Perhaps there was a bit of truth to it today. Madeline wanted to shock Diana. Let her know that Adam was not an aristocrat and he didn’t expect his future sister-in-law to be one, either.
“I forgot,” Diana added, “that you always liked getting your hands dirty in the gardens. I never understood that.”
Madeline felt guilty suddenly, for purposefully trying to exasperate her sister, who had just traveled across an ocean to be with Adam, whom she loved. No matter how angry or resentful Madeline felt, she could not forget that. Diana loved Adam, too.
She reached for her sister’s hand and held it. “We were always different, Diana. We still are, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to be close now that you’re here. We’re a long way from home.”
Diana’s beautiful smile reached her eyes and made them sparkle like jewels. No wonder everyone who met her fell in love with her.
“Yes, we must get to know each other all over again. After all, you’re the only true family I have here. At least until I become Adam’s wife.”
That last comment struck Madeline like a slap, but she made a firm decision not to feel sorry for herself any longer. Fate had played its hand today and had sent Diana early. It was clear that Diana truly loved Adam, and he most certainly loved her, so it was time for Madeline to accept that and try to be a dutiful sister.
Adam spent the early part of the afternoon seeing to everyone’s needs and ensuring that his guests and all their servants had places to sleep. Agnes had arrived to help out, and Mary was doing her part, too, while Penelope watched the baby. By the time everyone was settled, it was time for supper.
They dined on fresh beef with gravy, fiddleheads and Yorkshire pudding, with chocolate squares and gingerbread cake for dessert. Adam sat at one end of the long table, while Lord Blackthorne sat at the other, his pleasant laughter filling the room with mirth. The food was delicious, the children were polite and entertaining, conversation was engaging, yet Adam was reeling in discontent.
He watched Diana eat her dessert, gracefully, delicately, while she shone with witty remarks and curious questions for the lieutenant-governor about his property in England and his new position here in Nova Scotia.
Her beauty was remarkable. She possessed shiny golden hair and blue eyes, a flawless complexion, and she wore a flattering gown of the latest fashion, trimmed in precious gold lace. She was the perfect hostess, even though it was not yet her party to host. She was any ambitious man’s dream of a wife.
Yet, her physical magnificence left Adam feeling listless and unresponsive. It was Madeline’s simple beauty that attracted his attention now.
He sipped his wine and watched her. She listened politely to Diana’s stories, smiled demurely at Lord Blackthorne but, for the most part, was quiet. There was a sweet shyness about her, a shyness that he adored, for it was gentle and kind. He loved that she valued the things he valued: family, home, the land. She didn’t care about lustrous jewels or society gossip. She was more interested in watching Penelope chase a squirrel, or helping Charlie with his numbers, or seeing the first tomato plant sprouting out of the soil.
Beneath all that, she was strong and capable, and as Adam watched her now, dipping her gingerbread cake into the cream on her plate, he knew that Diana’s arrival had changed nothing. Whether Madeline was aware of it or not, she had stolen his heart.
Did Madeline even have the slightest idea how he felt about her? he wondered. Did she suspect anything when she looked into his eyes?
Lord Blackthorne directed a question at Diana. “Tell me, Lady Thurston, what do you think of Cumberland now that you’re here?”
She raised her wineglass. “I believe I have never seen a more fascinating landscape, my lord. The sheer size of the marsh is astounding. Yet I have not seen any tenant farms, Adam. Where are you hiding them?”
The viscount laughed at her intended jest, but Adam wasn’t sure Diana understood that her joke had just revealed her ignorance of the colony. He tried to correct her as kindly as possible.
“Mostly I farm the land myself, and though I do rent some land to other families, the returns are incidental. I only wish to keep those farms productive until the children are ready to move onto them—if it is their desire. I don’t wish to profit from them. The families I rent to are merely in transition until they can buy land of their own.”
Diana cleared her throat. “You farm this yourself? You must at least hire hands.”
“At harvest time, of course, but my sons and I can manage most of the work ourselves throughout the year.” He winked at Charlie, who smiled proudly in response.
By the blank look on Diana’s face, he sensed she was imagining him actually pushing a plow. She seemed to have a hard time swallowing.
Lord Blackthorne changed the subject, and Adam decided he would have to resolve this situation as soon as possible. He could not go on misleading Diana, nor could he continue keeping his true feelings for Madeline to himself. He would have to do the right thing, as swiftly and gently as he could, and do his best to spare any further heartache.
He had an uneasy feeling, however, that no matter how carefully he handled this situation, it was going to be bloody.
With Lord Blackthorne’s presence in the house, it was necessary for Diana and Madeline to share Madeline’s bedchamber, the one that should have been Diana’s to begin with. As Madeline slipped into the cool sheets beside her sister, she felt as if she were the guest.
“Is it true,” Diana whispered to Madeline in the darkness, “that after you arrived, Adam sent instructions for a proxy marriage? Lord Blackthorne told me so on the ship, but of course I never received the proposal so I wouldn’t know for sure.”
Madeline hugged the coverlet to her chest. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Adam must have been terribly anxious to have me. It still seems like a dream. Oh, how disappointed he must have been when it was you who arrived that day, and not me. Was he very angry? I’ll wager he wanted to brain Father.”
“Yes, he was angry.” Madeline knew her sister wanted to hear all the details, but damned if she was going to give them to her. She simply couldn’t, not without revealing how heartbroken she had been and continued to be.
“Oh, Madeline, I can still barely believe I am here in Adam’s house. You cannot imagine how, over the years, I have dreamed of seeing him again.”
Madeline rolled onto her side to face her sister. “Was it difficult for you, being married to Sir Edward when you could not forget Adam?”
Diana nodded, and Madeline was suddenly curious about more of her sister’s deeper feelings.
Madeline thought of Mary and Jacob and how they’d always told each other every thought and feeling, and consequently, Madeline decided that even though she was having a hard time with the situation now, she should try to think of the future and nurture a closer relationship with Diana. She was flesh and blood, after all, and wasn’t it time Madeline reached out to forge a true bond with someone?
“Did you love Sir Edward at all?” she asked.
Diana blinked up at the ceiling. “He was my husband and I respected him, but it wasn’t easy being his wife. I was young and naive when I married him and I had no idea how the world worked. I thought I was marrying into a fairy tale—becoming Lady Thurston—but to them, I would always be a tenant farmer’s daughter. Edward only married me to badger his mother. He already had his heirs from his first proper wife. I was just a pretty reward.”
“But he seemed so in love with you.”
“It was lust, Madeline, not love. Part of the curse of being beautiful, I suppose.” She rolled over to face Madeline, and stroked her curly hair. “You’re lucky. When a man falls in love with you, he will love you for what you are on the inside, not what you look like on the outside.”
Despite what Madeline felt was a backhanded compliment, she smiled consolingly at Diana in the dim, flickering candlelight. “Adam truly loves you, Diana. You can be certain of it. If it had been lust, he
would not have carried a torch for you all these years—a torch that still burns as brightly as the day it first sparked into flame.”
Diana sighed. “That’s what I try and tell myself. It’s what kept me going when the reality of my marriage sank in. I had to believe that somewhere out there, Adam loved me. Even when he married Jane, I clung to that hope.”
Madeline confided in her sister. “I read one of your letters to him. He kept them, Diana. All of them.”
“He did?” Diana’s voice beamed with surprise and happiness. “He never answered them. I feared he had crumpled each one.”
“No, he still has them and he treasures them.”
Diana rolled onto her back. “I am so happy, Madeline, to be reunited with him at last. It’s inconceivably romantic, as if we were meant to be together. That it’s our destiny and God is making it happen. Will you stand with me on my wedding day?”
Madeline swallowed over the painful lump in her throat. “I will be honored.” Then she yawned and rolled over onto her side, facing the wall. She tried to keep her voice from trembling as she closed her eyes and said wearily, “Good night, Diana.”
Chapter Thirteen
For the next two days, Adam escorted Lord Blackthorne all over the marshlands, explaining the workings of the dykes and the aboiteaux. When the lieutenant-governor realized that entire hay crops would be lost and the land would become inoperable if the dykes were not maintained, he became more open to the idea of establishing stronger requirements for the farmers, as well as attaining some funding for yearly maintenance.
Feeling pleased with the results of the visit, Adam and the rest of his family said goodbye to Lord Blackthorne and his servants, and waved to the convoy of carriages as it rolled with a flourish out of the yard.
Adam took a breath. Instantly everything seemed quiet. He turned to see Diana and Madeline standing arm in arm, smiling and waving one last goodbye.
“Congratulations, Adam,” Madeline said. “You’ve done it.”
He would have liked to hug her then, to twirl her around and celebrate, but Diana was smiling at him and he could not.
“Congratulations for what?” Diana asked, and Adam realized he had not explained his concerns about the marsh to her, nor had she asked why he and the lieutenant-governor had gone riding every day. Had she thought it was merely a social visit?
When he didn’t answer right away, Madeline answered for him. “Adam has just secured Lord Blackthorne’s support to fund the maintenance of the dykes and protect the marsh.”
“Protect it from what?”
“From flooding.”
“Flooding? Heavens.” The information barely had a chance to reach her ears, when she turned toward Agnes. “Mrs. Dalton, what time is lunch being served?”
“One o’clock, my lady.”
Without another word about the marsh, Diana turned to go into the house. “Well, I best go and dress, then. It will be our first meal alone as a family, and I want it to be special. Will you summon my maid please, Mrs. Dalton?”
Adam watched her, feeling dumbfounded, trying to remember what he had expected when he’d sent his proposal to her originally. He’d thought he’d known Diana, but he hadn’t. He only knew a fantasy of her, what he wanted her to be.
A moment later, everyone was gone, and Adam was left alone in the yard. A longing flared through him, and he could not keep it buried any longer. The time had come. He would break off his engagement to Diana today.
After lunch, Madeline heard the tapping of hoofbeats up the driveway, and knew Adam had returned from his inspection of the fields. She sat up straighter on the bench, forcing herself to ignore him—she would not turn around to look—and fight the clattering, painful awareness inside her heart.
She smiled warmly at John Metcalf, who had come this windy afternoon to tell her about the farm he had just leased. “What are your plans, John? Will you raise beef?”
“I reckon so. I still have some work to do on the barn, though, before I can purchase any stock. There’s a hole in the roof the size of a wagon wheel.”
“Oh my!” Still trying to ignore the urge to turn and look at Adam, Madeline laughed with John, who began to fidget nervously on the bench. He cleared his throat a few times before speaking.
“The other reason I came, Miss Oxley, is to ask you to accompany me to the summer dance at the Aikens’ place. I hear they clear out their barn for a real romp.”
Madeline felt her face color. No one had ever asked her to a dance before. She took a moment to consider his invitation, then she pictured Adam escorting Diana and dancing all night long with her.
A quick decision immediately followed, but she was uncomfortable with it. “Yes, John, I would be happy to go with you. When is it?”
“Next Saturday night. I can come by to pick you up at seven.” He nearly spilled his tea as he took another sip.
Just then, Madeline heard Adam’s footsteps over the hard ground and sensed his approach. He stopped behind them. This time, she allowed herself to turn on the bench and smile casually. “Good morning, Adam.”
“Good morning, Madeline. Metcalf, how are you?”
“I’m fine, sir. I came to tell Madeline that I found land to lease. It’s nearby—not more than a stone’s throw, down in the lowlands just past the Chapman place.”
Adam unbuttoned his coat. “Congratulations. You must be pleased about that.”
“I am, sir.” John gazed at Madeline and smiled. “I’m very pleased.”
Madeline felt her whole body tense at John’s blatant show of affection for her. It was the first time anyone had ever looked at her like that. It was just like the way Jacob looked at Mary.
Her insides tugged unpleasantly in response.
Perhaps that tugging sensation would become pleasant later on.
Or perhaps not.
What would she do if it did? Or didn’t?
She glanced up at Adam, who was still staring icily at John, who was staring starry-eyed at her. Good Lord, she couldn’t believe she was having this philosophical debate with herself in front of Adam.
The wind caught the ribbon in Adam’s queue and lifted it. She stared blankly at it for a moment, feeling dazed at the sight of his strong jaw and dark eyes, his broad shoulders beneath his coat, and the way he held himself—tall, confident, mature. He was so much more of a man than John was.
But he was not the one who was courting her.
At that instant, she knew with conviction that she must make an effort not only to appreciate John Metcalf for all his good qualities, but to encourage him, too. She had to forget about Adam and move on with her life. She couldn’t go on pining for her sister’s future husband.
She pasted on a smile for John and forced a polite reply past her lips. “I’m pleased, too.”
“Well, good,” Adam said, his voice deep and booming. “Everyone’s pleased. If you’ll excuse me now, I have some business to attend to.” He started toward the door, but hesitated and turned back. “Madeline, perhaps we could talk this evening. About something rather…important.”
With that final word, he left, taking long strides toward the house. Madeline watched after him, wondering what he wanted to talk about.
“Is there something wrong, Madeline?”
She jumped at the sound of John’s voice, pulling her back to the here and now.
“You look melancholy,” he said.
Madeline pulled her teacup to her lips. “Melancholy?” She struggled for an excuse to give him, to give herself. “I suppose it is this ominous weather.” She glanced up at the dark, brooding clouds, blustering across the sky. “I daresay, it looks like we’re going to get rain.”
No amount of rain, however, could compare to the tempest inside her heart.
Adam stormed into the house, his frustration reaching a new peak. He detested the idea of John Metcalf courting Madeline, yet he had no one to blame but himself, for he had been stalling these past few days. He was not looking forward
to confronting Diana, breaking her heart and sending her home, but if he didn’t do it now, he would risk losing Madeline forever.
Adam pulled off his coat and carried it to his den. He walked in and closed the door behind him, but froze there on the spot. Sitting at his desk, reading his correspondence, was Diana.
Startled, she turned in her chair, or rather, his chair. “Adam, I thought you were out riding.”
He worked hard to keep his voice steady and controlled. “I was.”
They gazed at each other for a moment, then she set down the letter in her hand and stood. “I was just…I was just reading these…” She gestured toward the pile of letters on his desk. Her letters. “I had forgotten all the things I wrote to you. I’m so glad you kept them.”
He took an anxious step forward. “Diana—”
“I remember now, how miserable I was that first year of my marriage and how desperately I’d wanted you back. You were everything to me, Adam, and I was foolish to let you go. This brings it all back, makes it seem like it happened only yesterday.”
“It wasn’t yesterday, Diana, it was a long time ago.”
“Yes, thank goodness, otherwise I would still be buried in loneliness back there.”
God, this was wretched.
He gazed at the window and saw Madeline outside still talking to Metcalf. The young man was standing by the bench, and she was gazing up at him, her hand on top of her straw hat to keep it from flying off on a gale.
Adam’s insides careened at the sight of her talking to John—or any man who tried to court her, for that matter.
There was no way in hell Adam could take another minute of this. He turned back to Diana, who was now walking toward him, her smile warm and inviting.
Adam breathed deeply. “Diana, we must talk.”
Chapter Fourteen
Adam carried his coat across the room and draped it over the back of the wing chair in front of the fireplace. He stood behind it, summoning the right words while Diana moved toward him, tilting her head the way she always did when she was unsure of something.
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