were unraveling a puzzle. “He believed there was more to your absence.”
Not for the first time, Adam cursed his older brother to hell. He should never have needlessly troubled Mother with his unsubstantiated concerns. Adam forced a smile. “There was nothing more to my absence.”
Mother was nothing if not tenacious. “You came home a different person.” Her hand fluttered about. “The gaming, the women, the overindulging in spirits.”
“I always enjoyed gaming, women, and spirits,” he said sardonically.
Her lips formed a small moue of annoyance. “You once indicated there was a woman behind your sadness.” She squared her shoulders.
Adam propped his hip against the edge of his desk and, folding his arms across his chest, said, “And?”
“Was it her? Georgina,” she amended. “Was she the reason for your sadness?”
His body went rigid. Georgina had spoken to him several times about being the adored daughter of two simple servants. Somewhere along the way, her life had turned far off course, and all she’d known was pain. Yet she had emerged from all that darkness as a strong, courageous, kind-hearted woman. Georgina could never be the reason for his sadness.
“There was someone else,” he said quietly. “She married another.”
His mother made a pitying sound that grated like glass scraped along his flesh. The last thing he wanted or desired was anyone’s pity. “What if I told you that Georgina saved me when I desperately needed saving?”
She said nothing for a long while. Instead, she claimed the seat in front of his desk and smoothed the fabric of her immaculate skirts in two long strokes. When she looked up at him, a smile wreathed her face. “Then I would say I will gladly call her daughter. Would you like to speak of her?” She hesitated. “The other woman,” she clarified.
Filled with a restive energy, Adam shoved himself up. “I would not,” he bit out. Grace was part of his past. He’d come to find peace with her betrayal. He’d moved on. She would always be an aching memory of simpler, less complicated times, but he was content to remember her that way.
His mother looked like she wanted to say something else, so he cut her off. “I imagine there was another reason for your visit today?”
Her green eyes sparkled and she perked up. “There was! We don’t have much time.”
His head swam with confusion. “Time for what?”
“Why, to prepare Georgina for her entrance into Society!” She hopped from her seat as if a fire had been lit beneath her feet. “She requires a dance instructor, tutor, and the most fashionable modiste. We have several months…” She paused. “Is she a quick study?”
Adam blinked. “A quick study?”
She waved her hand about. “Yes, you know? Do you imagine it will take her more than the three months before the Season begins?” Mother troubled her lower lip between her teeth. “I had hoped we could have her all prepared for the start of the Season, but if you believe she’ll need more time then…”
Adam shook his head. “She won’t need more time. She is very intelligent.”
His mother snorted. “Most men wouldn’t have such a pleased little expression when saying their wives are intelligent.”
He laughed. “Oh? What of Father?”
She beamed at him. “Your father was different than most men.”
He inclined his head. “Then I can only assume I am different than most men.”
Mother’s smile dipped and sadness came into her eyes. “I miss your father so very much.” A little spasm contorted her ageless face. “For twenty-two years I had everything in the world I could have dreamed of. And do you know what?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “As fast as they ticked by, those years may as well have been minutes. Live joyously, every moment of every day that you are blessed with her, because it can all be taken as quickly as you can blink your eyes. Promise me you’ll steal any and all happiness you can.”
A cold, ominous chill fell over Adam. He told himself it was merely his mother’s macabre words, words that really weren’t intended to be morbid.
He bowed his head solemnly, shoving aside the cloying unease eating at his insides. “I promise,” he murmured. Georgina had known too much heartache—she deserved a lifetime of happiness and he intended to be the person to give it to her.
He showed his mother out. When he returned to his office, he sat behind his desk, staring blankly at the empty room, wondering why he couldn’t stifle the unease that lingered like the shadow of a ghost.
*
Georgina had awakened two hours ago. In that time, she’d taken a warm bath, had a cheery, young maid, Lucy, drag a brush through her tangled knots and help her into a simple, pale yellow dress. She had waited with breathless anticipation for Adam to walk through her chamber door…
He hadn’t come.
She had gone down to the dining room and found a large buffet atop the sideboard. Her stomach had rumbled in hunger, but she’d looked around the room…
And he hadn’t been there either.
A servant had rushed forward to pull out a chair, but she waved him off with a smile, seeing to it herself. She imagined the young man could detect it wasn’t sincere. Georgina forced herself to sit and nibble several links of sausage and a piece of toast. With a napkin, she dabbed at the corners of her lips, and then rose, determined to find her husband—even if he wasn’t as determined to find her.
The servant cleared his throat and she looked up.