Chapter 22
“Adrian, I am not sure about this,” Bridget whispered as she fiddled with her fingers. “Your mother was most upset yesterday. I do not wish for my presence to worsen her disposition.”
Adrian’s hands felt warm and secure as they wrapped around her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
She was still getting used to that—used to a husband that wanted to touch her.
It was all she had pined for over the last five years, yet now that she had it, she still felt wary.
As if it were some sort of horrid trick being played.
This was why, despite everything, she still guarded her heart against Adrian.
It was easier not to mourn something she had never truly possessed.
But now that she had glimpsed what it felt like to be wanted, she was terrified, because losing something she had begun to hope for would shatter her entirely.
“I think you will find her disposition quite different today,” Adrian’s deep voice rumbled as he soothed his large palm up and down her back. “She and I had a most illuminating conversation yesterday evening. I believe she is much changed.”
He pulled her back, just enough so that they could look each other in the eyes. Bridget immediately noticed that the cold, piercing glint in his blue eyes was now much subdued, warmer, somehow deeper.
“However, if it does not go well, I am just in my study down the hall. Come to me immediately if anything goes awry. Do you understand?”
His command was spoken gently, but there was no mistaking that it was indeed a command. If she was going to run, she was to run to him. Again, Bridget thought of how much she had once wanted such an attribute in a husband. And again, she felt hesitant to believe it to be true.
What if it all suddenly changes? What if he loses his interest in me?
“All will be well,” Adrian assured, then he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, then her lips.
Even though it was quick and small, Bridget’s body tingled at the kiss, and she felt her nerves calm a little more.
She smiled a little as he winked at her, then watched him walk away.
Standing alone outside the parlor, Bridget took a deep breath, smoothed her hands down the silk skirts of her mint green gown, and went to meet the dowager.
“There you are, my dear,” Nora said as Bridget stepped into the room.
Bridget was right away startled by the vast difference in the dowager’s appearance alone. Her eyes seemed clearer, her speech less hurried. Bridget watched with wide eyes as the noblewoman came toward her with a graceful walk and a smile.
“I am so happy you agreed to join me today,” the dowager said, taking Bridget’s hands. “My behavior yesterday was ghastly, and I so very much want a chance to make things right between us.”
Bridget shook herself from her startled state and drew on a genuine smile as she allowed Nora to lead her to the table laden with tea and treats.
“Please, Your Grace, there is no need to apologize,” Bridget replied earnestly. “You have suffered so much as of late. I completely understand, given the circumstances, why you would hesitate to bring me into your family.”
“Even so,” Nora said as the two of them took their seats. “You are not responsible for your husband’s actions. You are your own person, and it is only fair that I see you as such.”
Bridget relaxed a little more, feeling grateful for the dowager’s change of heart, and took a sip of her tea.
“I so very much appreciate your words, Your Grace,” Bridget replied. “However, I must tell you that I never planned for this marriage to happen. Nor did I wish to ensnare Adrian or anything of the sort.”
She paused, feeling safe enough to be honest with the woman, then smiled.
“Though I must confess, I did feel a friendship of sorts between the Duke and me bloom almost immediately upon our meeting,” she confessed. “I have never met a man like him.”
Nora’s laugh was warm and genuine as she stirred her tea.
“Of course, you did not ensnare him, my dear. Adrian is far too smart for that,” she replied.
She shook her head, still smiling, and then took a sip of her tea.
“Adrian and Evander, even when they were boys, drew the attention of many young ladies. There had been many times that a few emboldened women attempted to trap either one of them, but my boys were too smart for such tricks. No, my dear, I am absolutely certain that if Adrian married you, it was simply because he wanted to.”
Bridget clung to Nora’s words as if they were a lifeline. She wanted, more than she realized, to accept that Adrian wanted to be with her for who she was, not because of circumstances, but with all that had happened in her past, she felt doubtful. Frightened, even, of being tricked.
“All three of my children have always been willful, you know,” Nora went on as Bridget’s thoughts swirled. “Stubborn too, but in the best possible way a person could be so. Not willing to settle.”
“That is quite admirable,” Bridget replied, and meant it. She had been raised to be the exact opposite, and it had brought her nothing but loneliness and pain.
“Would you tell me about them?” Bridget asked. “I am starting to know Adrian on a deeper level, and I am making friends with Elara, but I do not know much of Evander other than Adrian loved and admired him greatly.”
Nora’s smile was proud as Bridget said so.
“He certainly did,” Nora replied. “Evander would always do what he wanted. He had an innate ability to bend people to his will. In the wrong hands, such a gift would be most dangerous, you know, but my Evander? He had an idea of what was good and right, and he always followed that. It is no wonder that he built such wealth and rose to such popularity among his peers.”
Nora’s smile died a little. She set down her teacup and traced her fingers around its lip. “However, even good people have enemies, and enemies are meant to be crushed. In that aspect, like all others, Evander did not hesitate.”
Bridget grew curious over the dowager’s words, but did not question them. She would find out more in time, she decided, but for now she would simply listen.
“Adrian is the same in the way that he does not stop until he gets what he wants,” Nora went on.
She tsked her tongue as she looked off into the distance and shook her head.
“I fear I did not allow myself to see that in this last year, though. Too heartbroken by Evander’s passing. It was too painful to admit how much they truly were alike.”
Bridget’s heart went out to Nora as she heard the genuine remorse in her voice.
“Adrian loves you, Your Grace,” Bridget said sincerely. “I am sure if you spoke to him about such things, he would find forgiveness for you.”
Nora focused her blue gaze on Bridget and smiled.
“You are a sweet girl,” she told Bridget. “I am starting to see why Adrian adores you so much.”
Bridget could not help but feel deeply satisfied by such words and mentally rejoiced at the information.
“And Elara?” she urged on, wanting the conversation to continue.
“Elara,” Nora said with a sigh.
She got up from the table and walked to the wall of windows facing the side gardens, beckoning Bridget to join her. Bridget did so immediately and saw that Elara and her cousin Caroline were sitting on a bench among the flowers, facing one another in deep conversation.
“Elara, I fear, is my most willful child,” Nora went on. “She is reckless and stubborn. I am only starting to understand just how much of her life she has taken into her own hands while I was in mourning, and though I probably should be mortified, I am rather impressed by her resourcefulness.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I have learned recently that she has been sneaking out to see Caroline, and only God knows what the two of them have been conspiring about,” Nora added with a chuckle.
Bridget let out a small laugh as well and turned to face Nora.
“I must confess, Your Grace, I find your family so very fascinating and refreshing,” she admitted. “It is so vastly different than what I grew up with.”
“Oh?” Nora said, raising an inquisitive brow. She took Bridget’s hand and led her back to the table. “Well, you must tell me. You are my new daughter-in-law, after all, and I would very much like to know you better.”
Bridget’s heart ebbed with warmth, feeling for the first time that she was actually being welcomed into a family instead of forcing herself into it.
Bridget was reveling in the fuss Nora was making over her mother’s brooch when a knock came at the parlor’s door.
They both popped their heads up from taking in the details of the brooch, and Bridget felt a flutter in her stomach when she saw Adrian leaning against the doorframe.
He had his arms folded, his head cocked with curiosity, and a smile on his face that made him appear almost boyish.
“Have you quite finished pestering my wife, Mother?” he asked in a teasing tone.
Nora and Bridget both laughed as Nora swatted the air in his direction.
“Hush, you,” she teased back. “What do you want? Can you not see I am bonding with my beautiful new daughter-in-law?”
Bridget felt her heart swell even more at Nora’s words. In turn, Adrian’s smile grew bigger, and he pushed himself away from the doorframe to stride into the room.
“How goes the day?” he asked, bracing his hands on Bridget’s shoulders.
She beamed up at him.
“Quite well,” she replied earnestly, then looked over at Nora.
“It has indeed,” Nora agreed, reaching out to pat Bridget’s hand.
“I am happy to hear it,” Adrian replied, and Bridget knew he meant it wholeheartedly. However, I must pull my new bride away. We have plans this evening, and we must not be late.”
Bridget looked back up at him, surprised.
“We do?” she asked.
“We do indeed,” Adrian replied, then nodded toward the windows. “And seeing as how the day is fleeing, we must attend to readying ourselves.”
Bridget’s brows furrowed as she felt even more confused, then gasped as she looked toward the windows. The sun was indeed setting, which meant that she and the dowager had been talking for hours without even realizing it.
“Well, I suppose if you have plans,” Nora said with a dramatic sigh as she leaned back into her chair. “I shall let you take her away. But only if you promise to bring her back.”
“I swear it,” Adrian replied, and Bridget smiled as she heard the mirth in his deep voice. “Let’s go.”