Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A delaide let out a wordless cry and whipped her head up to look into Kem's dear, dear face. She nodded, though her breaths were coming in such shuddering waves, she doubted whether he would be able to tell.

"Come." With a strong but gentle grip on her elbow, Kem steered her towards the far side of the room. People melted out of their path as they had refused to do before, all of them lowering their eyes after one glance at Kem. Adelaide fancied he must be glowering something rotten to have such an effect on everyone.

"You rescued me again," she mumbled, still vastly discomposed. "You always rescue me. I do not deserve it."

Kem gestured for two people blocking a doorway ahead of them to step aside but did not answer her.

"Your sister told me you had decided not to come."

She thought he would not reply to this either, but once they were through the door, he said quietly, "I could not stay away. More fool me, I decided I would rather suffer the misery of being your friend than never see you again."

Something in his voice made Adelaide look up at him in surprise. He was not glowering at all; he was smiling. It was not his usual, broad, knee-buckling smile, but a small, private expression of barely restrained happiness. Hope erupted with palpable force in Adelaide's heart.

"You are my friend!" she exclaimed in a frantic whisper. "The dearest and best friend I have ever had." Conscious of all the attention being directed their way in this new room, she added, more cautiously, "Though, you might wish to reconsider being my friend now. I think I am about to be London's biggest scandal."

"Was anything revealed that I did not already know about you when I said I would call on you at Chiltern Court?"

"Well, I have just been jilted."

"Even better." He looked down at her, his funny little smile doing something quite scandalous to her insides. "Did you truly not know why I was coming?"

"No, because I thought I knew why you were going —to get married. And before you say it, it was not such a stupid assumption when you consider that, until recently, I did not know you had a sister, no one ever told me she was getting married, and for as long as I have known you, I have thought you were engaged to somebody else."

Surprise, incredulity, and comprehension played across his countenance, ending with a small chuckle and a shake of his head. They had reached another door, and he directed her through it, into what transpired to be the stair hall. "Well, I never was," he said, leading her down the stairs, away from the principal reception rooms. "Unlike you."

"Yes, but only for a few days. I am sure it does not count."

He did smile his wonderful smile then—and laughed aloud to boot. Pulling her close to him, he leant to whisper in her ear, "I am so in love with you."

Without a doubt, Adelaide would have fallen down the stairs were it not for Kem's firm grip on her arm. As it was, she gasped and blushed and generally fumbled her way down the rest of the steps, drawing more than one curious glance from everyone who was ascending from the vestibule below.

Kem paused at the bottom to speak quietly to a footman and surreptitiously pass him something. Adelaide knew from experience that it was likely a tip, and she guessed it must be a large one when the footman led them towards the back of the house, provided them with a lit candle, and stealthily shepherded them into what appeared to be Lord or Lady Ardley's book room.

It was on the tip of Adelaide's tongue to say she did not think Lady Tipton would approve of her being closeted in a room with a man, unchaperoned. Then she recalled what had just occurred upstairs and decided it scarcely signified. Besides, other than Oakley, nobody had ever taken better care of her than Kem. She would willingly go wherever he led her.

And where he led her was a state of intoxicating delight that took her wholly by surprise and left her breathless and giddy. Which was to say that the moment the door was closed, he kissed her. Her aunt would most certainly not have approved of that—but Patty would. Adelaide rejoiced at having finally discovered that happiness of which her friend had so often spoken—the sheer joy of being held, of being wanted, but moreover, of being loved .

"Marry me, Adelaide," Kem said against her lips. "I am not strong enough to wait for you any longer. It near broke me when you said yes to that imbecile, Hanson."

"I am so very sorry. I had no idea you loved me."

He pulled back slightly and looked at her. "That is because you never think anyone will love you. Marry me, and I shall tell you every day for the rest of your life how dear you are to me. You will never be able to doubt it."

"Oh Kem, I could never doubt your affections. Not now, when I finally understand what you have done for me. Though I confess, I do wonder how you arrived at them when all you have ever seen of me is a petulant little girl, forever running away from her troubles."

He cupped her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "What I see, when I look at you—what I have seen, since the very first time we met—is the most beautiful, the most courageous, the most indomitable woman I have ever known. I have never met anybody as uncowed by life as you. Do you remember showing me your knife at High Brook?"

Adelaide winced. "Yes. You laughed at me."

"No!" He took her gently by the shoulders, his eyes never leaving hers. "No, Adelaide, I was amazed by you. I have continued to be amazed by you from that moment on. Though, I first knew I loved you when you came downstairs in your blue gown at Chiltern Court."

Adelaide remembered how he had stared at her. She also recalled that he had been the only one to mention how the dress accentuated her eyes, and it occurred to her that perhaps it had been Kem who inadvertently began the rumour about her ‘bewitching fey appearance', which had brought Mr Hanson to Chiltern Court to win her.

"I wish I had known," she whispered.

He smiled indulgently. "You were not ready to hear it. I would never have imposed on you—or Oakley—so soon after your lives were turned upside down. But my heart has been yours ever since." He let go of her shoulders and ran his hands in a feather-light touch down her arms but ultimately relinquished the contact and took a step away from her.

"When I left the next morning, I went directly to Sophia to tell her I could never marry her. The alliance would doubtless have pleased both our families, but we had no great affection for one another, and once I met you…it was impossible. I knew, even if I could not make you love me, I could never feel about her the way I felt—the way I feel —about you."

"But you have made me love you!" Adelaide closed the distance he had put between them and reached for his hands. Less urgently and more earnestly, she repeated, "I do love you."

She thought it would make him happy. He only grew intensely serious.

"Is that a yes? "

"I thought I had already said yes."

He shook his head silently.

"Then, yes! With all my heart, yes!"

He lunged to wrap her in his arms so swiftly that she let out a squawk of surprise. His lips were a hair's breadth away from hers when the door creaked open.

"Adelaide? Are you in there?"

Without looking away from her, Kem called out "No!" and reached sideways to shove the door closed again.

"That was Oakley," Adelaide whispered.

"I know," Kem replied, grinning, and kissed her.

Adelaide wished her brother would not persist, for Kem's attentions were heavenly, but she knew he would and was not surprised to hear the door open again.

"Hey, hey! What in blazes is this? Get your hands off my cousin this instant—Good God, Kem? Is that you?"

Adelaide felt instantly sorry for her brother; he looked caught between outrage and dismay and evidently knew not what to say. She took pity on him.

"Pray, do not be angry. Kem has asked me to marry him." Seeing it had done nothing to lessen either his fury or his confusion, she added, "Mr Hanson has broken with me."

"I know! It is all anyone is talking about upstairs. That and the fact that you used to be a housemaid. I have been searching everywhere for you, imagining you must be distraught, and all the while you were…" He gestured at them both expressively. "What the devil are you doing here, Kem?"

It was to everybody's advantage that Oakley was of such a good-humoured disposition, it took very little explanation to transform his violent indignation into heartfelt delight.

"I could not be happier for you both! And for myself, truth be told, for you were right, Adelaide, when you said Hanson is better in small doses. I had no idea, previously, of quite how irritating the fellow could be."

Seeing Kem's dour expression, Adelaide declared that there ought to be an embargo on the subject of Mr Hanson for the rest of the evening. "Will Lord and Lady Tipton be pleased to have such a nephew?" she asked instead.

"I should say!" Oakley replied, slapping Kem affably on the back. "They think the world of this one. I daresay they would have married him to me if they had been able."

"That is well. If they are pleased with me for securing a husband they like better, they might be less angry about Benedict telling everybody I used to be a maid. After all the trouble they have taken to keep it a secret, I cannot believe they will not be incensed."

"If they are, it will not be with you," Oakley assured her. "That was no one's fault but Booker's."

Adelaide felt Kem slide his hand into hers and loved him all the more for knowing when she needed his assurance.

"It is better this way," he said. "You would not have wanted such a secret hanging over you indefinitely."

"But will there not be talk?"

"For a while, I am sure," Oakley agreed. "But you are a Richmond. That counts for an awful lot."

Kem squeezed her hand and gave her a gentle tug towards him so he could kiss the top of her head. "And soon, you will be the Countess of Kemerton. And then nobody will care who you were before."

She smiled, though weakly. It was not for herself that she was worried. "But they said Oakley would never find anyone now."

"They have been saying that about me since I was twelve!" her brother declared, laughing. "What say we really give them all something to talk about? Who fancies a game of whist?"

Adelaide shook her head violently. "I do not want to see Benedict again."

"You won't—he has been kicked out. Literally," her brother said with a grin. "Lady Ardley did not take kindly to the scene he caused and had him and Peterson—who brought him along—both ejected. Only, Booker refused to leave, so Lady Ardley had her footmen encourage him. I told you—all hell has been breaking loose upstairs while you two have been hiding down here."

Adelaide's relief was great, though not complete. "What about Mr Hanson?" she asked cautiously.

Kem made a noise of disgust and said darkly, "Let me worry about him."

To her amusement, Oakley caught her eye and arranged his features into a vastly diverting expression which clearly indicated that this did not bode well for Mr Hanson. It endeared them both to her—Oakley, for colluding with her as only a true brother would, and Kem for protecting her as he had been doing from the very first moment of their acquaintance .

"With pleasure," she replied, and indicated that they should lead the way back upstairs.

It was with no little trepidation that Adelaide entered the card room, despite being flanked on either side by two of the highest-ranking men in attendance. The room fell silent, and she thought her skin might ignite from the heat of her embarrassment, but Kem pressed her hand—tucked into the crook of his arm—tightly against his side as they walked to the tables.

To her vast relief, Mr Hanson was nowhere to be seen. There were a few familiar faces, however. It seemed the upper set had settled in now that the fringes of their circle had been scared off, and every one of them watched as their party approached.

"Will you join us, my lords?" came a voice from the farthest table.

Adelaide knew not whether to be relieved or doubly wary that their hostess had issued the invitation. It was her soiree, after all, that had been overtaken by the sensation of ‘the Richmond girl's unmasking'. It would be at her ladyship's signal that her guests were either scandalised or titillated by the goings-on.

Lady Ardley was already partnered, and after a brief discussion, it was agreed that Adelaide would sit out, while Kem and Oakley made up the table. She pulled up a chair between them to watch.

"Been a lively evening so far, I hear, Kem," the fourth player, Lord Worthe, said airily.

"Certainly memorable," he replied without pause, causing his friend to raise an eyebrow.

Nothing more was said while the cards were dealt and the bidding begun, at which point Kem, and then Oakley, both raised the ante.

"High stakes all round, gentlemen?" Lady Ardley asked.

"Not at all," Kem replied. Turning his head to look at Adelaide in a way that nobody could have misinterpreted, he added, "This one is a safe bet."

"Hear, hear!" Oakley agreed.

Lord Worthe regarded Adelaide for a moment, then shrugged, winked at her, and threw his money in, too. Lady Ardley, more sedately, followed suit. A ripple of chatter ran amongst the onlookers, breaking the tension.

Oakley grinned at Adelaide. Kem pressed his knee against hers and smiled his bone-melting smile. And with her brother on one side, her beloved on the other, and the rest of the world having to fight through them to get to her, Adelaide knew she was where she belonged at last.