Adam's Promise Read Online Free PDF Page B

explanative tone one more time, she might decide to swim back to Yorkshire!
    â€œSo, you’ll be my aunt, then?” Penelope said.
    Despite the setbacks, Madeline couldn’t help smiling at the girl. “I suppose I will be.”
    â€œWill you be living with us, too?”
    Madeline tried to imagine living here after Diana arrived, married Adam and became stepmother to these children.
    Could she live here, too? As the spinster aunt?
    She glanced up at Adam’s handsome face, noticed the line of his strong jaw, caught the scent of his shaving soap.
    No, definitely not.
    â€œI’m just visiting,” she replied.
    â€œFor how long?”
    â€œVery briefly.”
    â€œHow briefly?”
    Thank goodness the housekeeper stepped forward and cut off the interrogation. “You must be exhausted after your journey, Miss Oxley. The crossing wasn’t too unpleasant, I hope?”
    She was the first person not to make Madeline feel like a huge human blunder. “As smooth as can be expected.”
    â€œLet me show you to your room. You can freshen up and rest a while, then you can meet Mary.”
    â€œMy daughter-in-law,” Adam offered.
    He gave Madeline a melancholy look that she wished she could read. Was it an apology for their awkward beginning? Or was it simply disappointment that Diana had not arrived?
    He nodded at her, and she knew he was passing his duty over to the others. He was finished with her.
    Madeline followed Mrs. Dalton to the staircase, peered surreptitiously over her shoulder at her once future husband.
    Without a backward glance, he walked out the door.
    Â 
    The afternoon sun moved across the sky and glistened outside Madeline’s lace-covered window, shining in her eyes and waking her from her nap.
    She stared dazedly at the dappled light upon her quilt. It was a muted, golden glow, unlike anything she’d ever seen in Yorkshire, and she wondered how in the world the sun could be different here, when it was exactly the same sun.
    Sitting up, she yawned and realized how exhausted she was after the long journey and the horrible, mortifying end to everything. She hadn’t taken any lunch; she just hadn’t felt like eating. Not that she was pouting. She was never one to wallow in self-pity. All she’d wanted to do was drift into a deep, rehabilitating sleep, then wake up and feel ready to begin again.
    But as she looked around the bedchamber at the dainty writing desk in the corner—stocked with stationery and a goose quill pen next to a bottle of ink, and a silver candelabra with five new white wax candles just waiting to be lit after sunset—she knew the room had been lovingly prepared for Diana. Madeline found herself, at that moment, quite unable to pick herself up, as she usually did, and dust herself off.
    She thought about Diana then. How everyone loved her and praised her, while comparing Madeline’s shortcomings in the very next breath.
    Madeline had never been bothered by it before, not deeply anyway. She’d not permitted herself to be bothered by it, and she was always firm when it cameto her emotions and keeping them in check. She could sweep away the most painful insults or degradations with a mental wave of her unfalteringly strong will.
    On that account, in childhood and adulthood, too, she’d crushed any interest in wishing for—or competing for—the kind of attention Diana received. Madeline had never expected to participate in the same game, nor had she wanted to; she was much happier going her own way, spending time alone, outdoors in the garden, while Diana preferred to socialize and charm anyone and everyone who crossed her path.
    Today, however, for the first time, Madeline felt the sharp claws of envy boring under her skin. Adam had not been charmed by her, not in the least. He’d looked right through her, just as he had all those years ago when he’d come to the house to court Diana.
    Determined