“It may be morally wrong, and many including Gerald Fairclough would say so, but I am thankful Richard died. Ilearned my lesson but was still facing a lifetime of regret and penitence in the form of a dreadful husband from whom I thought I would never be free.”
Slowly, Adam rose to his feet and approached. Alice waited until he was toe-to-toe with her.
“I love you, Alice. You have shown me your character, and I don’t care if you kissed every man Jack in London in the past, as long as I am the only man you kiss from now on.”
She sagged against him, reached up, and pulled his head down to fuse her lips to his.
When they finally drew apart, Alice’s relief was intense, causing tears to prick her eyes.
“You are the only man who has ever been in my heart.”
“And that’s a gift I shall gladly accept,” he said. “Is there anything else you should tell me?”
“Only that I love you.” She paused and recalled the dinner invitation that had finally come. “And that I once kissed Lord Devlin.”
Invited to tea at theCountess Diamond’s home, along with Adam’s four sisters, Alice went unaccompanied. The Diamond women were her new favorite people. She had never met better females. Not a snippy word or sharp tongue among them, at least not directed toward her. The elder ones made her feel welcome with their kindness, and the younger ones wanted to tell her secrets about their older brother, which turned out to be merely funny stories.
Adam’s mother generously said she had always hoped for another daughter, which was beyond funny considering herlarge brood. Alice spent two hours laughing with these women, feeling closer to them than she had ever felt to her mother. Had circumstances been different and Lady Francis Malcolm Jeffrey been a loving, attentive, nurturing mother, Alice could imagine her entrance into society might have been different.
When she left, she hadn’t yet reached the safety of her husband’s private carriage before Gerald stepped into her path. Undoubtedly, he had been awaiting her outside the Diamond’s home on Piccadilly, and she wished she had left when the two older sisters had. The countess had wished to show her some embroidered napkins she’d kept for Adam’s bride, and which Alice now carried in a bag.
She could not ignore him since he was standing between her and the carriage door.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. Perhaps rattling her at Floris perfumery had emboldened Gerald, and knowing Adam wasn’t above planting a facer, he’d decided to catch her alone. However, Alice was bolstered by the strength of the women in the house behind her.
“You think you can abandon the Fairclough family,” he said, “now that you’re married to the heir to an earldom.”
“I am beginning to think you are mad,” she said. “It is not a question of one family or another. There was no one but you and your brother, and he is gone. You must take up the reins of your title, marry if you wish, and get yourself an heir.”
“So much wisdom from the one who was supposed to produce the heir for my brother. Diamond thinks you’ll be popping out his brat. Does he know you are barren?”
White-faced, she approached closer. “That’s a lie.”
“Then why did your previous marriage not beget an heir?”
She couldn’t quite believe she was having this conversation. From what she’d already learned from Purity Foxford, Adam’ssister who was fond of good manners, this was an appalling breach of polite discussion.
“Maybe it was your brother who was unable to bear fruit.”
His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened. If Adam’s driver hadn’t been close by, listening to every word and watching, not to mention her in-laws’ home being mere yards away from the vile scene, Gerald might have struck her.
“Is that why you killed him?” he demanded taking a step closer.
Despite growing increasingly frightened, she rolled her eyes and sighed loudly trying to express how ridiculous was his suggestion.
“You are like a dog with a bone. I did nothing of the sort. In all probability, neither your brother nor I have any infertility issues. I never bore him a child because he lost interest in his own wife for the novel amusements of the varied and innumerable whores of London.”
“Undoubtedly with good reason.”
Gerald was never going to see the darker side of Richard. But that didn’t mean she had to accept his vitriol one more minute.
“Enough! You will do as Lord Diamond has told you and leave me alone.”
“Not until you repay his debts.”
“Even if I wanted to — and believe me, at this point, I would pay any price to end our association — I cannot. You have taken everything of value that I had and sold it.”
“Your new husband has enough to pay for my brother’s accounts, unfairly gathering interest each month. Diamond won’t miss a few gold coins. Isn’t that right?”
