“She has hit you before,” he said, not asking.
Adelaide stiffened. “Yes,” she admitted softly.
He turned his face as anger flooded him at that thought. “How often?”
She shifted in her seat, her gaze refusing to turn on him. Her cheeks flaming, as if she were embarrassed when she had nothing to be ashamed about. Her guardian was another story.
“She slapped me once, when she found out I’d given myself to a man,” she said. “As I said in the house, my virtue has always been an obsession to her. And…” She hesitated, and finally her blue gaze moved toward him. “She put her hands around my throat yesterday morning because she believes I’ve been lying to her, which of course I have.”
Graham stared. “She put her hands around your throat?” he repeated, shocked and horrified.
She nodded. “Emma interrupted, and that’s why I came to their home yesterday.”
“Youcan’tgo back to that woman, Adelaide,” Graham said through clenched teeth.
She shut her eyes briefly. “Legally she is my guardian, Graham. And in the fourteen years I’ve lived with her, those are the only two times when she’s lashed out at me.”
“It escalates,” he said through clenched teeth. “A slap. A punch. A choke. A burn. And then he’s murdering your mother in the east parlor.”
Adelaide’s eyes filled with tears and she slid across the carriage to him, touching his cheek and smoothing her thumb across his jawline. “I’m so sorry, Graham. And I know you want to protect me. But I promise you that my situation is not like your own.”
He frowned, for he wasn’t as certain about that fact as she was. “Adelaide,” he began.
She shook her head. “Right now you and I must focus on the situation with Sir Archibald.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Graham said.
She drew back, shock flooding her features. “Of course you didn’t,” she gasped. “I never believed you did. Even if we hadn’t been together the last two nights, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“Even after my losing control?” he pressed.
She leaned up and brushed her lips to his. “Iknowyou.”
It was a simple statement, but it hit Graham straight in the gut. She knew him. Yes, she did. Despite the short time of their acquaintance, she had wound her way inside of him, she had inspired him to whisper secrets he’d vowed never to tell. She had become a part of him.
And he found he didn’t want to lose that part, no matter how terrifying a thought that was.
He pushed it aside and sighed. “Either way, I think we both believe his murder is associated with the theatre.”
“If his body was found so close by, I cannot imagine it is a coincidence. He had plenty of enemies there.”
“Whoever killed that man should be given a medal, not transported,” Graham said, sliding an arm around her and tucking her into his side.
She nodded. “Yes, I tend to agree. But the world isn’t always fair.”
“No,” he agreed softly. “It isn’t.”
The carriage turned a few times as they sat there quietly together, and then it began to slow. He felt Adelaide shift against him, watched her sit up straight, and when he looked at her face, he was shocked to see Lydia there. There was a hardness to her expression, a wariness. He’d never recognized that before when he thought they were two different women. But Lydia was…jaded.
And he found he wanted the real Adelaide back. As much as he’d given to Lydia, as much as he’d needed her in the beginning, now it was different. Lydia represented all the pain that Adelaide sought to escape. Her presence here now only broke his heart.
When the footman opened the carriage door, he climbed down first and helped her do the same. As the vehicle pulled away so it would no longer block the street, Adelaide took a long breath.
“I’m Lydia—don’t forget,” she said as they made their way toward the theatre.
“Of course.”
Her expression changed for a fraction of a moment, as if she was fighting to keep the mask on. But then she was serene again, focused, as they moved around the side of the theatre to a small door he’d never known was there.
