“Then why did you go? Why did you stay away?”
She produced an utterly sad smile. “I was waiting, in my foolishly romantic heart, for him to come for me.” A tear streaked down her face. “He never did.”
“Did you ever tell him—?”
“Of course not. I was certain that if he truly cared, he would miss me enough to meet me partway. I should have—we should have spoken of this, but neither of us was willing to.
“I saw you at your wedding ball, Adam. You are more willing to compromise than your father ever was. And Persephone is more suited to quiet and solitude than I will ever be. She is your match, Adam.” Mother stepped to where he stood at the window and laid her hand on his arm. “Do not throw away this chance by making her guess at your feelings.”
Mother kissed Adam on the cheek, an affectionate, maternal kiss. She had never kissed him before. If she had offered such a heartfelt gesture during his childhood, Adam might have grown up feeling quite differently about his mother.
“Good-bye, Adam.” For the first time in more than twenty years, she made her farewells without a single “poor boy.”
“Have a safe journey, Mother.”
“And you as well,” she replied mysteriously before sweeping from the room.
Adam stood at the front windows, watching as her carriage pulled away. You as well. What had she meant by that? He would not be wandering from Falstone grounds for months yet. Not until Parliament required he return to London. He didn’t want to be anywhere else. It was his home. Where he belonged.
“She has a point, you know.”
Harry. Adam spun from the window to find his friend sitting quite at his leisure not far away, feet crossed at the ankles and propped up on a footstool.
“You’ve taken to listening to private conversations? Haven’t you any other forms of entertainment?”
Harry shook his head and smiled mischievously.
“Every other guest has left the castle, Harry. Why haven’t you?”
“I am here to be your conscience, Adam. To save you from yourself.”
“No, thank you.” Adam made to leave the room.
“She’ll come back, you know,” Harry said behind him.
Adam stopped at the threshold.
Harry continued. “I know Persephone well enough to be certain that, when Linus returns to his ship, she will return to Falstone. And I know you well enough to predict that you will act as though you couldn’t care less whether she came back or not. Do you really want her to wonder about that?”
“This is none of your concern, Harry.”
“You miss her, Adam.” Harry did not seem at all concerned about Adam’s reprimand. “Persephone deserves to know that.”
“She is happy with her family. I would only interfere.”
“So go be part of her family,” Harry replied as though the answer ought to have been obvious. “Go to Shropshire.”
“That isn’t how it works, Harry,” Adam muttered and stepped out of the drawing room.
Harry followed him. “How what works, Adam?”
“Persephone receives her reprieve, and Hades stays in the underworld waiting for her to return,” Adam grumbled. “Waits to see if the seeds worked.”
“Obviously you were sleeping during that lecture at Harrow.” Harry shook his head as he stepped past Adam and made his way up the stairs.
“What do you mean, sleeping?” Adam called after him.
“Adam.” Harry turned back to face him, an unmistakable scold in his tone. “Hades did not sit back and wait for Persephone. When the time came for her to return, he went after her.”
Adam stared back. He did not remember that.
Harry chuckled. “Hades was not the sort to sit around and fret, Adam. When the time came, he slipped past the hellhounds—” A howl outside sounded as if on cue. Harry raised an eyebrow in mock salute to the irony of that noise. “—and ventured into the realm of the living to reclaim his bride.”
“I do not remember that.”
“Look it up. Hades was no pambsy fribble, Adam. And I’d bet a pony his Persephone knew exactly how her husband felt about her.” Harry gave him a very pointed look.
By the next morning, Harry was gone, off to make holiday visits to relatives before returning to Falstone for Christmas. Adam remained behind, alone.
* * *
“Are you sure you are warm enough?” Athena asked for the hundredth time that afternoon.
“Athena.” Persephone spoke as patiently as possible. “I am dressed as warmly as I am at home, and it is far colder there. I assure you, I am perfectly comfortable.”
“Well, I am cold,” Athena said.
“Why don’t you go in and warm up.”
“I wouldn’t want to leave you out here alone,” Athena said. “Your leg is not fully healed yet.”
Persephone smiled. “I doubt I will be accosted in a walled garden behind my childhood home.”
Athena returned the smile. “I suppose not.”
“And I am perfectly able to get about. I am simply not as fast as I will be in another week or two.”
Athena nodded her agreement. “Very well.” She rose from the seat she had shared with Persephone. “But do not be too long. The Uptons are coming for dinner tonight.”
At last she was alone. There had been precious little time for reflection since leaving Falstone. She and Linus had spent most of the journey recalling events from their childhoods and catching up on their lives since they’d been apart.
Once arriving at the family home, life had included a constant influx of people. Persephone had forgotten how a large family in a small house could create chaos on a constant basis. She loved being at home with her family but found herself longing for the tranquility of her new home.
Thoughts of Falstone inevitably brought Adam to mind. She’d had such hopes for the two of them and still clung to a few. If only he’d given her some indication that he would miss her while she was away or some reason for his sudden insistence that she go.
Instead he’d been stubbornly quiet the entire morning of her departure. He’d not appeared the least bit upset at their separation, merely impatient for her to go. She, on the other hand, had almost brought herself to beg him to go along. But Adam did not like society or mingling with strangers. He never left Falstone if he could help it. Adam had told her that more than once. Asking him to accompany her would have been a pointless endeavor.
Brooding in the garden was not precisely productive, either. Persephone rose to her feet with the help of her walking stick. Her leg was still a bit sore but improving every day. Papa insisted the Shropshire air had speeded her recovery.
She walked through the back door to the house and moved slowly up the corridor. The house sat oddly quiet. Artemis was far too recovered from her bout with chicken pox to be as quiet as she was being. Daphne was perpetually quiet, illness or no. Had the girls gone out? It was too late in the day for a picnic.
Persephone made her way closer to the front of the house. The door to the sitting room stood ajar. She stepped closer. She could hear footsteps inside but nothing else, heavy footsteps, like boots instead of slippers.
A gentleman caller? Athena was of age, Persephone reminded herself. Was Papa making the prospective suitor wait? More likely he had completely forgotten about the unfortunate young man’s existence.
Determined to see this beau herself, Persephone stepped inside. She had every intention of making her own assessment, knowing Papa’s could not always be counted on.
Persephone stopped just past the threshold, her breath suddenly impossible to catch.
“Adam,” she whispered.
He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again without saying a word. There was an awkwardness to him that was entirely foreign. Vulnerability touched every inch of his face.
“Have you come to take me home?” Persephone hoped he had and yet also hoped he hadn’t. She’d missed him terribly but was enjoying visiting her
family as well.
“When you’re ready,” he answered after a moment. “But I . . .” He let out a breath. “I wanted to see Shropshire,” he said. “To see where you grew up.”
“You did?” His explanation proved somewhat disappointing.
“And get to know your family.”
That was a little better.
“And, I . . .” He shook his head, letting the thought dangle. Adam moved closer to her, a sudden intensity in his look. “Hades always went after Persephone.”
“Yes, he did.” She stepped closer to him.
“He waited as long as he had to,” Adam said, “then he left his kingdom and didn’t come back until he found her.” He stood close enough she could have reached out and touched him.
Persephone’s lungs tightened inside her. “I think Hades must have missed his wife,” she said, her heart suddenly pounding.
Adam didn’t look away, didn’t step back. “I think he knew to the very minute how long she had been gone. But was Persephone as anxious to return as he was to have her with him again?”
“I think she was.”
Adam reached out his hand and softly touched her cheek. Persephone closed her eyes, determined not to be distracted from the sensation of his touch. She could hear him, feel him close the distance between them.
Her heart soared with newfound hope, and she clung to it desperately.
Adam pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Why did Hades go after her?” he asked in a low voice, his lips still brushing her face.
She barely managed to keep breathing. “He must have loved her,” she whispered.
Adam’s response emerged breathless. “He must have.”
His other hand joined the first, and he cupped her face in his hands. Persephone opened her eyes to look at him.
Adam met her gaze. “But did his Persephone love him in spite of his flaws, in spite of all he’d done to her?”
“Oh, Adam.” Tears fought for release, her voice quivering with emotion.
Adam pulled her to him, his arms wrapped firmly and protectively around her. “Am I too late?” he whispered against her hair. “Is there nothing I can . . . nothing to . . .”
Persephone cut across his stumbling attempts at expression. Any speech even slightly tinged with emotion would be difficult for Adam. Persephone understood that. And she didn’t need flowery speeches. The fact that he had come for her, that he was holding her so tenderly and trying so desperately to express himself, was enough. “I have been falling in love with you for weeks, Adam. I was certain you would never return those feelings.”
“What can I do, Persephone?” He tightened his hold on her. “How can I prove . . . show . . .”
She gazed up at him. “You are here.”
It was, apparently, all he needed to hear. “I have missed you,” Adam whispered in the moment before he kissed her.
Their only other kiss, discounting the one he’d not returned, had been breathtaking, leaving Persephone in awe for some time afterward. This kiss proved quite different. Where the last had been intense, this was endearing and tender. Adam held her to him as if he meant to never let her go.
Persephone touched his face softly with her fingertips, hardly daring to believe this turn. The ruts of his scars were there beneath her fingers. Adam did not pull away, did not flinch under her touch. She slipped her arms around his neck and returned his attentions kiss for kiss, embrace for embrace.
“You do that very well,” Adam breathed when they finally broke apart.
Persephone smiled.
“Mother has invited us to Town for Christmas,” Adam said.
Persephone recognized the sacrifice that suggestion entailed. She shook her head. “I want to spend Christmas at home.”
A look of disappointment flashed through Adam’s eyes, and Persephone knew on the instant he had misunderstood.
“At Falstone,” she said. “With you.”
“The ton would not believe that even if they heard you say it.” Adam took one of her hands in his and raised it to his lips.
“Then we shall have to convince them.”
He kissed her fingers. “I may enjoy London yet.”
“Your mother would be pleased to hear that.” She nearly sighed out loud at the comfort of leaning her head once more against his shoulder.
“I need to spend some time with my mother.” A hint of emotion touched his voice.
“So do you still think marrying me was a mistake?”
“It was never a mistake. I simply didn’t see it for the miracle that it was.”
“A miracle,” Persephone repeated with quiet awe.
“Does this mean I can come to your castle?” a voice asked from the doorway.
“Artemis,” Persephone quietly warned, stepping away.
Adam pulled her immediately back to him and addressed Artemis himself. “Our castle is in need of a good exploration,” he said. “I believe we should schedule one. Perhaps if you have no other plans for Christmas, you might do so then.”
Artemis grinned and ran to where they stood, throwing her arms around Adam’s legs. “You’re the best duke that ever lived!” she declared.
“Yes, he is.” Persephone smiled up at Adam.
“Yes, I am.” Adam didn’t force down his grin. “The luckiest, at least.”
Artemis continued circling them, even spinning as she did so. Again and again she thanked him.
“You realize she will bring the rest of the family, and Falstone will be overrun with people.”
Adam nodded. “Which means I will probably be in a foul mood from time to time.” His expression turned more serious. “You will, once again, have to save me from myself. You have done that, you know.”
“Saved you?”
“My Persephone,” he whispered in her ear. “Do you know I would have come for you no matter how far you’d gone?”
“Hades always came for Persephone,” she echoed his earlier explanation.
He lightly kissed her again. “And she always returned home.”
“Always,” Persephone repeated. “Always.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah M. Eden read her first Jane Austen novel in elementary school and has been an Austen Addict ever since. Fascinated by the Regency era in English history, Eden became a regular in the Regency section of the reference department at her local library, painstakingly researching this extraordinary chapter in history. Eden is an award-winning author of short stories and has been a Whitney Award Finalist for her novels Seeking Persephone (2008) and Courting Miss Lancaster (2010). You can visit her at www.sarahmeden.com.
Other Books and Audio Books By Sarah M. Eden
Courting Miss Lancaster
The Kiss of a Stranger
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Other Books and Audio Books By Sarah M. Eden
Seeking Persephone Page 26