She walked up the stairs with Opal beside her, passing by portraits of family members on the wall. Opal hesitated beside the one of Adelaide’s parents. “My dear brother,” she said with a sigh. “And his lovely wife. They cared for me so deeply. They tried to save me.”
Adelaide wrinkled her brow. In the entire decade and a half that she had lived under her aunt’s roof, she could count on one hand the times Opal had spoken of Adelaide’s parents. When she had, it wasn’t with the wistfulness her tone presented now.
“Save you?” she repeated. “That’s an odd turn of phrase. How did they do that?”
Opal ignored her and started up the stairs again. “What happened today is very likely something we can’t cover up, Adelaide. Not like the last time.”
Adelaide flinched at the comparison of Graham to a man who had left her after one unpleasant night together. “No, you are probably right,” she said softly. “But the circumstances are very different. You see…” She took a deep breath, uncertain how her aunt would respond to her next words. “Graham is going to marry me,” she pushed out at last.
They had reached the top of the stairs then, and her aunt froze and turned on her, her eyes wide. “Is that what he’s said?”
“Yes. He asked me after you left, and I agreed. So you see, it isn’t as bad as you thought it was in the parlor this morning. This time I have found myself with a very decent man. One who will not abandon me.”
Her aunt nodded slowly and continued into the bedchamber. Adelaide looked around. It was a simple room, yes. Her aunt had never encouraged her to decorate it overly much. But it had been hers for a long time, and she didn’t hate the place.
Opal paced to the window and looked down over the garden in the back of the house. “When you marry, he will want heirs. Spares.”
Adelaide found herself smiling at the thought of starting a family with Graham. Of him becoming the father he had never had. Of looking into her children’s eyes and seeing all the echoes of the man she loved. All the best of both of them.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m certain we will. He has obligations, of course. And I would want to be a mother.”
Opal pursed her lips. “Then it will not stop.”
Adelaide wrinkled her brow in confusion. “Will not stop?” she repeated. “Aunt Opal, I came back here today to tell you of my impending marriage, but also to ask if you will support it. You are my only living family, after all. I know we’ve had our differences and that I’ve let you down with my behavior, but Idowant your blessing.”
Opal moved toward her a step. “Your only family,” she repeated with a shake of her head. “My, how right you are. More right than you even know.”
The hairs on Adelaide’s neck began to prickle as she stared at her calm aunt. Far too calm considering the morning’s outburst. Suddenly her room didn’t feel as safe as it once had, and she began to question if coming here was so very wise.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” she whispered, looking toward the door.
Opal sighed. “I know. And I thought I might not ever have to tell you. But it seems I must. To end this, I must have it all out.”
“What all out?”
Opal motioned toward the settee. “Sit.”
It was an order, not a request, and her aunt was blocking her way to the exit. Adelaide had no choice, it seemed, but to obey. She sank into the settee and folded her suddenly trembling hands in her lap.
“I was like you,” Opal began. “When I was young. Foolish and headstrong. And I met a young man and I thought he was a knight in shining armor. That he would sweep me away.”
Adelaide’s lips parted in surprise. “I’ve seen your portraits from when you were young. You were so beautiful. I’m not surprised that you had suitors, but we’ve never spoken of them.”
“This man was not a suitor,” her aunt spat, a flash of anger to her tone and her eyes. “He was a thief in the night, come to seduce an innocent girl and steal what she should never have given.”
Adelaide straightened. “Are you speaking of the young man who took my virtue?” she asked, utterly confused.
“No, the one who took mine,” Opal replied. Her lips began to tremble. “I did not give, but he took.”
Adelaide shut her eyes, understanding at last. She thought of Melinda, her battered face, her haunted eyes. She thought of a dozen other women she knew who had been subject to such abuse. She thought of Sir Archibald’s fat hands on her, of that moment when she’d known her fate before Graham burst through the door like some hero in a story to save her.
“I’m so very sorry, Aunt Opal,” she breathed. “I had no idea you suffered such a thing.”
Opal’s gaze was far away, years away. “Oh yes, I suffered. My father cut me off, as I presented no more hope for a good match. And when I began to swell with that bastard’s child, I was forced to go into seclusion in my brother’s home.”
Adelaide stared. This was not a story she knew. Not a story anyone had told her. “You had a child?”
Opal jerked out one nod. “I did. No one knew. My brother and his wife hid what I’d done from the world. And when the baby came…theypretended.”
