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“Charles is well,” said Margot, a soft smile replacing her worried ex-pression as she spoke of her son and the much-loved Benson heir. “He is the brightest little boy.”
“I look forward to meeting him one day. Perhaps you could bring him with you on your next trip,” she said.
“Or maybe you could come to London,” suggested Margot.
“I’m afraid that with Guy’s new hotel, it will be some time before we can travel,” said Adele.
“But surely he has people who manage the Andalusian and the Colorado Grand for him,” said Margot.
“He does, but there will never be anyone else who will care for it quite as carefully as he will,” Adele said. “He also had plans for a new venture, a mountain lodge in the San Gabriel Mountains where people may hike in the summer and ski in the winter.”
“Goodness, that does sound active,” said Margot.
“There is a great craze for health here. Along with citrus, it is what practically built this city.”
Margot gave her a look Adele couldn’t quite read, but then said, “Well, I shall be glad to learn of it. Now, whom am I to meet while I am here?”
“Why don’t we look at the guest list for the ball, and I can tell you about every one of them?” Adele suggested.
“I would love nothing more,” said Margot.
chapter twenty-one ADELE
The morning of the Colorado Grand Hotel’s opening, there was a knock at Adele’s bedroom door just a moment before it flew open and Guy strode in like a whirlwind. She suppressed a sigh. She’d long ago stopped asking him to pause and wait for her to welcome him before entering.
“Why should I have to wait to see my wife?” he’d asked in those early months just after they’d married.
“Because I might be indisposed,” she said.
That had only made him laugh. “Indisposed?”
“I might be dressing,” she’d said, because it had still seemed extraordinary that any man should have the right to enter her bedroom, let alone see her in a state of undress.
Guy had slid his arms around her waist and pulled her to him and murmured against her lips, “Then I’ll help you undress again.”
That first time, she’d let him kiss her and then take her to her bedroom, locking the door against the servants milling about the huge house.
Then, about a year into their marriage, she realized that it had been some time since her husband had taken it upon himself to seduce her in the middle of the day. She hadn’t minded, really. It meant far less bother having to ring her lady’s maid, Maggie, to help her back into her clothes or to fix her hair again.
“Dearest,” said Guy in his booming voice.
Adele exchanged a look with her maid in the mirror. “Will you please ensure my gloves and hat are ready, Maggie?”
The maid bobbed a curtsey and hurried out of the room.
Adele twisted in her chair and pinned her husband with a look. “I thought you were going to wear the navy suit.”
“It’s too somber,” he said, brushing something off the lapel of his light gray suit.
She frowned at his tailoring. “It is a serious occasion, darling.”
“When will you be ready?” he asked, ignoring her.
“I would have been only five minutes more if you hadn’t interrupted me. Do you have your speech?”
“Right here,” he said, patting his jacket pocket.
She’d been surprised and flattered in equal measure when Guy had asked her to read the speech he intended to deliver at the grand opening. It was rare that her husband consulted her on matters of business that did not involve which potential or current investors should be squeezed into the table plan for whichever party she was planning at any given moment.
