“You didn’t ask them to stay, either.”
“They chose to go,” Adam said with finality.
“And that’s it? That’s all the consideration this whole thing gets?”
“What whole thing?”
“‘What whole thing?’” Harry repeated his words in a tone of utter disbelief. “You’ve been married for an entire day, and you’ve already driven your wife to her rooms.”
“I haven’t driven her anywhere,” Adam snapped, his jaw and shoulders tensing. “She is indisposed.”
Harry rolled his eyes.
“You don’t believe that?” Adam asked. “You think she’s in her rooms, quaking in some corner?”
“She wouldn’t be the first. I’m pretty sure Addington sucked his thumb for a week after you walked out of Lords. You do have a tendency to overrun people.”
“So I am the villain already, am I?” A steel-edged calm had crept into Adam’s tone, and he felt a familiar surge of determination as he rose swiftly to his feet.
“Well, what other gentleman can you think of who has managed to alienate his wife within twenty-four hours? I wouldn’t be surprised if you never saw the poor woman again as long as you lived. In a place as enormous as this pile of rock, she could avoid you for years.”
Adam set his jaw. Wouldn’t that be fodder for the laughing throngs? The Duke of Kielder commands the notice of society, the ears of his Peers in Parliament, the awe of his contemporaries, but his wife will have nothing to do with him.
Suddenly, Adam was angry.
“Where are you going?” Harry actually sounded concerned.
“My wife is indisposed,” Adam flung back at him. “I am going to see for myself that she is well.”
“Adam.” It was both warning and question. Harry was on his feet.
“I am not going to hurt the blasted woman,” Adam growled back as they both left the book room and made their way down the hall.
“Adam.” That same tone.
Adam spun around, stopping Harry mid-step. “Have I ever harmed a woman?” Adam demanded. “Have I?”
“No,” Harry finally admitted, with a little smile.
“I have no intention of starting now. So quit looking at me like I’m about to drown a puppy.”
“Have you ever drowned a puppy?” Harry asked.
“Shut up, Harry.” Why did the man like goading him? There were dozens of men in Town who would tell Harry in no uncertain terms that pushing Adam was not a good idea. There were dozens more littering the countryside.
“Is it really necessary to bother her?” Harry trailed along behind Adam.
“I am not going to be made the monster in my own home.”
“Adam.”
“No. Do not start using that tone with me,” Adam snapped, turning down the hall that housed both his rooms and Persephone’s. “Whenever you think you have some great philosophical insight into my—what was it your sister always said, my ‘tortured soul’—you use that tone. It’s enough to make a man want to throttle you.”
He grabbed the doorknob to Persephone’s sitting room.
“I cannot go into your wife’s rooms,” Harry reminded Adam.
“Good.” Adam shut the door in Harry’s face.
