The young man hugged her close, and then took her shoulders and drew her back a little so that he might look into her face. Verena was above average height, but Adam, for all his slight build, had a little the advantage of her. His features were of a more severe cast than his age warranted, already set with lines edging shadows under his eyes — an effect accentuated by the hereditary overhang of his brow that gave to both his father’s orbs and his own a hooded appearance. In Nathaniel, it was almost sinister. In Adam, Verena found it touching for the loss of the boy he should still have been.
“I’ve missed you,” he said.
Verena’s eyes misted at the sorrow in his own. She reached up and took his thin cheeks between both her own.
“Darling Adam.”
He clasped the hands and held them tight, bringing them down to hold at his chest. “How are you managing?”
She lifted her shoulders in a little shrug and smiled. “Well enough.”
“No, I mean, here — this place.” His glance travelled about the parlour in a disparaging way. “You can’t mean to live like this for ever.”
Verena withdrew her hands, reserve entering her voice. “It may not be what we are used to, but it is what we can afford on my grandpapa’s money.”
Adam frowned. “Papa ought to make you an allowance.”
“For that he must needs know where we are, Adam, and that he must not.” She grimaced. “It must be hell for you, alone with him.”
Her brother shrugged. “He doesn’t notice me. He never did.”
“Except when you would try to save Mama.”
“I couldn’t stand for it. I know Mama hated me to intervene, but —”
“I know, Adam.” Verena drew a breath. Now was her opportunity. She must make him see reason, that he would cease to speak to Mama of a return. “And you must also know that nothing has changed.”
“Yes, but —”
“Adam! He may be as remorseful as you please. I have seen him so before this, many times. I have heard him make his promises to Mama, promises made with tears streaming down his face. But did that prevent him, the very next time he chose to suppose himself jealously injured by some imaginary slight, from raising his hand to her again? You know it did not.”
“But that was in the past,” her brother protested, releasing her fingers and pacing away. “That was before he knew I might retaliate on her behalf. If she returned —”
“She will never return!”
“But if she did, Verena, I swear I would never permit him to touch her.”
“How could you prevent him?” demanded his sister, moving to stand in his path, forcing him to face her. It was evident that he missed them both, that he wanted Mama home. But he must be made to see how impossible it was. “How, Adam? Oh, I believe you are sincere, my dear, but think a little. Could you be with her day and night, guard her incessantly?”
“You are,” he countered. “I dare say there is scarce a moment when you are not together.”
“But we are living in lodgings. Besides, I am a woman. What, will you stand sentry by her bed, preventing his entry there?”
“Verena!” he gasped, shocked.
“Let us have no mealy-mouthed pretences about this, Adam. You know as well as I that it is precisely in those circumstances — in her very bed — that these hideous beatings begin. That isjust how he managed to conceal the matter from so many eyes — even ours, Adam — for so long. Come, how old were you when you knew of it first? How old was I?”
“Nine, ten — I don’t know,” he uttered, his voice ragged with distress.
“Well, I know,” Verena told him with deliberation. “I was eight years old before I knew why my mother was so often indisposed. Why we were kept from her presence for so many days together, why everyone was excluded — except Betsey.”
Adam shifted away, moving to stand before the big bay window, looking out with unseeing eyes. She knew why. He could never bear to speak of these matters, even when she had tried to discuss them with him at home.
“You need not recite to me all the circumstances,” he said bitterly. “I know them well enough.”
“Yes, you know them, Adam. So don’t talk to me of her going back to that life.”
He swung round. “But she does not look any the better for being here, Verena. I swear to you, I was shocked at her appearance.”
