Page 6 of A Scandalous Proposition
‘Oh, stuff and nonsense, Adam. You’re naturally biased about such matters, simply because I’m your mama. But wait, what’s this?’ She pushed his hair away from his brow, touched his scar and frowned.
‘Merely a scratch.’
‘But you assured me you’d not been hurt.’
‘No more have I. It’s nothing.’
‘Well, it doesn’t look like nothing, but does make you appear very distinguished.’
Adam smiled. ‘So I’ve been told.’
She led the way to two chairs in front of the fire and took possession of one of them. Adam flicked the tails of his coat aside and seated himself in its twin.
‘Now, tell me everything that’s happened to you in Spain.’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘And you’re not to leave anything out just because I might find it distasteful. You know very well that I’m not given to swooning.’
Adam laughed. ‘Indeed, I wouldn’t insult your intelligence.’
The duchess had a quick understanding of matters both political and military and had offered shrewd advice to her husband when he’d been influential in government circles. She still followed current affairs closely and took particular interest in the war, not only because Adam was involved in it but because she liked to keep herself informed. He spent the next half hour answering her questions and, in spite of his earlier promise, giving her a highly edited account of his activities.
After a servant had brought refreshments and withdrawn, the dowager let out a prolonged sigh. ‘I suppose, my love, we can no longer avoid the subject of your brother. Have you seen him yet?’
‘No, I only arrived at the Court this morning.’
The dowager leaned across to pat his hand, looking very overset. ‘Oh, Adam, I don’t know what to say you! How I’ve dreaded this moment. Much as I longed to see you, I was aware that your coming home would necessitate an explanation for my neglect.’
Adam could see that his mother was on the verge of tears. He took her hand and sought to reassure her. ‘Don’t distress yourself. What’s done is done and is of no consequence anyway.’
‘No consequence, you say! Don’t think to relieve my conscience by making so light of it. I know you feel it dreadfully and I’m entirely to blame for what happened.’
‘Philippa wasn’t betrothed to me and was free to marry whomsoever she wished.’
‘Nonsense! You two had been inseparable for several years and everyone expected you to marry as soon as you returned from this wretched war.’
‘Everyone’s expectations are not the same as terms having been agreed.’
‘Stop being so brave, Adam.’ A tear seeped from the corner of her eye and she dabbed at it impatiently with her handkerchief. ‘I can’t bear it. Iknewyou would be like this. You were never one to show your feelings, even as a child. It’s not right! Your heart is broken and I’m to blame.’
‘Just tell me what happened. Explain about Julia’s death first. I don’t believe you told me all the particulars in your letter.’
His mother shuddered. ‘Oh, how I wish I’d been able to persuade her not to go out hunting on that fateful day! The weather was foul but she wouldn’t listen to me.’
‘She was an accomplished horsewoman. You couldn’t have anticipated that she would fall.’
‘Perhaps not, but I had a strange feeling of impending doom that I couldn’t seem to shake off. But when I told Julia she simply laughed and told me I worried too much.’ His mother was openly crying now. ‘I wasn’t even surprised when they came to inform us that she’d broken her neck.’
‘Poor James, how he must have felt the loss. I know how attached to her he was.’
Adam and James, separated by fifteen years and four sisters, had never been close. James, constantly unwell, resented Adam’s robust health. It didn’t help their relationship when their equally robust father used Adam as an example of how James ought to deport himself. Father appeared to think James’s illnesses could be overcome with nothing more than a little self-determination. But, in spite of their history, Adam wouldn’t wish the unexpected death of a much-loved wife on his worst enemy. Even the wholesale carnage he’d witnessed on the Peninsula hadn’t hardened his heart to that extent.
‘Indeed. He’d not joined the hunt himself because he was confined to bed with a cold.’
‘His presence wouldn’t have changed anything.’
‘A cold that has subsequently been diagnosed as pleurisy.’
Adam sat a little straighter. ‘I wasn’t aware it was quite so serious.’
‘James asked me to keep it from you. He didn’t want you distracted from your duties.’
