Chapter Six
“Are you going to read that letter for a fifth time, or do you have one to send in return?” Lucy asked, leveling an exasperatedly amused smile in Adaline’s direction while she rearranged her front window display.
Adaline’s cheeks flushed, and she quickly refolded the letter from her Mr. Mischief…or Sir Mayhem, as he is now calling himself, and stuffed it into her pocket before pulling out the letter she’d written in return. Lucy took it with another indulgent smile and set it aside.
“Really, I do have other duties aside from playing messenger for the two of you,” Lucy said, though her amused demeanor belied her testy words. “Why don’t you simply tell each other who you are and write to each other properly?”
“Well, that wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining,” Adaline retorted. “And it would be highly improper if we actually knew each other’s identities.”
“It is highly improper regardless,” Lucy muttered, moving to straighten the hats in her window display.
“Isn’t it though?” Adaline said with a mischievous smile. “That’s what makes it so delicious.”
“Ada!” Lucy huffed, then pursed her lips, though with a lovingly indulgent expression that warmed Adaline’s heart. “Would it be so terrible to fall in love the way regular people do? Perhaps you would have better luck if you were a bit more…conventional.”
The warmth that had filled her evaporated.
It was not the first time she had been accused of being unconventional.
Eccentric. Her mother lamented that fact constantly.
It didn’t always bother her. After all, who wanted to be the same as everyone else?
However…it did hurt at times. Especially to be reminded that she might never find someone who would love everything about her.
It was the rare person who saw her eccentricities as beneficial. And it did mark her as other. When despite her differences, she wanted much the same things as any other lady. Security. Freedom. Love. She wanted to belong. To someone. Someone who would see all of her, and love everything they saw.
“Oh Ada,” Lucy said, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “I did not mean to imply there was something wrong with you. You are wonderful.”
Adaline smiled and squeezed her cousin’s hand back. “I know, Lucy. Do not fret. I know you worry for me. But you needn’t. If I am doomed to spinsterhood, I shall simply move in here and spend all my days entertaining you.”
She grabbed a spool of ribbon and spun around, letting the ribbon flutter and wrap around her like a tornado of velvet.
Lucy’s laughter peeled out and she hurried to unravel Adaline from her ribbon cocoon.
“You will be the death of me, Ada.”
Adaline could do naught but laugh. Lucy was typically as unflappable as they came, so Adaline considered the day well spent if she could shake that stoic air Lucy wrapped around herself like a cloak.
“I still must urge caution, though I know you do not wish to hear it. If your parents knew you were writing to a man who is not a relation or your betrothed…” Lucy started.
Adaline let out a long sigh. “I am well aware. Hence the secrecy.”
Lucy snorted. “Hence why I agreed to be your intermediary. I may not agree with your actions, but if you are going to insist upon continuing with this…whatever it is, then I have no choice but to do what I can to minimize the danger to your reputation.”
Adaline gave Lucy a fond smile. “I do appreciate you.”
“Hmm, I should hope so,” she said, though again, her smile softened the tone of her words. “Without me, your reputation would have been in shambles ages ago.”
Adaline covered her mouth to hide her giggle. “I am happy for your success,” Adaline said, fiddling with the ribbon of a hat on the counter near her, “but I do miss seeing you.”
Lucy grabbed a few feathers and a new spool of ribbon and came back around the counter to finish working on the gorgeous bonnet she’d been crafting when Adaline had arrived.
“You see me nearly as much as you did when I lived with you,” Lucy pointed out. “You are here practically every day.”
“It’s not the same,” Adaline said with a sigh.
Lucy just laughed again and shook her head. She’d married a handsome but struggling milliner a mere three years ago, and since then had used her savings to move them to a more desirable location and, in short order, had turned his shop into the most popular millinery in London.
Though Adaline was of course happy for Lucy’s personal and business success, she missed having her steady presence always at her side.
“Oh dear,” Lucy muttered, her eyes creasing in concern as she looked out the window. “Behave yourself, I implore you.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Adaline turned her head to look out the window. “Who is it?”
Lucy’s expression changed to that of a smiling, welcoming patroness as the door opened, tinkling the bell that hung above it.
Adaline sent a vague smile in the direction of the young woman who came through the door, then froze as her gaze met the storm-gray eyes of the man who entered next.
A delicious shiver ran through her, setting her legs to wobbling.
The stranger froze as well, his mouth opening with his sharp intake of breath.
A mouth that pulled into a slow half-grin the longer she stood staring at him.
Lord almighty, but the thoughts that sensual smile planted in her mind.
She dragged in a breath, trying to beat her more inappropriate thoughts back into submission.
Difficult to do with him standing there, towering over her, his coat snug across his broad shoulders that looked more than capable of carrying her off, gazing at her with smoldering eyes that looked as though he wanted to do just that.
Despite the fact that they didn’t know each other from Adam and had never even spoken a word to each other.
Lucy dropped into a quick curtsy. “Miss Archard, it is a pleasure to see you again. I have your bonnet ready.”
“Oh, wonderful,” the sweet looking young miss said.
“Mrs. Harrow,” the gentleman said. “You grow lovelier by the day.”
“Oh,” Lucy said, dipping another curtsy beside her and waving him off, though her cheeks pinkened with a pleased flush.
Adaline, on the other hand, remained bolted to the floor, the words he’d just spoken hitting her like a physical jolt to her heart. His voice wasn’t quite as deep as she expected it to sound. But it had a melodious quality to it that soothed something in her. She could listen to him speak all day.
“You are too kind, my lord, as always. Please,” she said, turning to Adaline with a nervous air that Adaline couldn’t decipher. “Allow me to introduce my cousin, Miss Adaline Girard.”
His face immediately froze, and Adaline frowned. What ailed him? Had she done something wrong?
“Girard?” he asked, any sign of flirtation evaporating.
“Yes,” she said. “Why—”
“Adaline,” Lucy said, resignation stamped all over her face. “Allow me to introduce Miss Amelia Archard. And Lord Hugo…Brelsford.”
Ada inhaled with a sharp gasp that made Hugo visibly wince.
“Brelsford? Lord Hugo?” Her eyes narrowed. “You,” she said, her finger jabbing in his direction as she took a step forward.
He held up his hands and took a step backward. “Me?” he asked, halting himself before she could back him any further toward the door.
“Yes, you.” She stopped advancing, lest she find herself pressed right up against him. That thought oddly tantalized her despite the fury running through her. She shoved that aside and focused on her anger. “It was you who arranged for a betrothal between myself and your brother.”
He blanched slightly. Nothing more than a slight tightening around his eyes. But she noticed. The sight only fueled her rage.
“I was not the one who suggested it,” he said through clenched teeth. “Your brother was the one who came up with the idea.”
“You agreed to it!”
“As a jest. How could I guess your brother would take it seriously?”
“Well, I can assure you, nothing about it was remotely funny.”
He blew a breath out through his nostrils and leaned toward her slightly. “As it was never a formal offer—though it sounds as if you took it that way—I’ll take your opinion of the matter accordingly.”
Her jaw dropped. “My opinion of the matter is the only one of any import.”
“Oh!” he scoffed. “A very ladylike sentiment indeed.”
She glared at him. “This has nothing to do with my genteel qualities—something of which you’d know nothing, you cretin! My opinion is the only which matters in this instance because I alone have suffered harm.”
“You alon—” His mouth dropped open. “Madam, I was challenged to a duel, threatened with the utmost bodily harm in such explicit terms that I have scarce been able to sleep a night since. If that is not harm, then I don’t know wh—”
“Oh, the two are hardly comparable, sir. A challenge is not harmful, especially as you refused to even answer it. My reputation, on the other hand, has—”
“Not suffered one whit, as you are well aware, because my family graciously agreed to keep the matter secret. The embarrassment caused by your and your brother’s actions and gossip can hardly be laid at my door.”
“Oh, it was a good deal more than simple embarrassment, and well you know it. And what else could your family do but keep the matter a secret? Anything else would expose your deplorable natures to all of Society. Despite my humiliation, I would rather have told the world the truth of the matter. It would not only vindicate me but could save countless others. Imagine how many unsuspecting women are likely even now being misled—”
“I assure you, the women of my acquaintance would have a great deal more humor and understanding of the matter and would have recognized it for the innocent frivolity it was. Furthermore, no women I would willingly associate with would have for a moment thought that jest was in any way an actual offer of marriage. The fact that you and your brother did says more about you than—”
“Oh!” Adaline clenched her fists and stomped her foot out of the sheer frustration of being unable to aim it where it was so richly deserved.
“I hadn’t even heard a word about any offer until I started being laughed at right on the street.
I had no knowledge of what my brother had done—or you, as we discovered.
You cannot place any of this blame on me.
You are the cad, sir. The one throwing about offers of marriage, offering assurances that such offers were genuine only to—”
“It would be none the worse for me if the world knew the truth—that you, whether through your brother or not, had accepted such an obviously mock offer. An offer no one with any sense would have for a moment thought was real. And with such insulting alacrity and speed as well!”
“Why you—”
Lucy snatched the spool of ribbon Adaline had been about to throw at his head and pushed between them where they were standing nose-to-nose in full sight of the front window. She glared at them like they were two misbehaving children.
“Unless either of you wish to change the fact that no one else has any idea what has occurred between you, you may want to desist immediately. You are drawing a crowd,” she said, her eyes flicking to the window where several passersby had stopped to look inside, eyes wide with interest.
Adaline gasped and stepped back. Hugo frowned, rubbing a finger over his upper lip as he likewise took a step away from her.
Ada forced a smile to her lips which only made him narrow his eyes before he made a visible effort to clear his face of all expression.
She snorted derisively. As much as she’d like to strangle the man before her with the velvet ribbon Lucy had thrust into her hand as she dragged her back to the counter, Lucy was right.
Her reputation had been salvaged only by a slim margin when the whole debacle had occurred.
Even with her brother’s efforts, there had still been enough whispers that Ada’s prospects had suffered.
The last thing she needed was a scene with one of the Brelsfords to stoke the flames.
She took a deep breath and steeled her expression into one of bland but polite interest as she stared sightlessly at the display of hats before her while Lucy quickly fetched Miss Archard’s hat.
“I am sorry for what my cousins did,” Miss Archard said, leaning close enough to Adaline with a contrite smile. “They are incorrigible, but generally harmless.”
Adaline gave her a strained smile in return. “I must disagree with the harmless part,” she said, her smile turning into a grimace. “But I do appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.”
Miss Archard nodded, accepted her parcel from Lucy, and marched to the door. “Come along, Hugo. Before you cause anymore disasters.”
The only betrayal he made that her words affected him was a slight curl of his nose before he nodded sharply to Lucy and tipped his hat. Those stormy gray eyes focused briefly on Adaline, stealing all the breath from her lungs, before he turned on his heel and followed his cousin out the door.
Ada sagged against the counter, all the energy that had been fueling her seemingly sucked out the door with him.
“Well,” Lucy said with a sigh. “I suppose that was bound to happen at some point. Best that it was somewhat contained, with blessedly few witnesses.”
Adaline frowned. Her cousin wasn’t wrong. Truthfully, it was perhaps odd they had not crossed paths before.
And now that she had met the infuriating man in the flesh…she couldn’t help but wonder—with a disturbing amount of anticipation—what would happen when they next met.