She took a breath to say it, but Diana interrupted her again. “Oh, Madeline, you must help Adam get over me. Will you take care of him? Will you stay here and try to mend his broken heart? I know he enjoys your company and you share an interest in gardening. Perhaps you could encourage a union between the two of you? He’s a good man, Madeline, and you deserve to be happy. Do you think…do you think you could ever love him?”
Madeline stared dumbfounded at her sister. The look in her eyes…Madeline had never seen it before. She wasn’t even sure what it was. Pleading? Remorse? Desperation?
“Diana, I—”
Diana reached for her hand and pulled her down to sit beside her again. “Madeline, I am a dreadful sister. I know it. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately—I haven’t been able to do much of anything else—and Idowant you to be happy. I want things to be right.”
Right?Could it be that Diana remembered that Adam had broken off their engagement? Or did she justsuspectthat there were feelings between Madeline and Adam, and this was her way of holding on to her dignity and pride?
Madeline treaded cautiously into her next question. “What makes you think I could love Adam?”
Diana tilted her head and grinned. “Honestly, Madeline, you’re my sister. You’ve always loved him, ever since you were a child following Adam and I around everywhere.”
Feeling an odd mixture of embarrassment for having her secret known, and tenderness for her sister in the wake of what seemed like a backward attempt to make up for her behavior lately, Madeline took in a deep, cleansing breath. She squeezed her sister’s hand. “Iamin love with him.”
Diana slowly absorbed her confession. She laid a gentle hand on Madeline’s cheek. “Yet, when you thought I loved him, you kept it to yourself. How you must have suffered. Your loyalty and your sacrifice makes me feel so ashamed.”
Madeline gazed into her sister’s beautiful blue eyes, glistening with sentimental tears, something Madeline had never seen in Diana before.Ashamed?
Diana stroked a lock of hair back off Madeline’s forehead. The gesture was familiar, for Diana had always done that when Madeline was a child, snuggling into bed at night.
“I’m sorry for the way things have turned out between us,” Diana said. “I have been positively wretched to you. When I found out what Father had done, I came on the first ship out of Scarborough because I…I didn’t want you to have what I considered mine. Just as I didn’t want you to wear my ribbons, even though I wasn’t wearing them anymore. And I had unrealistic fantasies about Adam. I wanted to be young and innocent again. I wanted to go back to those days when he came calling and all I knew was that he adored me. But he was never right for me. He talked about farming all the time, and as you know, I didn’t have the slightest interest in anything to do with dirt. But you…my little sister, the gardener.”
Warm, tender emotions rose up in Madeline like a swift tide; her eyes filled with tears. Diana pulled her close and hugged her.
“Adam was never meant to be mine, Madeline. He was meant for you. You’re the one he loves. He told me so.”
Madeline squeezed her eyes shut against the tears. “You remember.”
“Yes. I might as well admit it now. I remembered everything the second day after the accident. And I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. I wanted to punish you and push you away so that I could take back what I considered mine. But then you came the other day to apologize tome!I was angry at first because you made me feel like such a cruel monster—which I am!—but then I realized how horribly I had always treated you, and I am desperate to make up for it, Madeline. I want to be a better person. I want to be more like you. Can you ever forgive me? Can we be close, as you wanted us to be?”
Madeline threw her arms around Diana. “Of course we can. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I was just afraid to open up to you.”
“But you did, and I am so glad. At least one of us had the courage.”
Madeline knew she had Adam to thank for that.
“But are you sure you want to go with Lord Blackthorne?” Madeline asked. “He’s not just an escape for you, is he? A way to give Adam to me, because I won’t let you make that kind of sacrifice. There are other ways—”
“I know the viscount is not the most handsome man in the world, Madeline, but it may surprise you to know that looks are not that important to me. He adores me, truly and passionately, and I am in heaven.”
Madeline smiled knowingly. “And he will make you a viscountess.”
“There is that, yes,” Diana replied with a wickedly satisfied glint in her eye. “And when he completes his term here, we will return to his estate in England, and I will live out my days there, moving about society with him, for he is a very popular man.”
It was the perfect life for Diana, that was certain.
Madeline hugged her sister again. “You have made me very happy.” She sat back and gazed at the fire in the hearth. “But all is not yet perfect. I have been unfeeling and distant toward Adam. I can only hope that he will be able to forgive me for shutting him out, and believe that I am capable of love.”
“Iknow that you are, Madeline. You have proven it to me beyond a shadow of a doubt. And if you believe it yourself,” Diana said gently, “he will believe it, too.”
Madeline paced back and forth along the oval rug in her candlelit room, wearing only her white nightdress, nothing else. Diana had giddily informed her that she would be leaving the following day with Lord Blackthorne, and they would be married in Halifax as soon as possible. She planned to speak to Adam after breakfast to officially end their betrothal, and to apologize for leaving so soon, with so little notice.
Should Madeline simply stand back and wait for the events to unfold? she wondered, as she continued to pace. Diana would drive away tomorrow, and Madeline would be left behind, standing beside Adam in the yard, waving goodbye. Everything, if she was lucky, would simply fall into place after that.
Or should she go to Adam now and be the one to tell him what was transpiring? Diana had wanted Madeline to seize the opportunity to take him for her own.
But how was she to tell him?
