My fear of being found weak made me grasp tighter to his lapels. “You have to tell me everything. I’m not a wilting daisy.”
“But you like daisies.”
Adam pried my hands free and held them to his bony chest.
In my head, I stroked the birthmark, the strawberry shape below his throat. Such an intimate thought. It made me giggly to know so much of him.
“Up you go, my lady.” He lifted me into the well-lit carriage.
He knew I liked the light, liked how it made things feel safe and confined and cozy.
“Ruth, we are dusting our feet of this place.”
Despite being so thin, thin like he had a worm, as Mama would say, Adam was strong and wonderful in every other way, so kind and handsome with his short-cropped wavy hair.
He climbed inside but kept his hands to his knees. He didn’t tap the roof. “I wish there had been another way to marry. Something that would’ve garnered your parents’ blessings. You may need them if things don’t go well. But I must do what is right for my father. My uncle has embezzled from him and others. I made copies of the ledgers. Uncle Soulden and his business partner forged initials to the transactions to look as if my father is the thief. It’s not right. Righteousness must win against the darkness.”
I tried to ignore the scary words in his speech likeembezzledandforgedanddon’t-go-well. I needed to make a joke like Adam always did. “That vicar training in you is too strong, but maybe it blesses us.”
“My father’s fault. When he took me to St. George’s, all those bright stained-glass panes never left me. But I am to be a gentleman running his estates, financing his business interests. You think you will enjoy being a gentlewoman, having parties?”
“My mama will appreciate that.”
His face became more serious. The little lines around his dimples eroded to a frown. “What if you have to sit at the back of St. George’s with the servants, because someone like the innkeeper can’t imagine you are my wife?”
We were the same, but Adam’s light skin gave him access to that different world, one where even Croome money couldn’t buy entry.
I clasped his hand, my darker palm over his. “We’ll figure everything out. I’m happy to be Mrs. Adam Wilky.”
After patting my fingers like the patronizing fellow he could be, he leaned back and folded his arms with the panache of a peer, far above a mere rich man’s son. “Last chance, my Ruthy, my dearest darling. I know we are only a few hours from London, but we could turn around and head to Scotland. I’ll spoil you rotten there. It’ll be better until Nickie tells me the danger has passed. I can decipher the ledgers in peace.”
“We must go to my parents, so they know I’m safe. I have to let them know what we’ve done.”
“Not everything we’ve done, my dear. Some secrets should remain between husband and wife.”
Oh, Adam. His wicked smile, his sing-song voice. “How can you get me so worked up fearing for our lives and then try to make me laugh?”
His soulful eyes, luscious and dark, beamed. “You need to be happy. You deserve it. I’m most fortunate to have your love. Any chance I could seduce you on a grassy knoll by some babbling Scottish brook? It would be safer, Ruth. So much safer.”
“To London, sir.”
He closed his eyes and became stiff. “What Ruthy wants, Ruthy gets. Then to London we go, and we shall hope for the best.”
He bounced out, gave instructions to his driver, then slipped back inside. This time he sat next to me and looped his hands with mine.
I rested against him, leaning into his shoulder. His sweet scent, the Bay Rum, made breathing easier. Oh, how I loved it, loved him.
As the Croomes’ wild child, I had my wildest dream in Adam Wilky.
A glance at Adam’s perspiring brow sent a chill down my spine, one that didn’t stop until it froze my toes.
Adam wasn’t convinced that London was the right decision, but he’d given in to me.
Maybe once we were settled and living a quiet married life, he could finally be comfortable.
“We may struggle a bit.” His voice was low, each word perfectly formed as if he’d thought and thought again about what to say.
“You don’t have to be so careful with me. I married you for you.”
