Miserable?“I don’t want you to be miserable, Adam,” Persephone said, her attention entirely focused on him.
“I will not be miserable,” he grumbled.
He seemed miserable already.
“You will simply make the rest of us miserable,” Harry said. “Perhaps you should call the entire thing off and save us the suffering.”
Call it off? Not extend the invitations? Including Linus’s?Persephone’s eyes were glued to Adam. He wouldn’t actually do it, would he?
“I, for one, am in favor of keeping Falstone as quiet and undisturbed as possible. For then, you will be as quiet and undisturbed as possible, and that is best for all concerned,” Harry continued.
Persephone could feel her alarm growing. Suppose he managed to convince Adam to take back his invitation?
“And I don’t believe any of the invitations have actually been sent yet,” Harry added. “So there should be little difficulty preventing any visitors from actually arriving—”
“Shut up, Harry.” Persephone barely recognized her own voice, choked as it was by a sudden influx of emotion.
Both gentlemen’s eyes fixed on her, shock apparent in Harry’s, surprise mingled with something nearing amusement in Adam’s.
“So help me, Harry, if you talk him into turning my brother away,” she said, her voice unnaturally high, “I’ll . . . I’ll have you put in the gibbet cage!”
“Do not forget my crossbow, Persephone.” Adam moved to stand directly beside her. “It would be an efficient means of silencing him.”
“But the gibbet is crueler,” she mumbled, lowering her eyes to hide the sudden sheen of moisture that entered them.
Persephone realized in that moment that despite her determination otherwise, she had her heart firmly set on seeing her brother. Should Adam back out of his offer, she would be devastated.
“I had no idea I deserved such a fate.”
Persephone glared at Harry but couldn’t prevent the slightest tremor in her chin.
“Harry is not nearly persuasive enough to convince me to cancel Linus’s visit, Persephone.” Adam sounded frustrated anew. Persephone listened without looking up. “I have told you before that I do not say things that I do not mean. I told you Linus was coming to Falstone. There is no need for you to worry over that.”
“But there is.” She turned to face him, her own frustration nearly boiling over. “You tell me to trust you, but I don’t know that I can. I don’t know anything about you, Adam. I have no idea what kind of man you are. And that . . . that frightens me.”
“I frighten you?” His voice was low, a troubled look in his eyes.
“That isn’t what I said.”
“It really isn’t,” Harry confirmed.
“Shut up, Harry,” Persephone and Adam snapped in unison.
He smiled as if entirely amused by the situation. “I am happy to see I am a unifying force.”
It was too much. Feeling her resolve crumble, Persephone spun away from them both and began a flight for the door. After one step, a hand caught hold of her wrist.
She glanced back, surprised, confused, and a little concerned. Adam held her there, forehead creased in apparent frustration. “Don’t go,” he said, his voice full of command and authority.
Persephone attempted to pull free, but he held her fast. “Let me—”
“Please don’t go,” he amended.
Persephone ceased struggling the moment she looked into his face. There was that look again, the one she would have sworn came from pain or fear or both. It was subtle, almost lost in the detachment and sense of superiority he exuded.
Sometime along the way, Adam had been hurt, and the pain still clung to him. And in those rare moments when a gentler Adam emerged from beneath the hardened surface, Persephone thought she was seeing who he truly was.
“Now would be a perfect opportunity, Harry, for a timely exit.” Adam didn’t look at his friend. He still held Persephone by the wrist, though not at all painfully.
