Adam made to take Georgina in his arms when a resolute Watson cleared his throat.
Adam frowned. “What is it?” His earlier amusement faded at his servant’s tenacity.
Watson crossed over, coming to a stop in front of Adam and Georgina. “I was told it was of great importance that you receive this note immediately.”
With a growl, Adam snatched the note and started. A very familiar, elegant stroke had marked the thick ivory velum. His heartbeat slowed.
“Adam?” Georgina asked hesitantly.
He picked his head up, a wave of guilt filling him.
His wife studied him. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” he murmured, his mind a million miles from the silent ballroom.
She reached out to him. When she spoke, her words emerged as a halting whisper. “Are you certain? You seem—”
“I said I’m fine,” he snapped, jerking away from her touch.
Georgina flinched as though he’d slapped her. Utter silence followed his outburst.
Tony and Watson stared at him with alternating looks of disappointment and dismay. The scorn in their eyes, coupled with his own clawing guilt, rocked him on his heels.
“Forgive me,” he said hoarsely. “If you’ll excuse me. There is a matter of business I must see to.” He sketched a hasty bow and fled.
When he finally reached the sanctuary that was his office, he slammed the door behind him, his heart racing not from the rapid pace he’d set for himself but from the sealed missive in his hand.
He stood there in silence, his rapid breathing and the snap of the fire the only sounds in the empty office.
Then, unable to resist the overwhelming urge, he tore the envelope open.
Grace’s scent, a blend of fresh-meadow roses and primrose, wafted from the sheets. His eyes slid closed. He would not, if given the chance, go back and wed Grace. Georgina had come to mean too much to him. Still, Grace represented a far simpler time from before, a time he found himself yearning for in the dead of night when the nightmares came. He pulled out the note.
A log tumbled in the fireplace. The pop of the fire’s embers drew him over to the hearth. He stared down into the flames. He should toss the bloody note into the fire and be done with it. There was nothing Grace Blakely, nay Helling, could say that would make her betrayal less painful.
Nor should it matter. He was married to Georgina.
He unfolded the note and read.
Adam, I hope this note finds you well. I wish to congratulate you on your recent nuptials. I must speak with you on a matter of utmost importance.
Ever Yours,
Grace
His lip curled. Apparently, Grace felt no apologies were necessary. Adam held the parchment to the flames.
Leaning his head against the mantel, he watched the fire lick the corners of the note. They curled. Twisted.
Adam gasped and tugged his fingers back, preserving the note. He dropped it to the floor and slammed his booted foot on it, stamping out the fire, then picked it up to study it. He couldn’t destroy the note and he didn’t care to consider why.
Horribly burned and nearly unrecognizable, all that remained of the parchment were Grace’s three meager sentences. Adam sank into the nearest chair, staring blankly down at the note in his hands.
Why should she have contacted him now? What could she possibly have to say to him now that he’d married and finally found happiness?
Adam dropped his head into his hand, crushing the already helplessly ruined note. His mouth all but begged for the stinging bite of a hot whiskey. He fought back the urge like a man battling a dragon.
All Grace’s note represented was trouble.
The last thing he needed in the world was any more bloody trouble.
*
Georgina stared down at her hands. At her toes. At the marble floor. Anywhere but at Tony’s pitying expression.
“I’m sure it was of great importance,” he murmured.
“Yes, I’m sure it was,” she said, her words halting to her own ears. “He did say as much.”
Tony snorted. “You’re entirely too forgiving. It was unpardonable for him to speak to you the way he did.”
Of course, Tony had no idea that Adam’s tone of annoyance was no different from the way she’d been spoken to the better part of her life. Her father’s callous words and stinging rebuke had ceased to hurt a long, long time ago… Adam’s, however, wielded too much power. The kind that could cripple her with a single unkind utterance.
Georgina managed a weak smile. “Are you trying to create trouble for your brother?”
“Oh, I rather suspect my brother doesn’t need my help getting himself into trouble.” He held his elbow out. “Come along.”
Georgina wrinkled her brow. “I’m not a dog, Tony.”
He laughed, the sound deep and husky. The kind of laugh that was going to do funny things to far too many debutantes’ hearts that Season. “I didn’t snap my fingers or pat my leg, Georgie. Come with me,” he tried again, though there was now a note of seriousness in his usually relaxed demeanor. “You must want something before you’re shoved off into Society.”
This time she did laugh. “First a dog, now a ship?”
Tony waggled his brows, his jolliness returning full-fledged. “I never called you a dog, or for that matter a ship.” He held his elbow out again and waited.
Georgina hesitated before placing her arm in his.
“There’s a girl,” he murmured. “I’m sure Adam will return any moment and,” he lowered his lips to her ear, “be madly jealous to discover you’ve run off with his much handsomer, wittier brother.”
“The earl?” she asked teasingly.
He pressed his free hand to his heart. “You wound me! The only accurate thing you’ve said about Nick is that he is, in fact, an earl.”
“And he wouldn’t by the way,” Georgina added. “Be jealous, that is,” she clarified at his puzzled expression. “Adam wouldn’t even notice.” You had to feel something greater than a sense of obligation for a person to truly care about them. The truth of it knifed through her.
Tony gave her fingers a little squeeze. “You truly have no idea that he is madly in love with you.”
Georgina faltered, stumbling against him. “What?” She gave her curls a frantic shake. “No. You are wrong. Adam doesn’t love me.” Oh, she believed he cared for her, had no doubts that he would always protect her, but he did not love her. A person was surely only capable of one true love—and for Adam that had been, and would always be, Grace.
Jealousy gnawed at her heart.
It took her a moment to realize they had stopped in the foyer. Georgina blinked, glancing around as Tony waited for his carriage to be readied. He looked down at her, cuffing her gently under the chin.
“Georgie, my brother would have to either be mad or blind not to love you. And you’d have to be mad or blind to realize that he’s not mad or blind.”
She grinned up at him.
“Now come, let us go spend some of your husband’s money.”
Georgina allowed him to pull her along, allowed her heart to soar on the hope that maybe, just maybe, Adam did love her after all.
Fox and Hunter have a friend within The Brethren of the Lords.
Signed,
A Loyal British subject