He was nodding even as she finished her sentence. “I realize that,” he said as he turned for the keep again. “I will seek my father’s counsel in the matter.”
Thomas headed off towards the keep, moving swiftly away from her to keep her from arguing with him. He passed through to the inner bailey and was nearly to the stairs that led up to the keep when he heard something behind him and turned to see that Adelaide was following him. He stopped.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
She looked at him expectantly. “I am going with you so that we may speak with your father.”
He shook his head. “I will speak to him alone. Go back to the hall and I shall find you there later.”
Adelaide sighed sharply. “Why can I not come? We will be discussingmywedding andmyfather.”
The familiar annoyance with the woman was starting to flood his veins. “Adelaide, let me be plain,” he said with thin patience. “You cannot always have what you want. In this family, the menmake the decisions and the women do what they are told. I told you to go back into the hall, and you shall. Do whatever it is women do in preparation for a wedding and let me talk to my father alone.”
He took the steps, but Adelaide remained at the base of them, watching him. “I will not be cast aside,” she called after him. “My father permitted me to help with his decisions and I shall do the same for you. I am no one to be trifled with, Thomas, and I will not allow you to continue to show me such disrespect.”
Thomas didn’t even answer her. He wouldn’t argue with a fool but, with every step he took, he was feeling sicker and sicker to his stomach. He was going to have to deal with that woman for the rest of his life and he was certain it was because God was punishing him for all of the sins he’d committed, for the men he’d killed and the women he’d widowed and the bastards he’d produced. EverythingDhiib aleasifahad ever done, everything Thomas de Wolfe would ever do.
It was the only explanation.
God wasn’t going to let him be happy.
Once inside the cool, dark keep, he shut the door behind him as if to block out Adelaide. She hadn’t come up the stairs behind him, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to. He knew his father was up in the master’s chamber, so he set his sights on that, but as he headed for the stairwell, he passed the chamber that Desmond used.
The one that Maitland had stayed in during her brief visit.
The door was closed but it brought him to a halt. He’d passed the door many times since Maitland had departed Wark but, every time, the sight of the door brought back memories of a woman who had captured his attention. Their week of separation had done nothing to cure those feelings. If anything, they’d only grown stronger.
He paused by the door, putting his hand on the jamb and running his fingers over it as he thought on the lovely woman with the reddish-brown eyes. Life was such a cruel thing sometimes. But as he sadly turned away from the door, thoughts lingering on Maitland, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and the dagger he always kept on his belt was abruptly unsheathed. He lifted it just in time to see Adelaide’s German nurse nearly on top of him. Startled, he jumped back, away from her, as she gasped.
“Verzeihen!” the woman cried. “Forgive me,mein herr. I did not mean to startle you!”
Realizing he wasn’t about to be gored by a petite old woman, he sheathed his dagger. “No harm done,” he said.
He tried to push past her and go up the stairs, but she stopped him. “Mein Herr,” she said quickly. “I must speak to you. Please.”
Thomas wasn’t in the speaking mood but he paused, out of courtesy. “What could you possibly have to say to me?”
The woman appeared nervous,verynervous. Her fingers, her jowls, everything about her was trembling. “There is not much time,” she said in her heavy accent. “I must tell you about Lady Adelaide.”
“What about her?”
The woman was beginning to look distressed on top of being nervous. “WhereisLady Adelaide?”
Thomas lifted his big shoulders. “Outside,” he said. “I left her at the bottom of the stairs. I assume she is going back to the hall. Why do you ask?”
The woman put her hand to her mouth. “Gott hilf mir,” she whispered. Then, she looked up at Thomas, utter terror in her eyes. “God help me, she is not who she seems. Be very careful,mein herr. She can kill you.”
Normally, Thomas would have disregarded such rantings, but something in the woman’s eyes made him take notice. “What are you talking about?”
The woman glanced anxiously at the keep entry before continuing. “I must tell you what I know,” she said. “While theherrwas alive, I could not, but now that he is dead, I fear only Adelaide, and I trust that you will not tell her what I say.”
“What do you have to say?”
The woman leaned towards him, lowering her voice. “That she has planned for you,” she whispered. “Adelaide has been betrothed to two men in the past and she killed both of them.”
Thomas looked at the old woman as if she’d gone daft. “What?”
But the woman nodded steadily. “It is true,” she said. “At first, she was fond of them, but then she grew bored. She pushed one down the stairs, and the other one, she poisoned. Her father took the bodies away and buried them in the storage vault. He told the families that the young men had run away. But she killed the second man after she had seen you in Carlisle. She told me about it. You were there with other lords at a great gathering, and she had also attended with her father. Do you not remember seeing her?”
