Page 37 of Dangerous Games of a Broken Lady
“I pray that it is many years before you have to find out.”
Adelaide smiled and looped her arm through her mother’s. “I have never asked you before, Mama, but was there ever another? A man you might have loved just as well as you do Papa?”
A wistful look glimmered in Lady Leeds eyes. “A fleeting fancy, once upon a time.” She paused, as though realizing what she had said. “You must never breathe a word of this to your father.”
“I never shall,” Adelaide promised. “Please, tell me more of him.”
“Oh, it was a fledgling romance—barely blossoming,” she said, with a wry laugh. “He was the son of an Earl, who lived close to the Delancey Estate. We had known each other since we were twelve years of age. Our families often spent Christmastide together. He and I would rush about one another’s houses in a state of foolish giddiness, putting up decorations and troubling the cooks for pastries and sweets.” Her eyes twinkled at the memory, the sight tugging at Adelaide’s heart.
“How wonderful.”
“He often told me that he was going to marry me one day,” she went on, her tone bittersweet. “As the years passed, our friendship took on a strange metamorphosis. It happened without us realizing. My seventeenth birthday had recently passed when he tried to kiss me under the mistletoe. I ran from him. Indeed, I refused to see him for a week afterwards, I was so mortified by my reaction and what it might mean. I think I must have known then that I adored him. Although, I would never have admitted it, least of all to him.”
Adelaide struggled to envision her mother as a younger lady, falling in love with a different man. It painted a sad picture. She could not help but wonder where her mother might be, had she married the Earl’s son instead of Ephraim. Would she have been happier? Her mother had never seemed unhappy, but Adelaide knew their marriage had been one of convenience.
“What happened?”
Lady Leeds shrugged shyly. “I did not see him again.”
“Why-ever not?”
“At the end of that week, where I had so carefully avoided him, my father came to me and announced my betrothal. I was to marry the heir to the earldom of Leeds.” Lady Leeds sighed softly. “I did not have the heart to face Henry again. There seemed little use in it.”
“Henry?” Adelaide tried the name out.
“That was his name. He is happily married now, as am I,” she replied firmly. “It all came to the proper conclusion in the end.”
“Do you ever think about him?”
Lady Leeds looked mildly shocked. “Adelaide, you must not ask such questions.”
“My apologies, Mama. I am simply interested in your past… I realized that I have never asked before. It seems perverse that I should have gone all these years without discovering more about you—about the girl you were before you became my mother.”
“We bury much of ourselves when we become wives and mothers, Adelaide. You will see for yourself, I imagine,” she said quietly.
“So, you do not think about him?”
“Adelaide!”
She grinned.
“My affections lie solely with your father, and that is all there is to it.” A small smile lingered upon Lady Leeds lips.
This outing was turning out to be a most welcome distraction. Adelaide had not thought it possible to take her mind off recent events and clandestine secrets, but Lady Leeds was proving to be very diverting company. In that moment, she adored her mother more than anyone else on Earth. Although, that was nothing new—she always had. Others came close, but Lady Leeds was Adelaide’s saving grace. Her perpetual comfort.
“Everyone seems to believe I am making a foolish error in marrying Duke Bradford,” she admitted, as they continued on down the sandstone pavement. “Do you?”
“He behaves like a gentleman ten years his junior, but I think he has potential,” Lady Leeds replied. “Marriage can make a man, Adelaide. My suspicion is that Duke Bradford is just such a man. I can tell he adores you. When he sat with us in the drawing room, he could not take his eyes off you.”
“You do not think me prey?”
She laughed. “I do not, my darling. He did not look at you as though he wished to devour you. He looked at you with quiet admiration… a simmering respect. There is credit in that.”
“You do not think I should be patient, and see if a better man comes along?” She paused. “Or, at least one with a less colorful reputation?”
“You are one-and-twenty, my dear. If such a man were to come and sweep you off your feet, he would have done so already,” she said kindly. “You have given the gentlemen of this fair country ample opportunity to court you. Duke Bradford’s gain is their loss.”
Adelaide sighed. “I suppose you are right, Mama.”
