Page 67 of The Butterfly
Finding the door to the bedchamber open, Olivia peered inside, her heart wrenching at the sight she found. Daphne lay abed, freshly washed from head to toe, a sleeveless nightgown covering her. Clean white bandages wrapped around her injured shoulder, and her braided hair rested upon the pillow. She was still paler than Olivia would have liked, but her breathing had quieted. She found Adam wrapped around her, taking up the other half of the bed. He lay with his face buried against the curve of her neck, chin rested on her good shoulder, one arm draped carefully across her body.
It seemed Daphne was in good hands at the moment, and would continue to be until she woke up. As there was nothing else for her to do here, she stepped back out into the corridor and closed the door, going off to seek her own bed.
Three days passed during which the entire household seemed to hold its breath waiting for Daphne to awaken. Niall accompanied Olivia to the sickroom often to find Adam either seated in a chair at the bedside or laying with her, fast asleep. He barely ate, slept for only a few hours at a time, and guzzled brandy from the decanter Niall ensured never went empty—as much for Daphne’s sake as for his. It shocked him to realize how much Hart cared about the chit, considering how much he’d hated her in the beginning. But, she’d proved herself to not only Adam, but to him and Olivia time and time again, showing them that she was not like the family she’d been born into. No, she was a warrior who had fought to get justice for his Livvie and nearly died in the process. For that, she’d always have his unwavering esteem.
It was also clear that Adam cared for her more than he’d wish to admit. Because the man had lost nearly every person he’d ever loved, Niall prayed Daphne wouldn’t be next. Hart was resilient, but this loss, he might not survive.
Fortunately, their worry did not last long. On the third day, Niall walked past the open door of the study to find Adam seated at the desk. He faltered in the doorway, shocked to find him here instead of tethered to Daphne’s side as he had been for the past three days. He had bathed and changed clothes, his hair brushed back from his face, his jaw sporting a fresh shave. The quill in his hand moved rapidly over a sheet of paper.
Niall leaned against the doorframe and cleared his throat, waiting for him to notice he was no longer alone. Adam straightened and met his gaze, leaning back in his chair and setting his pen aside.
“You may as well come in,” he said, his voice still heavy with exhaustion as well as resignation. “I’ve just sent for Livvie, and this concerns you as much as it does her.”
He frowned. “All right. What of Daphne?”
“She awakened this morning,” he replied, folding his hands over his abdomen and leaning back in his chair. “From the look of things, she’ll be just fine. We, however, are vacating this house first thing tomorrow.”
Niall’s scowl deepened, but before he could ask why, Olivia entered the room.
“What’s going on?” she asked, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “Why would we go back to Dunnottar now, with Daphne still recovering? She won’t be fit to travel for weeks.”
Sighing, Adam ran a hand over his weary face. “Come in and sit, both of you … and close the door. There are things we must discuss.”
Niall and Olivia traded questioning glances. She seemed to know as little about what was happening as he did, so he simply urged her into the room with a hand at her back, then pushed the door closed before following her inside. They took the pair of armchairs facing Adam’s desk, waiting silently to hear what he would say.
“Firstly,” he began. “Daphne will not accompany us to Dunnottar. We will vacate the house and leave her here, living out the duration of our London stay in a hotel. I’ve already acquired accommodations that will see us catered to in the usual fashion. Bertram’s trial could take weeks, after which we are free to leave.”
Olivia shook her head, eyes darting as she tried to make sense of this. “Why would you leave Daphne in a townhome you purchased? Why wouldn’t we all go home together?”
“Because this is not my house … not any longer. It now belongs to Daphne.”
He produced a document and held it up for their inspection. It turned out to be the deed to the townhouse, the words written upon the parchment declaring her the owner outright.
“I don’t understand,” Olivia murmured. “Why, Hart?”
“Because this is her family home,” he said, reminding Niall that Olivia had always been ignorant of this fact. “I purchased it when her family was forced to sell it after I’d bankrupted them. Yet another way for me to publicly shame them.”
Olivia gasped, the sound heavy with dismay. “And you brought her here to live … you brought us all here as if to torment her with it? Did you know about this, Niall?”
The back of his neck flushed hot, shame hanging over his head now that all had been said and done. Safe to assume he and Adam would both struggle with their regrets when it came to their handling of Lady Daphne Fairchild—for Niall had had his friend’s back for every bit of it.
“Aye,” he said. “But that was before I knew her … beforeyouknew her.”
“It no longer matters,” Adam declared. “I am releasing Daphne from my life … fromourlives. Her place here was not willing. Not in the beginning, anyway. Letting her go and giving her back a bit of what I took from her seems as good a price to pay for her saving my life as any.”
Olivia came to her feet, hands clutched tight in her skirts. “But you cannot! Adam, she needs us … she needsyou! We can’t just leave her behind, not now!”
“I can, and I will. She’s already been informed of my decision.”
“But you love her. Don’t you? I’ve seen the way you look at her, the way you hovered at her side when you thought she might die. How can you simply walk away from her now that the worst of it has passed?”
Adam slammed a fist down upon the desk, narrowing his eyes at his sister. “It is because I love her that I’m walking away! If it weren’t for me, she’d have never been shot. I’ll suffer enough guilt over that without you browbeating me, thank youvery much. Now … it is done, and we are finished discussing it. Neither of you are to go into that sickroom. After this morning, I doubt she’d want to see any of us, anyway. My decision is made and is final. What I really want to discuss is you, Livvie … the two of you, in fact.”
Niall perked up at that. He did not like this business concerning Daphne any more than Olivia did, but there’d be no talking Adam out of his decision.
“What is it, Hart?” Olivia asked, her tone softening as she sank back into her chair.
“It is funny,” he began, leaning forward and bracing his elbows upon his desk top. “I’ve been so absorbed with pursuing Bertram’s downfall to the end that I missed what was happening before my eyes. You’ve blossomed, butterfly. You’ve been growing stronger each day, and I … I feel like such an ass for not seeing it until now. It means more to me that you are finding your way back to being happy than for Bertram to die. That was always the most important thing to me, and I hope you know that.”
