“Hint taken.” Harry swept an overdone bow before gliding from the room.
“Now listen to me, Persephone Iphigenia.” Adam gave her a very determined, almost fierce look, his tone one that brooked no arguments. “I have faults, like any other man, but I am not a liar. I have promised that your brother will visit you here and no one, not Harry, not anyone else, will browbeat me into going back on that promise. Is that clear?”
She felt her chin quiver even as she nodded her understanding. And in an instant the duke seemed to melt away, and she felt almost as though she were looking at an ordinary man.
“Don’t start crying,” he said, sounding confused and concerned.
With her free hand, Persephone brushed at an escaping tear. “I guess I didn’t realize how much I want to see my brother until I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to.”
Adam seemed to study her for a moment, indecision flashing through his eyes.
“Forgive me,” Adam muttered uncomfortably as he released her wrist.
Persephone shook off the apology. Neither of them moved, but they stood not more than an arm’s length apart, eyes darting around the room, settling occasionally on one another, though never remaining there for more than the length of a breath. It was not a comfortable silence. The air around them seemed jumpy and anxious.
“Have you walked through your garden today?” His voice was almost unrecognizably soft.
“My garden?”
“The hedge garden,” he awkwardly corrected. Adam even looked a little embarrassed.
He thought of it ashergarden just as she did, Persephone thought with awe. Did he understand why it had become so important to her? Why she treasured it the way she did? “It has been snowing,” she answered his question.
Adam actually smiled. “This is Northumberland.”
Heavens, he looked so much more pleasant when he smiled. The smile reached his eyes that time. His blue eyes. Divinely blue.
“It will snow for months.”
“In other words, I need to grow accustomed to snow.” She smiled back.
He nodded mutely, studying her the way she studied him. How she wished mourning attire allowed for blue. She felt prettier with blue eyes, and Persephone couldn’t remember a time when she wanted to look pretty more than she did at that moment.
That thought hit her hard. She had to close her eyes against the realization. If Adam continued being kind and gentle, and if she wasn’t very careful, Persephone was in very real danger of developing feelings for him, feelings that went far beyond friendship. A one-sided love was not at all what she wanted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Adam was speechless. He was never speechless. He had entered the drawing room in anticipation of dinner only to find his mother sharing a sofa with Persephone.
“Good evening.” Mother smiled that pitying smile she always used. “You look a bit unwell, poor boy.”
“I am fine.” Adam paced away from her. He hadn’t actually expected Mother to come to Northumberland for the ill-conceived wedding ball. He ought to have known better. Balls had never kept her at Northumberland, but they had always brought her back: back from Newcastle, back from Leeds, back from London.
“I was just telling Persephone of the wonderful balls we used to have here at the castle.” Mother’s tone turned wistful and reminiscent. “Even the London papers were full of every detail of the evening; who attended, the decorations, the menu. Falstone balls were positively legendary.”
“And completely pointless,” Adam added under his breath. He knew his father had staged the monumental entertainments solely for Mother. She’d left anyway.
“I am certain our ball will be far less elaborate.” No apology hung in Persephone’s tone, no disappointment, merely a statement of fact. Adam was grateful for that. Somehow he couldn’t bear the thought of her being disappointed by her wedding ball, or anything else for that matter—especially by him. If she asked, he would give her the most extravagant evening she could imagine.
“Oh, but it could be,” Mother said to Persephone. “A few changes to the menu, perhaps a more involved decorating scheme—”
“No,” Persephone interrupted. “My tastes are far more simple, I assure you. Mrs. Smithson and I have discussed the menu and the preparations, and I am quite satisfied.”
“Satisfied and pleased are not the same thing,” Mother pointed out.
Was she displeased, then? Adam looked over at Persephone from the corner of his eye. She did appear a little flustered.
Adam moved to the window. The informal drawing room overlooked the north garden and tower. It was the only area of Falstone permitted to run wild. He’d always liked it, the one part of his home that never felt contrived.
