Suddenly, a cry so vicious, so high-pitched, ripped from the cot, and Adrian lurched back as if he had been slapped across the face.
Harriet was awake, and the timing could not have been worse.
Or better…
“Oh, Harriet!” Ophelia spun about, her movements quick and awkward. “I… what is wrong?” She faced the cot purposefully, her back to Adrian in a way that suggested she wasn’t going to turn around. “Come here,” she cooed as she reached into the bed.
The moment was broken; Adrian had come back into himself, and because he had, he suddenly realized how dangerous this was… what had almost happened… and what it meant.
He stumbled back, turned away, and strode for the door.
“Good night, Ophelia,” he said over the crying child. “I will see you…” He did not finish his sentence, around the door and striding down the hallway as if fleeing the noise of the crying baby.
It was only once he was alone, able to sit with his thoughts and catch his breath, that Adrian reckoned fully with what he had nearly done. On the surface, it might have seemed right, something to be celebrated and cherished. But as it was Adrian, typically, such revelations were not found.
Rather, he felt disgusted with himself. He felt betrayal. Most of all, he felt untold amounts of guilt. That was not him, nor would it ever be, and to trick Ophelia into thinking otherwise…I truly am the worst of people.
So it was that as Adrian made for his room that he came to a decision, one he promised to keep no matter the circumstances. What had just nearly happened could not happen again. Not for his sake, but for Ophelia’s.
She was, after all, who mattered most to him.
CHAPTER 18
“Might I say that you are rather silent this evening, Vermont?” Rupert noted with a raised eyebrow, a look that was both knowing and mocking. “Quite the feat for you, as silence is a cloak you wear as if winter is an ever-present threat.”
Adrian dismissed his friend with a scoff and then a sip of his brandy.
“Ah, so guessing is the name of the game.” Rupert grinned over the lip of his glass, took a sip, and smacked his lips. “Let me see… what pieces do I have to play with?”
Adrian glared a warning at his friend, even if he knew it would achieve nothing.
He should not have gone to visit Rupert, a mistake he was sure to rue.But what other choice did I have? To hide away in myoffice? To pretend as if Ophelia was not there… as if I was not thinking about her constantly…
No, that was a far worse option. Not that he hadn’t tried it already.
For two days, he had done everything that he could to avoid his wife, to not think about her, and to give the impression that he wanted nothing to do with the woman so that she might take the hint and leave him be.
Although somehow the idea that she might want to avoid him too… that stung in ways that Adrian could not fathom and refused to consider too deeply for fear of what it might reveal.
“I suppose it starts at the beginning, as these things often do,” Rupert began, still smirking to himself. He sat on the sofa across from Adrian, lying back so that his boots were kicked up on the arms of the chair. Between them burned a roaring fire; the flames licking at the stone of the hearth, turning it as black as night. “You married recently, as we all know. A marriage you claim to abhor, only I am not so certain that is true.”
“Will you stop?” Adrian snapped. “I am not in the mood for your mockery.”
“Mockery? Is that what I am doing?”
“You know what you are doing,” Adrian said darkly.
Rupert chuckled. “Now, if you did loathe your marriage as you claim, I wonder what on earth you were doing together at the ball last week? I cannot remember the last time that you attended one, and yet there you were. All eager and keen for the event. If you had it in you to smile, you just might have done that too.”
“I said stop.”
“Appearances, I am sure,” Rupert cooed as he had another sip of his brandy. “That is why you were there. Your marriage was to avoid a scandal, so it might look strange if the two of you hid yourselves away…” He looked pointedly at Adrian.
“That is all it was,” Adrian agreed, another hasty sip. His lies were wearing thin, and he had no doubt that Rupert saw right through them.
“And yet, I do recall the look you fixed me in when I dared to speak with your darling wife,” Rupert noted. “If looks could kill…” He let out a low whistle. “Well, I would not be sitting here, would I? Imagine, finding myself on the other end of one of your famous scowls, and all because I took your wife’s attention from you.”
“I am warning you, Rupert.” He was sure to glare; the flames of the hearth reflected in his eyes, adding a dimension of terror to it.
