Page 48 of Wedded to the Beastly Duke
Over the course of the evening, she found herself watching him, making note of the strength of his jaw and the striking blue of his eyes. He was one of the most handsome men she had ever met, and when he smiled, although he did so infrequently, she felt her heart race. Warmth spread through her body.
It was a rather ridiculous reaction to have to one smile, but because his face changed so much and yet he smiled so little, unlike Rickard, who gave nervous smiles every other minute, they felt more special, somehow.
Emmeline couldn’t help but notice the only smiles he gave were in her direction.
Later that night, when she was making her way up to her room, a candle in her hand, she saw the hulking figure of her husband outside her door.
“Adam,” she said, looking into his shadowed face. “What brings you here?”
“What possessed you to invite him into my house?” he asked, his voice low. His fingers found her chin and tipped her face up to his.
“Our home,” she corrected him.
“I wasn’t there to give permission. Do you think I would find it acceptable for you to be associating with strange men in my absence?”
“Perhaps then, husband, you should not be absent so often,” she said, her tone biting. “Did you think I would be content in this house by myself? Did you think I would revel in your absence?”
“Yes,” he said simply. His eyes searched hers in the gloom. “Don’t you dislike me?”
“I dislike beingalone. Something you have forced me to become well acquainted with over the time we’ve been married. Is this to be our life together? Is this what you expect from me? Contentment in the face of abandonment?”
“Emmeline.” His hands trailed down her arms until he held both her hands, looking as though he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them. “If you were discontented, I want you to tell me.”
“Oh, because thus far expressing my discontent has made you change your behavior.” She rolled her eyes.
“You mentioned many times how ill-suited we are. I thought?—”
“That was so I could go to London, not so you could abandon me in this house.”
“I would never abandon you. My brother…” He took a deep breath. “I’ve been investigating.”
“Then take me with you. Let me help.” She squeezed his hands, excited to share her theory. “I thought perhaps if his body was missing, he could have come to harm in one of the hidden passageways in the east wing. If I found one, surely there must be more. Do you think he could be hidden away in one of them?”
Adam shook his head slowly. “I admire your commitment, but?—”
“Are youcertainyou know where they all are? There might be more.”
“Emmeline! Enough. If my brother was in the castle, I would know.”
She withdrew her hands from his, feeling oddly slighted, her heart constricting. So this was how things would be between them. He would lay down the law and expect her to comply.
“I’ve looked,” he said, taking a step toward her and stopping, as though he doubted his ability to move—or perhaps he felt as though he should not. “Believe me, Emmeline. I have spent hours and days looking in every nook and cranny, searching through documents and exploring the castle myself. There is nothing left unturned here. But”—he caught her chin, tilting her face up so she looked at him again—“I am in awe of your dedication to uncovering the truth even though William wasn’t your brother.”
Emmeline wasn’t entirely sure when things had begun to shift for her, or when she had started giving any consideration to his feelings, but she said, “It is clearly important to you.”
“It is,” he said. “And I am glad to have you by my side.”
* * *
After Nicholas visited, as was his wont, he met with Adam privately to confirm that the man staying in their house, who called himself Rickard, had not been a friend of William’s.
“At least, none whom I met,” he said seriously, “and I won’t claim to have met all of William’s acquaintances, but I do believe I knew most of them, and he had no friends in Scotland that I know of, and certainly none by the name of Rickard.”
Adam knew how close Nicholas and William had remained throughout their adult years. He believed that if Nicholas had not come across one of William’s friends, it was fair to say that man was not a friend of any significance.
Which went against everything the man was saying.
Things came to a head, however, when Adam and Emmeline received an invitation to a ball. Lady Rochester, one of the ton’s leading dowagers, was holding what Emmeline informed him would betheball of the Season—or what remained of the Season.
