“I do.” Cassian grimaced. “I do not know what more I can do, though. She does not want to live with my wife, and my wife ishere to stay. She is to spend a week by the sea at the end of the month, and I am hoping that she will find some clarity there.”
“But do you think that she will?”
“In all honesty, I can only hope that she will at least come back and see Adelaide alive and well, and realize that she was being hysterical.”
But Cassian was not really counting on it. His mother’s perception of him would never change, and the best he could do was to keep his distance when he could and protect his wife from what she would say to her.
Especially what she would say to her abouthim.
“All will be well,” Rowan said with a certainty he envied. “Come, let us handle matters here.”
Cassian nodded, and they made their way to the discussion.
He hoped that Adelaide was having an easier time of everything than he was, but he knew that she would have to lie more than he did.
The truth was that he was happier in his marriage than he had expected, for she had agreed to his every demand. But she was not.
She was alone, and he was part of the reason why. She would have to pretend that she was perfectly content, that she had taken her role seriously from the beginning, and that she was the one who ran their household. Though there was a nugget of truth there: she truly wanted to do well.
“Smile.” Rowan nudged him as they approached the others. “You are supposed to be happier than ever.”
And Cassian knew that he had to play that part well.
CHAPTER 16
“Congratulations, Your Grace!” old Lady Pointer gushed.
Adelaide had heard the same words many times as she sat in the gardens with the ladies, playing cards, and though she knew it was only a platitude, she enjoyed hearing it all the same.
The truth was, she enjoyed being seen as important. It was not something she had experienced before, having never been the most exciting person in any room she had ever entered, but it was exciting.
“Thank you,” she replied. “I must admit, it has all been so sudden, but I am grateful for the life I have been afforded. I truly am the luckiest lady in the country.”
“And how refreshing to hear someone in your position say as much,” another older lady piped up. “Far too often, ladies are afforded every lovely thing in the world, but they act as thoughthey are in great pain. Yes, you have a duty, but that comes with such goodness.”
“I could not agree more. I could not be more fortunate, and I will never take that for granted.”
All eyes were on her, but she did not feel as though they wanted her to fail. In truth, she felt as though they envied her. And even though she knew it was not a good trait, shelikedbeing envied.
Unfortunately, it was all built on a lie. She was not in a happy and loving marriage as they believed, but a cold and cordial one. Her husband did not adore her, but he did take care of her.
It was not what a lady would dream of, but it was enough. Or so she told herself.
“But, of course,” said a young lady, “there is the matter of how you met.”
She was a pretty lady, but Adelaide thought she rather resembled a fox. She had pointed features, with brown hair and small dark eyes, and there was an iciness to her tone that was not shared by the others.
“It was certainly not conventional.” Adelaide laughed shakily. “I cannot believe that it all transpired as it did.”
“Yes, because you had only just returned to London, had you not?”
There was the judgment she had been dreading. Her skin prickled, wondering how she would explain everything away.
“Ella,” an older woman said sharply, and Adelaide assumed she was the mother. “Now is not the time for this.”
“It is quite all right, Mama. Her Grace will not mind telling us about what happened. I find it all rather romantic.”
They all turned back to Adelaide, and she tried to think of the right thing to say. She knew that they were aware of where she had been and why she had disappeared, so there was no use in lying, but she could phrase it in a way that would dissuade them from questioning her further.
