“I am glad to hear it,” Adrian replied, as he retraced his steps back to Valerie.
She smiled up at him with such affection in her eyes that it swept away the sourness of having to put her wretched father in his place. Seeing her look at him like that was worth any unpleasantness, any challenge.
“Well then…” Richard clapped his hands together to punctuate the conversation. “I would have called this a wasted journey if I had not seen the impossible become possible before my very eyes. Will you be journeying back to Blackwall or will you be staying here, Adrian?”
“Blackwall,” Valerie replied before Adrian could. “We might yet arrive back in time for the new year.”
Richard nodded. “I will ride north, then, so I may join you to celebrate this momentous occasion.”
He walked forward and put out his hand. Adrian grasped it and shook it, so very delighted that ithadbeen Richard who was due to marry Valerie. Things might not have worked out so well if it had been anyone else.
“If you arrive before us, inform the staff to prepare a feast,” Adrian said. “But do not tell them of the engagement, or that Valerie is returning with me. I would like to surprise them myself.”
Richard chuckled. “You sly fox.” He paused, eyebrow raised. “The young lady has changed you, Adrian, and I can confidently say it is for the better.”
“I cannot argue with that,” Adrian replied, as he brought Valerie’s hand to his lips and kissed it gently.
A fond smile graced Richard’s face. “I shall depart, then.” He flashed a wink at Adrian. “But, know this, you owe me now, my dear friend. And I already knowjusthow you can pay me back.”
As much as Adrian cherished his oldest friend, he did not altogether like the sound of that. But Richard was gone, making a swift exit before Adrian could ask him to elaborate.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The journey back to Blackwall Castle was not at all like the first. For one thing, Valerie had Adrian in the carriage with her… as well as Nora and Cecil, who had never really traveled anywhere. As such, it had been somewhat eventful, between their youthful excitement, Nora’s aversion to the sway of the carriage, and the sight of new places leaving them in awe.
“Are they asleep?” Adrian whispered, as the sun began to dip in the late-afternoon sky.
Valerie put a finger to her lips. “Do not say the word ‘sleep’ or they will wake up. It is the first rule of caring for children.”
“I am learning so much,” he said wryly, from the opposite side of the carriage.
Cecil and Nora had chosen to commandeer most of Valerie’s side, both of them curled up on the squabs like kittens. Theylooked peaceful for the first time in their lives, as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders as soon as they had passed the gates of Gramfield Manor.
At the moment of their departure, Gregory had tried to insist that they should all remain and that only Adrian should return to his castle.
“What will society say? It will be in every scandal sheet from here to Carlisle!”had been his argument.
“They can say what they please,”Valerie had replied,“for we will soon be wed, and it will not matter. What is more, how are they likely to find out as long as no one tells them? They have forgotten Adrian, and I intend to be forgotten with him.”
The bitter, resentful old man had not even bothered to wave, his last act of cruelty to the children he had never much wanted. Valerie knew it had hurt Cecil’s feelings, in particular, but he would recover, and he would have a much finer role model now. Yes, Adrian had his faults, but the difference between him and Gregory was that Adrian knew how to own up to them, and held no one responsible but himself.
“Come here,” Adrian murmured, patting the empty space beside him.
Biting her lip, Valerie shook her head. “I do not dare.”
“Whyever not?”
“Because it would not be wise to be near you,” she replied in a hushed tone. “I do not trust myself.”
Memories flooded her mind, so delicious that her skin began to flush with heat. She fanned her face with her hand, eager to be back at Blackwall Castle as quickly as possible. She had been parted from him long enough, in every sense.
He smiled—a sight she doubted she would ever take for granted—and traced his fingertips across the velvet. “Just for a moment?”
“Youcannot be trusted either,” she insisted with a soft, breathy laugh.
With a nod, he expelled a sigh. “I could not wait to get you out of that manor, but now I rather wonder if we should have stayed for the night.” He glanced at the children to be certain they were sleeping. “I might have stolen down the hallway in the dead of night and knocked upon your door, and?—”
Nora wriggled, her eyes fluttering for a moment, a quiet murmur babbling from her mouth.
