He could do it toanywoman. After all, just a day before he’d been attempting to seduce Lydia, so how could his flirtation on the terrace with her—Adelaide her,realher—mean anything to him? Worse, why did shewantit to mean anything? This man’s interest in her was only dangerous to her double life. The best thing she could do was shrug away from him in both her domains and hope he’d go away forever.
“Adelaide?”
She turned to find Emma, Duchess of Abernathe, approaching her. Adelaide couldn’t help but smile, despite her stirred up emotions. She and Emma had been friends for years as they stood along the wall together. And she had hardly seen Emma for months now, thanks to the duchess’s marriage, her pregnancy and the upheaval that had followed.
She stepped forward, hands outstretched, and Emma hugged her tightly, or as tightly as she could manage with her sweet rounded belly in the way.
Adelaide laughed as they parted and let a hand slip to the swell. “You must be going into confinement soon, to await the birth of this ball you’re keeping in your belly.”
Emma smiled, and she looked so happy that Adelaide hardly recognized her as the warm but worried friend she had counted on for so long.
“Whatever is in there moves around too much now to be a ball,” Emma said. “But yes, only a few more events and I will be sliding into my confinement here in London. James insists on that, so I will be close to doctors.”
She glanced over her shoulder and Adelaide followed her gaze to the very handsome Duke of Abernathe. He was an intimidating person, for he was the golden child of Society. And yet Emma had not only landed him as a husband, but tempted him into deep and abiding love for her, if his puppy dog expression was any indication.
“The man moons over you,” Adelaide whispered. “So the rumors are true.”
“Yes,” Emma said with a satisfied grin. “I have bewitched him, body and soul, as he has done to me. It’s a love match, indeed, and I could not be happier.”
Adelaide ignored the twinge of jealousy that momentarily stung her, and squeezed her friend’s hand. “No one deserves that more, Emma. No one in the world.”
“Well, there’s you,” Emma suggested. “I’m so happy to see you. And so sorry that with all the rush and commotion of the past few months I haven’t been able to see you sooner.”
“You know my aunt never would have allowed me to come to Abernathe for your wedding, even if I could have made it in time,” Adelaide said with a sigh.
Emma’s frown deepened. “She is still the same then.”
“Oh, Aunt Opal never changes. She’s as predictable as the sun rising and setting each day. She wants me to be out in Society, but she likes how I’m on the fringes. Get too full of myself, as she puts it, and she’ll slap me down as soon as pour me tea.”
Emma shivered. “But she hasn’t actually…struckyou?”
Adelaide caught her breath. Not that long ago, she and her aunt had gotten into a row, a dreadful one. Over things Emma didn’t know. Not her acting career, for her aunt was as in the dark as anyone, but something else. Something harder. More painful. And in the heat of the moment, her aunt had struck her so hard that Adelaide had been forced to cry off parties for two weeks while the bruise around her eye had healed.
Of course Emma had come to call and seen the result of the attack. Her friend had never forgotten that act of violence. Adelaide hadn’t fully forgiven it. It had been part of her reckless rebellion that had led her to the stage.
“No,” Adelaide said softly. “Not since that one time.”
Emma let out her breath on a sigh. Then she linked arms with Adelaide. “Will you come and meet my family, then?” she asked. “I so want you to like them as much as I do.”
“Certainly,” Adelaide said, letting her friend draw her toward Abernathe. But then her breath caught. Standing with the man were the Duke and Duchess of Crestwood. She’d thought they’d stepped away, but they seemed to be back. Not that it was surprising. After all, the duchess was Abernathe’s sister. Which made her Emma’s sister now, too.
Emma drew her up, almost bubbling with excitement as they reached the group. “James, do you remember my friend Lady Adelaide?”
Abernathe turned a broad smile to Adelaide and she couldn’t help catching her breath. He was certainly well put together. Not as much as his friend Northfield, but one could not deny that Emma had made a fine catch.
“Lady Adelaide,” he said, taking her hand and drawing it to his lips briefly. “How wonderful to see you. My wife speaks so highly of you, I cannot imagine we will be anything but fast friends.”
Adelaide smiled, for there was an honesty to this man. He wasn’t playing a game—he really wanted to like her, if only to make Emma happy. And since no one had spent much time ever making Emma happy, it pleased Adelaide greatly to see that her love match wastrulythat.
“I look forward to that, Your Grace,” she said with a slight nod for him. “After all, we have a great deal in common thanks to our shared love of Emma.”
Emma blushed and waved at them with one fluttering hand. “Gracious, you’ll swell my head as large as my stomach with such talk. Adelaide, may I also present to you my brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Crestwood.”
Adelaide turned slowly to the two people she’d been trying to ignore and found herself looking into two smiling, rather kind faces. The Duke of Crestwood was handsome, with blue eyes that were darker than Northfield’s and a mischievous air. But he was not the main focus of her attention. Adelaide took in the duchess more closely.
Margaret was lovely. No one could say she wasn’t lovely. With dark hair that had lighter highlights, deep brown eyes, and a lithe, lovely figure, there was no doubt why the woman had been the center of Society for so long. But when Adelaide looked at her, all she could see was Northfield’s handsome face, twisted with that twinge of pain and betrayal when the two entered the room.
And a strong dislike shot through Adelaide at that memory.
