Chapter Twenty-One

A lice felt calmer as soon as she saw the station, even better when she was able to hire a cab from it to her home. Unlike the last time she arrived at Stonely Grange, she didn’t come over the hill on foot, exhausted. Instead, she came in a hired carriage with Jillian by her side.

However, she still held on to the old prevailing fear. Coming face-to-face with Gerald and having him make the same serious threat regarding a murder charge had rocked her to her core. And this time, he thought he could add her husband’s wealth to his vengeful plan.

She would not allow him to taint the pure love she had with Adam. Thus, she was eternally grateful when the safe haven appeared before her at the end of the drive.

“Sweet Mary!” Alice exclaimed when she saw the Grange. Nothing about it looked the least bit dilapidated. Every pane of glass was intact, and if she could believe her eyes, there was a fresh coat of gleaming white paint around the casings. Moreover, the yellow stone of its sturdy walls had been scrubbed to a warm sunny gold.

As she got closer, she could see curtains alongside the windows, no longer blank and unwelcoming. There were no fence pieces down or gates hanging askew. The air of shabbiness had been lifted.

How had the unpaid staff done such a thing?

And when she entered, her mouth dropped open. The change to the interior was even more astounding. In the foyer, there was a hall stand. A mirror and sconces once more hung upon the wall.

“It’s all lovely, my lady,” Jillian said.

Alice could only nod, wandering into the drawing room. Instead of a cavernous space, there was now a sofa upon a plush carpet, as well as a small table with a pillar-base oil lamp perched upon it. Its cheerful ruby glass top would glow beautifully when lit. And as she’d seen from outside, floor-to-ceiling curtains hung at the two front windows and the two side ones as well, ready to keep out the inky black, autumn chill at night.

“It’s a tad spartan for a country home,” her maid said. “Not that I’ve been in many, but I’ve seen a few in my service, like the Diamonds’ place in Derby.”

Again, Alice nodded. Jillian could not possibly appreciate the astounding difference. While still minimally decorated, it was far beyond what it had been in both comfort and charm.

She passed the dining room on her way to the kitchen, glimpsing in and laughing to herself. While it now had a chandelier, curtains, and sconces, the table was the same home-hewn one she’d eaten at months earlier, and the mismatched chairs were also the same.

Jillian laughed. “That’s the oddest grand dining room I’ve ever laid eyes on, my lady. What sort of place have you brought me to?”

After tapping on the kitchen door, Alice entered. Mrs. Georgie’s eyes were like saucers.

“Look who’s here!” she exclaimed, jumping up from her kitchen stool. Jenny also rose to her feet with a startled smile.

Within minutes, however, after Mrs. Georgie had hugged Alice ferociously and been introduced to Jillian, the cook began to scold her.

“You abandoned your new husband? Are you mad?”

“I didn’t abandon him,” Alice insisted, her fingers twisting in the cloth of her skirts. “I came here to save him from having to deal with Lord Fairclough.”

“The one who isn’t dead?” Mrs. Georgie asked.

“Yes, that one. But please, before you berate me any further, tell me about the miracle that has taken place here at the Grange.”

The cook’s smile was as broad as the moon. “Lord Diamond has done it all,” she said. “Well, I don’t mean he came and swept and washed and painted, mind you, but he sent along the blunt so we could do as needed. A right good man, that husband of yours.”

“And the furniture?” she asked.

“Enough blunt for that, too. Told me in a letter to buy a few things, but I didn’t want to pick out much since he said he would bring you back in the spring to furnish it all as you wished.”

Then Mrs. Georgie frowned. “And here you are, thanking him by fleeing your new life. What if he doesn’t come after you?”

“I don’t want him to come after me,” Alice insisted. Did she? If he did, he would drag her back to London, and Gerald would continue his demands.

She would have to go back, eventually. After all, she was a wife with an amorous husband, one whom she adored beyond anything. But how else could she keep her former brother-in-law at bay?

Jillian and Jenny listened to every word with interest, and Alice wished she’d sent the younger women out. Even more so when Mrs. Georgie continued to berate her.

“You are a foolish one, m’lady, and I say that with affection. Naturally, you want Lord Diamond to come after you. And if I know him, and I like to think I am as good a judge of character as anyone else, then he will. He’s probably worried sick over you.”

Alice caught her breath. The last thing she had wanted to do was make Adam worry. By bedtime, he would find the letter she’d left on his pillow under the counterpane. In it, she’d told him of her decision to spend some time at Stonely and how she thought it best to put some distance between her and any trouble.

Naturally, she’d finished with “Love, Alice.” He would understand.

Barely twenty-four hours later, she heard carriage wheels and ran to the front door. In truth, she’d had her ears pricked all afternoon. Sure enough, the same horse-drawn fly she’d used from the station the day before came to a halt in the front of the house.

Running out the door, Alice thought it best to meet her husband head on. As he climbed down from his conveyance, his expression told her he most certainly did not understand.

“Lady Diamond,” he said formally, making her cringe. “I am glad to see you are well.”

“Adam, please, don’t speak like that, as if we are strangers.”

“You behaved like a stranger. I would never have guessed my Alice would let the likes of Fairclough frighten her into leaving her home and her husband.”

She bit her lower lip. She had no defense. Running from Gerald had seemed the most natural thing in the world. Right up until the time Mrs. Georgie told her she was a mad fool.

“Won’t you come inside? It looks much better now, and I know it is because of you. I am so very grateful.”

He merely sighed and nodded to the driver, who had put down a rather small leather bag beside Adam, not the trunk Alice might have expected.

He saw her looking at it. “I am not staying long, only overnight,” he said as he picked it up and gestured for her to lead the way.

“We are returning tomorrow?” she asked, not in the least ready to go back to all the strife in London.

“ We are not. I am going home tomorrow. I did not come with the intent of dragging you back to London as if you were medieval chattel.”

Suddenly, her fear of Fairclough shrank in comparison to her fear of having damaged her marriage to Adam. When she didn’t precede him into the house, he went first, leaving her to trail behind.

Barely glancing at the work that had been done, Adam wandered into the drawing room, dropped his bag, and waited.

Since the only place for her to sit was the single sofa, she sat there. Yet he didn’t take the space beside her.

“I need to stand a bit after the journey,” he explained. “If you don’t mind, we can talk while I remain on my feet.”

“I do not mind at all. I had the same feeling yesterday and went for a long walk. If you would rather —”

He shook his head, cutting her off. “This is fine. But I shall ring for a cup of coffee. Do you wish for anything?”

She ought to have offered him a refreshment herself rather than forgetting the most basic of good manners.

“No, I need nothing,” she said as he tugged the bell-pull. She simply wanted to begin the discussion for which her husband had come a long way.

All at once, she realized they were both waiting for someone who wasn’t coming.

Jumping up, she said, “Stay here, and I’ll go get you a cup.”

She saw when it dawned upon him, and he nodded.

“Ale will be fine and quicker.”

Alice fairly flew down the hallway.

“Mrs. Georgie, he came!” she announced as soon as she entered the kitchen where the cook sat alone reading the paper. “He wants a glass of ale.”

Then, without waiting, she dashed to the buttery and took one of the best glasses that remained, uncorked a jug of cool ale from the tile floor, and filled it.

“Is that why the bell went off?” Mrs. Georgie asked, pointing at the line of bells high on the wall.

“Indeed. We forgot momentarily that we don’t have staff.”

“Oh, but you do. His lordship has been paying us wages to keep the place. But Jenny’s not in, and I’ve never taken food nor drink out to the drawing room before. I should have realized and come a running.”

“No matter, don’t worry,” Alice assured her. “We can manage.”

With that, she hurried along with the glass in hand, not even bothering with a tray. When it sloshed over her hand, she swore under her breath but managed to appear calm as she reentered the drawing room.

The sight of him, the handsome man she’d married, not smiling at her entrance shook her and set her heart to pounding. He had always looked pleased to see her until that moment.

After thrusting the glass into his hand and shaking the liquid off her own, she backed away.

“A good thing you chose the ruse of governess and not a tavern wench for you spilled more than remains.”

It was said in jest, yet was strangely mirthless. Adam Diamond was angry. Swallowing, she resumed her seat.

“Let me begin,” she offered. “I know you are upset that I left.”

“Indeed,” he said quietly.

“When I agreed to marry you, I vowed never to bring my old troubles to your door, nor let you or your family be affected. Removing myself from London in the same way as I did when I first went to Bath, that was the only way I knew to stop Lord Fairclough.”

“It solved nothing,” Adam said. “You forget that your troubles became my troubles once we wed. As they should. Meanwhile, I’ve told my brothers-in-law everything.”

Alice felt instantly sick inside to have lost their good opinion of her. Naturally, the husbands would talk to their wives, and then Clarity and Purity would disclose her ugly past to the rest of the family. “What did you tell them?”

“I explained how Fairclough persists in his accusations that you lured your husband into marrying you and then killed him. In fact, the oaf warned me against you while at the same time saying either I should pay up or see you go to jail.”

She felt the blood drain from her head. “He is a liar.”

“I know that. Thus, there was no reason for you to run away.”

“It was the perfect reason to run,” she said. “I thought ... I thought I could protect you by leaving.” What choice did she have? She was powerless otherwise.

Adam narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you tell me why you fear Fairclough’s charges?”

“Richard died at my feet, his forehead bloodied from falling down the stairs and his neck twisted. I told you that. Who would believe I hadn’t hit him over the head with a candlestick or pushed him from the landing as his brother likes to believe?”

She rose to her feet again, her hands twisting in her skirts, and began to pace.

“I tell you truthfully, there had been times when I had dreamed of doing precisely that. Not that I ever would, but I could imagine doing nearly anything to be free of him. Yet when he died, with his eyes open and lifeless, staring up at me from the foyer of his mistress’s home, I actually felt sorry for him.”

“That was a mistake,” Adam said in clipped tones. “If there is one thing that has blurred your clarity in this matter, it is emotion.”

She sighed. Privately, she thought she had done very well in considering her options and hiding out as a governess. She’d made a plan to do something so foreign to her upbringing, it had taken all her resolve. And yet, she’d accomplished it and could have remained hiding for the rest of her days if Adam hadn’t come along and made her love him.

What’s more, she was prepared to remain at Stonely Grange for the rest of her life if Gerald would only leave her husband alone.

“At home the night of his death,” Alice continued, “I felt utter relief, wicked as that might be, knowing Richard was never again going to stumble through the front door, smelling of other women’s cloying perfume and the distinct aromas of swiving and strong liquor. I thought the nightmare of a mistaken marriage and a dreadful husband were behind me. I thought I was free.”

“And then his brother showed up,” Adam prompted.

“Indeed. Before my hypocritical widow’s weeds were even ordered, Gerald came knocking with loud accusations, demands for payments of his brother’s debts, and the information that Richard had given his brother permission to sell everything in our London house and to sell off the Grange, too.”

She still shivered when recalling Gerald’s fearsome rage at being thwarted in the latter, the same way Richard was infuriated by the inability to sell her house and land. She had been exceedingly grateful for the legal trust that kept Stonely Grange in the family.

“When he couldn’t sell this place, he emptied it instead. But still it wasn’t enough to pay off the debts, or so he said. Even if it had been, I don’t think it would have kept Gerald from pestering me. He so desperately wants everything to be my fault, anyone’s but his precious older brother’s.”

“I understand your decision when you were alone two years ago, but as my wife, you should have trusted me.” Adam drank down the ale and finally took a seat beside her. Alice wished things were different, and she could simply lean toward him and be assured of a kiss rather than rejection.

Adam had swallowed his anger along with the good homemade ale. For obvious reasons, Alice had not felt comfortable going straight to the police as soon as Fairclough started to threaten her. That didn’t excuse her running away rather than counting on him, but he could, at the very least, set her mind at ease.

“You were Fairclough’s property, and thus, you could not be responsible for his debts, nor even your own in most cases. I thought I made that clear to you before.”

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Is that true? Gerald maintains —”

“Gerald can go to hell,” he blurted, then at her wide-eyed look of alarm, he calmed himself. “The laws that restrict you from owning property or signing a business contract also protect you. I know the laws of Great Britain seem to treat you as a child or even an inanimate object at times, but I swear that many of us are trying to change them in Parliament. In the meantime, they protect you from your husband’s debts.”

“I see.”

Accepting his words, applying this information to what she thought was true, Alice looked so adorable, he wanted to relent and kiss her. But his heart ached at her mistrusting him and running as if she could easily bear a life apart.

Then she added, “But he can still have me charged with murder.”

“He cannot. Foxford easily located Fairclough’s mistress because the man knows that world, which is not a mark of distinction for Purity’s husband but useful in this instance. And Hollidge determined the woman is willing to testify on your behalf. Even now, he has composed a letter for her to sign, telling the new Lord Fairclough to scuttle off, except in legal terms. The rat should be receiving it soon.”

Her expression came over utterly stunned. “They did all that for me?”

“We are family,” he reminded her, wondering how long it would be before she understood what that signified. “I have tried to make you believe that and to trust me. Until you do, we are husband and wife in name only.”

Her silvery-green eyes widened, then she looked at her lap and nodded. He could tell the notion of depending upon him still seemed an unfamiliar and dodgy one at best. Moreover, she had proven she preferred to cut stick rather than to stay and fight.

Adam could not change her nature, nor perhaps could she. But he would remain hopeful Alice could change her mind. Inside her was a loving, passionate woman who wanted a family and wanted to trust others — he believed it was so, especially after seeing her blossom under the attention of his parents and sisters. Berating her for leaving him wouldn’t help at all.

“I came to tell you all this in person, as a letter seemed insufficient to the importance of the message. But I did not come here to drag you back to London. You must only come when you’re ready to return and be my wife, no longer looking back at the past.”

He smiled gently and leaned over to tap the side of her head — for it seemed to him she had let her former husband and his brother remain in her thoughts — but he couldn’t think of what more to say.

“I don’t want to be tangled up with the Faircloughs any longer,” she vowed.

With a finger under her chin, Adam turned her to face him.

“May I kiss you, Lady Diamond?”

She nodded.

He took her beloved face in his hands and claimed her lips, hoping she realized she need never feel alone and unsupported again. But it had to come from within her. He’d done all he could. The decision was hers.