Athena returned the smile. “I suppose not.”
“And I am perfectly able to get about. I am simply not as fast as I will be in another week or two.”
Athena nodded her agreement. “Very well.” She rose from the seat she had shared with Persephone. “But do not be too long. The Uptons are coming for dinner tonight.”
At last she was alone. There had been precious little time for reflection since leaving Falstone. She and Linus had spent most of the journey recalling events from their childhoods and catching up on their lives since they’d been apart.
Once arriving at the family home, life had included a constant influx of people. Persephone had forgotten how a large family in a small house could create chaos on a constant basis. She loved being at home with her family but found herself longing for the tranquility of her new home.
Thoughts of Falstone inevitably brought Adam to mind. She’d had such hopes for the two of them and still clung to a few. If only he’d given her some indication that he would miss her while she was away or some reason for his sudden insistence that she go.
Instead he’d been stubbornly quiet the entire morning of her departure. He’d not appeared the least bit upset at their separation, merely impatient for her to go. She, on the other hand, had almost brought herself to beg him to go along. But Adam did not like society or mingling with strangers. He never left Falstone if he could help it. Adam had told her that more than once. Asking him to accompany her would have been a pointless endeavor.
Brooding in the garden was not precisely productive, either. Persephone rose to her feet with the help of her walking stick. Her leg was still a bit sore but improving every day. Papa insisted the Shropshire air had speeded her recovery.
She walked through the back door to the house and moved slowly up the corridor. The house sat oddly quiet. Artemis was far too recovered from her bout with chicken pox to be as quiet as she was being. Daphne was perpetually quiet, illness or no. Had the girls gone out? It was too late in the day for a picnic.
Persephone made her way closer to the front of the house. The door to the sitting room stood ajar. She stepped closer. She could hear footsteps inside but nothing else, heavy footsteps, like boots instead of slippers.
A gentleman caller? Athena was of age, Persephone reminded herself. Was Papa making the prospective suitor wait? More likely he had completely forgotten about the unfortunate young man’s existence.
Determined to see this beau herself, Persephone stepped inside. She had every intention of making her own assessment, knowing Papa’s could not always be counted on.
Persephone stopped just past the threshold, her breath suddenly impossible to catch.
“Adam,” she whispered.
He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again without saying a word. There was an awkwardness to him that was entirely foreign. Vulnerability touched every inch of his face.
“Have you come to take me home?” Persephone hoped he had and yet also hoped he hadn’t. She’d missed him terribly but was enjoying visiting her family as well.
“When you’re ready,” he answered after a moment. “But I . . .” He let out a breath. “I wanted to see Shropshire,” he said. “To see where you grew up.”
“You did?” His explanation proved somewhat disappointing.
“And get to know your family.”
That was a little better.
“And, I . . .” He shook his head, letting the thought dangle. Adam moved closer to her, a sudden intensity in his look. “Hades always went after Persephone.”
“Yes, he did.” She stepped closer to him.
“He waited as long as he had to,” Adam said, “then he left his kingdom and didn’t come back until he found her.” He stood close enough she could have reached out and touched him.
Persephone’s lungs tightened inside her. “I think Hades must have missed his wife,” she said, her heart suddenly pounding.
Adam didn’t look away, didn’t step back. “I think he knew to the very minute how long she had been gone. But was Persephone as anxious to return as he was to have her with him again?”
“I think she was.”
Adam reached out his hand and softly touched her cheek. Persephone closed her eyes, determined not to be distracted from the sensation of his touch. She could hear him, feel him close the distance between them.
Her heart soared with newfound hope, and she clung to it desperately.
Adam pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Why did Hades go after her?” he asked in a low voice, his lips still brushing her face.
She barely managed to keep breathing. “He must have loved her,” she whispered.
