Chapter 6 #2
“My good man, what is the matter with you this evening?” Richard asked bluntly, squinting at Adrian with suspicion in his eyes. “I thought it was your usual recalcitrance, your usual ‘warming up’ to conversation, but you are elsewhere entirely. I can see it on your face.”
Adrian sniffed. “Nonsense. I am completely myself.”
“It is a woman,” Richard said with a delighted, almost boyish gasp.
“I am right, am I not? You have rejected my offer because you already have a woman here, to spend the festive season with! That is why you have been so strange this evening. You are hiding a delicious little secret, somewhere in this castle!”
“No,” Adrian replied a note too quickly. “No, that is not true at all.”
But Richard was already on his feet, glass in hand, hurrying out of the smaller drawing room—situated within the opposite wing to where Jarvis had tried to hide Valerie—like a hound who had caught a scent.
Groaning under his breath, Adrian got up and followed. Let us hope she has obeyed my rules tonight.
According to Mrs. Mullens, Valerie had taken her luncheon and evening meal in her chambers, so it stood to reason that the beautiful young woman with the wild green eyes, tormenting silhouette, and willing mouth would be in her room.
A place that even Richard would not dare to go, for though he did as he pleased in some regards, he did not enter private rooms without permission.
So, it came as something of an infuriating disappointment when Adrian heard a woman’s bright laughter echoing down the hallway.
“I knew it!” Richard cheered, in fierce pursuit of the sound.
The man’s determination took them all the way to the eastern wing, that laughter growing louder as the gentlemen passed across the entrance hall.
Indeed, to Adrian’s grim dismay, it appeared they were heading straight for the same drawing room where Valerie would have slept and left if he had not been so quick to anger.
If I had just permitted it, albeit reluctantly, she would be on her way to Scotland by now…
He neglected to remember that the storm, and the still falling snow, would still have prevented her. All he could think was how his behavior had been the catalyst for that morning’s disaster; the dangerous and all-consuming desire that he had only just managed to pull away from.
“This is ridiculous,” Adrian said, a few paces behind Richard. “There is no woman. We are wasting perfectly good port and warmth for nothing.”
Giddier laughter brought a grimace to his lips.
“If I were not so delighted, I would be furious with you for lying to me,” Richard tossed back over his shoulder, pressing on toward that drawing room.
Half a hallway from the door to that room, Adrian was struck by a sudden and violent thrum of anger.
Fury that his friend was not listening to him.
A bristling exasperation that Richard would stride into that room, introduce himself to Valerie, and charm her in an instant.
He was another of those kinds of people: the kind with a demeanor that drew people to him; the kind who could win anyone’s favor upon first meeting; the kind of man who could have any woman that he desired.
Despite that, Richard was someone that Adrian had not hated, had never hated, until that moment. It was that feeling that made Adrian quicken his pace, until he had passed Richard completely, and put himself in front of the drawing room door. Blocking his friend.
Get a hold of yourself, man! Adrian’s mind sternly reprimanded, cooling the simmer of his abrupt ire.
What did it matter of Richard did charm Valerie? She was not Adrian’s. He did not want her to be his, or so he insisted to himself. And, besides, Richard was due to be married, he would not be so bold as to have an affair before the wedding.
“Do not let me stop you from making a fool of yourself,” Adrian said, as he pushed the door open himself.
The laughter in the room died, two figures standing up sharply from the settee and the armchair, respectively.
Valerie was not there. It was just Mrs. Mullens and Jarvis, enjoying a moment’s respite. Adrian had permitted them the use of this particular drawing room, for he never bothered with it, which was precisely why Jarvis had thought Valerie would not be noticed if she stayed there.
“You see,” Adrian said to Richard, who wore a look of utter disappointment.
“I maintain that you have been strange all evening,” Richard replied, stalking back out of the room.
He would not have allowed his staff to have a drawing room all their own—another of his seemingly random rules of what was proper and what was not.
Adrian gave a nod of acknowledgement to the butler and the housekeeper and closed the door on them in order, so they could resume their peaceful evening.
“I have not been well,” Adrian said. “I did not tell you sooner because you came all this way, and it would not have been polite.”
Richard halted and spun around, frowning at his friend. “Unwell? How so?”
“I am not a physician; how should I know?” Adrian replied grumpily. “What I do know is that I am in no condition for visitors. You should go on to Roseby’s and return after Christmas, or you shall have a rather miserable, solitary festive season. The New Year, perhaps.”
John Roseby, the Marquess of Matfen, was another schoolfriend of theirs. Adrian had not seen the man in years, but he knew that Richard always visited Roseby for the New Year.
“It would simply be a matter of reversing your usual schedule, and I know Roseby would be glad to have you,” Adrian added, anxious to have Richard sent as far from Blackwall Castle as possible, as soon as possible. Before he could set eyes on the woman that Adrian did have hidden there.
Richard’s mouth twisted in consternation. “I suppose it is not so far… but I came here to see you.”
“And you will, once I am more myself,” Adrian insisted. “Do not make a bad host out of me, Richard. Come on New Year’s Eve, and I shall hear every tale you might wish to tell me, with at least a few words of encouragement.”
Richard hesitated. “If you can promise you will not be so morose, I shall depart.”
“I promise,” Adrian replied, his hand to his heart.
Richard smiled. “Well then, what do you say we finish that bottle of port, and I shall prepare to leave at first light?”
“A sound notion,” Adrian said, hoping that his friend could not see the fierce relief that swept through his veins.
Indeed, he had no hope of sleeping tonight anyway, not with such perennial thoughts of Valerie tangling in his mind. And after his dismissal of her, he was mostly certain that she would not venture downstairs tomorrow morning until Richard was long gone.
From dawn tomorrow, I must be the one to sequester myself. He exhaled a stilted breath. I must stay far, far away from that woman, lest she unleash the beast in me once more.
In starving himself of touch and human contact, he had not realized how ravenous that beast could be, and now that it had sampled a taste, he could not trust himself not to devour her completely.