Page 36 of Dangerous Games of a Broken Lady
“Do you recall the ships that Jasper told you about?”
Adelaide nodded.
“I needed them to come in before I could arrange to meet with Duke Bradford,” he explained. “Their contentsareyour dowry.”
She gasped. “Isn’t that an enormous risk, Papa?”
“No, my dear, trade is a safe venture. I simply needed more time.”
Her heart sank. “Well… why did you not say? I would have understood.”
“I did not wish to worry you.”
“Oh Papa…”
“I will meet with Duke Bradford tomorrow. I will meet with him and I will resolve all of this. Allow me to make amends, my darling girl. Please.” He looked into her eyes with hopeful vulnerability. “I did not mean to cause you suffering. I just… I needed more time. A simple truth, poorly executed.”
“Can you forgive me for acting so childishly?” she replied, a tear trickling down her cheek.
“There is nothing to forgive, dearest one.”
Her father was not prone to physical displays of affection, but he did not resist as she moved out of her seat and wrapped her arms around him. To her heartrending surprise, he buried his face in her shoulder and gripped her tight. His ribcage heaved only once but she understood the motion. Her strong, fearless, majestic father was crying.
In the glass door of the grandfather clock opposite, she saw Jasper’s face reflected. A pale ghost of unspoken secrets. Understanding dawned with creeping certainty. She had come here to confront her father for the truth. Now, she realized she was no closer to it than she had been before.
One fact remained.If you can deceive me once, Papa, who is to say you would not do so again? Please… let me be wrong.
A mystery lay at the heart of Adelaide’s home. To uncover what was really going on here, she needed to dig deeper. Only, she wasn’t sure she was ready to drag up the bodies of the buried lies—the ones that held the mirage of household peace together.
Chapter 13
Adrizzle of rain misted down from the gray skies, casting an eerie light across the city of London. It had been a sunny morning, with the clouds rolling in shortly before noon. Adelaide and her mother, Lady Leeds, walked along the glistening streets near Covent Garden. They had no real intentions other than to peruse the fabric shops and to contemplate the latest bonnets and gowns on display, to gather some ideas to give to the family seamstress.
“What a gloomy day it has turned out to be,” Lady Leeds mused.
Adelaide nodded. “Indeed, Mama.”
“My darling, are you feeling quite well? You have been rather quiet today.”
She forced a smile onto her face. “A touch of fatigue. Nothing to worry yourself over,” she replied. “It has been a somewhat eventful week and the events therein have disturbed my sleep.”
“You poor thing,” Lady Leeds murmured, rubbing her daughter’s hands gently. “At least everything is resolved. The announcement has been published. It will not be long until the date is set, and you are walking down the aisle towards your new life with the Duke of Bradford.”
Rosemary had hurried in that morning with the day’s papers, opening the crisp pages to the engagements and obituaries. The announcement had been front and center. Adelaide had always thought it strange that the two should go side-by-side. Then again, it was supposed to be ‘till death us do part.’
There had been a letter alongside the papers, addressed to Adelaide. The unmistakable handwriting had comforted her deeply. Within, there had been a simple message:Solemn apologies for my former trespasses. Be assured of my honesty, my love. I have thought of nothing but you. I had sought to ensnare yet find myself the ensnared. Soon.
“For that, I am glad.” Adelaide lifted her face to the tentative raindrops. Each felt like a cooling kiss upon her skin.
“You must not listen to the remarks of your father and Jasper where the Duke is concerned,” Lady Leeds said unexpectedly. “They do not see things as we do. They cannot understand the world as we do. Society would have us all believe that women are weak and subservient—they do not have the ability to witness our strength and fortitude. It is our fiercest weapon, my darling. Our solemn secret.”
Adelaide felt close to tears. A state she had been in much too often of late. It was not in her nature to be so disconsolate. Truly, she hoped that things were finally looking up.
“You cannot know what a relief it is to hear you say that,” she whispered. “I thought I was taking leave of my senses, that I was somehow alone in all of this.”
Lady Leeds gripped her daughter’s hand tighter. “You are never alone in this endeavor, my darling girl. I shall always be here. I have been in your place, remember? I persevered, and I do not think I could have been happier with another. Your father is a good man. I imagine the Duke of Bradford shall prove himself to be so, in due course.”
“What would I do without you?”
