Reformed by the Scotsman

by Katie Douglas

  Adeline choked on a mouthful of food, and Edward noticed that the coughing fit had nicely disguised the blush that had begun to spread across her cheeks a moment before. Garamond tried to pass her a glass of water but she was coughing too violently. The room fell silent as everyone started to stare, and Adeline’s face went purple. It wasn’t the polite thing to do, but Edward turned and slapped her on the back, firmly, until she stopped coughing. Once she had caught her breath and the rest of the table had turned back to their conversations, she sipped her water.

  “Thank you,” she said with obvious reluctance. It was typical that Adeline needed a firm hand to help her, but that she was still so ungrateful when he gave it to her.

  Glancing up the table, Edward noticed that Lydia and Randall were speaking so closely as to almost look like they were whispering to one another. He turned back to Bobbie and let her regale him with more of her adventures in Egypt.

  After dinner, Edward had retired to the drawing room, where everyone was chattering, mostly about the ball that was to take place tomorrow night. Suddenly, the room was silenced by a loud crash. They all poured out of the room to find the source of the noise. Adeline was standing beside a broken window in the entrance hall, and her brother looked drawn.

  “I beg your pardon, I must retire,” Arthur said coldly, then turned on his heel and walked to the staircase.

  “What the devil is this all about?” Duchess Shawham demanded. “What happened to this window?”

  Adeline colored red and gulped, clearly uncomfortable. Edward had never seen her look so cornered. She’d been caught red-handed. He should have known she would do something for attention at this dinner party.

  “I’m dreadfully sorry, Duchess. I was in high spirits and I didn’t look where I was going,” Adeline said.

  “Adeline!” Lord Hawthorne chided her. She looked thoroughly ashen as everyone regarded her. Edward didn’t think a single person in the room thought much of the silly girl about now. It was clear that she was lying about how the window had gotten broken, but he wasn’t going to call her out in front of the party.

  “All right, let’s return to the drawing room; the servants will clean that up,” Duke Shawham said, and the guests left Adeline standing beside the window. Edward regarded her with distaste.

  “You were going to run away again, weren’t you? Didn’t you learn your lesson from the last window you smashed, at my house?” Edward demanded. He reached out swiftly and grabbed her hands then examined them. At least she hadn’t injured herself this time.

  “What do you care?” she asked, looking resentful.

  “If you were mine, I’d be escorting you upstairs right now for some discreet correction.”

  “Since I’m not, it’s no concern of yours what I do, Mister Wolstanton.” She spoke icily, and her restraint put him in mind of a tiger in a cage that was being taunted.

  He followed the other guests and retrieved his glass of sherry, then resumed a rousing conversation with Lord Melville about improving his golfing handicap.

  “Edward, you simply must do some putting while you’re here!” Lord Melville said. “The duke’s a lucky devil living so near to Brecon golf course!”

  “Well, old chap, I’d love to, but I’m afraid I left all my clubs in Edinburgh,” Edward replied. He didn’t particularly want to play golf, anyway. Melville chuckled and patted him on the back.

  “Worry not about that, old boy! If Duke Shawham doesn’t have at least three spare sets then my name’s not Melville.”

  Edward didn’t show how little he cared for golf. He only ever played it to keep up appearances. They agreed that the next day would be a good one for an afternoon of sport, and made a plan to head to the golf course before the evening’s ball.

  The sherry was excellent, and the evening was drawing to a close when Edward noticed that Adeline was once again missing from the room. A few minutes later, Wendel Melville was at his father’s side looking smug.

  “Well, I never! Old Adeline has disgraced herself once again!” Wendel declared dramatically. “I just saw her leaving Herbert Randall’s room, after the two of them sounded like they were kissing.”

  “Show some decorum, Wendel!” Lord Melville chided. Wendel, being barely twelve, was not quite used to social etiquette.

  “But it’s true! I saw her!”

  Adeline and Herbert Randall both entered the room at that moment. Edward was astounded.

  “There she is! She was smooching Randall!” Wendel shouted, pointing at her.

  “I… that is… oh, what’s the use?” She turned and left the room.

  Lord and Lady Hawthorne were lost in a conversation about British Honduras with the Duke and Duchess Shawham, and hadn’t noticed the occurrence. Randall shrugged and headed toward a tray of drinks.

  “Please excuse me; I think someone ought to check on Adeline,” Edward told Lord Melville.

  He stepped out of the drawing room. Brecon House was one of the ones with a balcony-like landing that looked down on the entrance hall by way of long railings either side of the stairs. A flash of green muslin was visible between the wooden railings. Edward followed it, in the hope of finding Adeline. She wasn’t his, he had sent her away, but he still felt responsible for her.

  He knocked on the door that had just closed.

  “Push off!” came Adeline’s muffled voice.

  He opened the door and went inside. “You were behaving in a highly ladylike manner until we were seated for dinner. Then, you went downhill faster than a runaway pram on a mountainside. You smashed a window, and then you engaged in some tomfoolery with a young man who your friend had shown an interest in earlier. Is nothing sacred to you? Do you have so little honor or respect for other people that this is how you conduct yourself when you’re a guest in someone else’s home?”

  She turned to him. “Hamlet. Act one. Scene five. You’ll know it when you see it.”

  Any further information about the matter would not be prised from her lips, so Edward left her, and instead returned to the drawing room. He approached Herbert Randall and spoke to him in a corner.

  “What on Earth happened between you and Adeline?” Edward asked.

  “I really cannot say, old chap. You know how it is. Never kiss and tell.”

  “Are you two an item, then?” Edward asked.

  Randall looked affronted. “Absolutely not.”

  Edward left the conversation none the wiser.

  When everyone was heading to bed, he ducked into the library and scoured the shelves for Shakespeare. He pulled down the volume of Hamlet, and took it upstairs.

  Act one, scene five was quite interminable, and seemed to be mostly a conversation between Hamlet and a ghost. Edward was somewhat familiar with the story, but wasn’t certain what he was looking for. When it came to Shakespeare, he much preferred a lighthearted story, such as Twelfth Night or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  Before he had finished reading, Guy appeared by his side.

  “Ah, Guy. Did you hear about the window?”

  “Most unfortunate, sir. It appears window-breaking runs in their family.”

  Edward frowned. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “I was referring to the fact that Adeline broke the window in your house, sir, and then, this evening, Arthur smashed a window here.”

  Edward stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. “Arthur?”

  “That is correct, sir.”

  “But Adeline was standing right beside it!”

  “It appears that Arthur had become enraged after Primrose continuously harangued him about the poetess Jessie Pope.”

  “The one who writes about the glory of dying in glorious battle for one’s glorious country and that sort of thing?”

  “The very same.”

  Edward remembered that Primrose had brought the topic up at the dinner table.

  “Apparently, he put his fist through the window in anger, then went to his room.”

  “Leaving Adeline in t
he soup,” Edward finished.

  “As you say, sir.”

  “And that might explain why she went gallivanting with Herbert Randall.”

  “That was not what Lady Wednesbury’s maid said, sir.”

  “Lady… you mean Lydia Wednesbury?”

  “Indeed, sir. She was most put out at having to sneak her mistress down the service stairs to ensure she wasn’t seen leaving Randall’s room, sir.”

  “So… why on Earth did Wendell see Adeline there?”

  “He didn’t, sir. You will recall both women wearing green dresses. My guess is that Adeline had merely gone to the smallest room to refresh her hair, and had the misfortune to return to the room at the same time as Randall.”

  “You think the boy got them mixed up?

  “I might speculate that Adeline was allowing the deception to continue, to ensure her friend’s reputation was unbesmirched, sir.”

  Edward shook his head. Perhaps he had drunk too much this evening, because the whole thing was so obvious, so Adeline, that he wanted to kick himself. She had spent the evening fighting small fires and going down in the estimation of assorted society people to ensure that her brother and friend remained in good standing.

  His eyes fell upon a line in the open book before him, and he knew at once it was what Adeline had been trying to say earlier.

  “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” He closed the book with a snap. “I’m a bally fool, Guy.”

  “Very good, sir. Would you like a spot of tea to see you to bed?”

  * * *

  The night had been spent in that disagreeable state of half-sleep, and Edward appeared at the morning breakfast table in a semi-comatose state. He shuffled to his place and half-focused on his teacup until eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fried potatoes were served. He didn’t know how servants looked so bright-eyed at this time of the day.

  The meal was refreshing, and gradually, the partial blindness of sleep deprivation wore off, so by his third cup of tea, he noticed Adeline was sitting beside him, looking pale and shadowy. Apparently she hadn’t slept well either.

  As the post was being passed around to the duke, duchess, and their three daughters, Edward leaned over to Adeline and spoke in a low voice.

  “Meet me in the maze at half-past nine. I need to speak with you alone.”

  She eyed him warily, as well she might, but something about his countenance must have reassured her, because she nodded. “All right, just this once.”

  Edward poured his fourth cup of tea with a fuller heart; perhaps they could salvage things between them yet.

  * * *

  Adeline was already standing in the center of the garden’s large maze when Edward arrived. She was a vision, as always. Since breakfast, she had dressed in a cream suit with a pale blue shirt underneath. Edward approved of her sensible attire, and reflected that at least he had helped her make some self-improvement.

  Before he greeted her, she held a hand up and spoke first.

  “I’m only here out of curiosity. I want to know what you possibly wished to say to someone as despicable as you believe I am, then I shall take my leave.”

  “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” he quoted to her.

  Her face changed from a suspicious glare to a softer expression. “All right, I’m listening.”

  “I found out from Guy what really happened last night,” he told her. “And I’m sorry I spoke to you the way I did. Why do you let people blame you for things?”

  “Well, why shouldn’t they? I don’t have much good standing with anyone in society, so what does it matter if people think I did yet another thing?”

  “You will ruin your marriage prospects,” Edward said.

  “They’re not exactly looking up right now. I have my pick of the halfwits, lechers, or trophy hunters who seek my dowry and connections, but that’s about all. My reputation precedes me and I’m under no illusions that I’ll marry for love.”

  “Don’t you have anyone?” Edward was aghast. She was so flighty, it seemed natural to assume she would have become besotted with several other people between now and when she stayed at his house.

  “I was in love with someone,” she confessed, and for a moment, she looked happy as she stared into the distance thoughtfully, but then her face hardened again and Edward saw that she was repressing the pain of a great loss. “But they told me to push off, and life must go on, so since I don’t care to be wedded to any old chap, I thought my time was better spent yesterday evening helping other people out of their scrapes.”

  He would have to be an imbecile to not know she was talking about him.

  “I was in love with someone, too,” he told her. “She was fiery, and feisty, and there was nothing she wouldn’t try. But she got so unsettled at the prospect of marrying me that I was never able to propose.”

  She stared at him, stricken, then she drew herself up.

  “I shan’t beg you to take me back,” she told him. “It’s against my nature.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have sent you away, and for that, I apologize. It was rash.”

  “You find me infuriating, don’t you?” she asked.

  “At your worst, yes. At your best… you are the most witty, charming, and inimitable creature I ever had the privilege of knowing. And I should like to know you more intimately. We’ve been through so much together.”

  Her eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “Comparatively little, by my estimation, and anyway, if you are incapable of bearing my worst behavior, you’ve no right to expect my best.”

  “All right, Adeline. Have it your way. I know where I’m surplus to requirements.”

  “Do you know what your problem is, Edward? You give up too easily.”

  “And your problem, Adeline, is that you don’t know when to stop pushing at people.”

  They glared at one another for a long moment, then suddenly they were kissing, deeply, passionately, and Edward felt like part of him had been missing since he sent her away. He held her to him, breathing in her scent of soft jasmine, and she clung to him, too. In his trousers, his arousal grew. He wanted to be inside her, forever, so they never had to part again.

  “By Jove!” An older man’s voice carried across the maze, causing Edward and Adeline to separate as though they had been shocked. “The privet has been trimmed in a most uneven manner over here!” the older man added.

  Edward and Adeline exchanged a nervous giggle.

  “I think we should go,” Adeline said.

  “Meet me in the library tonight, after the ball,” Edward told her. “And don’t speak a word of it to anyone.”

  “Why, what happens if I do?”

  “My tawse is in the bottom of my suitcase,” he replied, then smiled inwardly when she gaped in surprise. He hadn’t known they would reconcile, but apparently Guy’s foresight was twenty-twenty, and the manservant had packed Edward’s luggage accordingly.

  “Until then,” she said, then blew him a kiss as she walked away.

  Edward was walking on air as he waited a few minutes to be sure Adeline had gotten out of the maze, then he left, too.

  Chapter Ten

  For the ball, Adeline had brought a beautiful mask from Harrod’s. It had huge peacock feathers with their shimmering oil-on-water effect, and it finished just above the end of her nose, making talking and drinking straightforward. She wore the new cornflower blue satin gown tonight, and her hair was in a bouffant, decorated with more feathers.

  She had been mortified when she saw Edward at dinner last night. If she’d known he would be attending this weekend, she would have certainly come down with the flu, or found some other reason to politely decline her invitation to the ball. He was the very last person she wanted to see. But the ice between them was melting, and she was hopeful again.

  Once she was ready, she left her room and carefully desce
nded the staircase. Aside from the people who were staying in the Duke and Duchess Shawham’s home for the weekend, Lydia had said that there were about fifty guests who lived more locally.

  Adeline entered the room and was instantly awed. The atmosphere was delightful, and for a single evening, Adeline was excited to be able to imagine that the catastrophic Great War, the terrifying Russian Revolution, and all of the troubles in Ireland had never happened. The dresses, the masks, the string orchestra, and the glimmering chandeliers all reminded Adeline of the big Victorian balls she’d heard her mother talking about. It was the world that Adeline had been brought up to expect. Then, everything had changed, which had left her floundering, uncertain as to her place in life or her purpose.

  She would have been at home with the dresses and parties of the bygone era, and she had an idea that the conversation and the social events would have been somehow more interesting.

  According to all reports, it was a time when men had been men. That made her think of Edward. He wasn’t afraid to stand firm against Adeline’s high-spiritedness, or to discipline her when she needed it, but he had always supported her, too. He was entirely comfortable using a telephone or driving a motorcar, but underneath his adaptations to modern times, Adeline saw that Edward still had the values, courage, and moral compass of the great Victorian men. In a world where nearly all of the bravest and most valiant men had fallen in the Great War, it was reassuring to know that at least one good man still existed.

  As a servant passed her with a tray of drinks, she took a champagne flute and sipped at it, watching the people dancing in the center of the room. Presently, a man appeared beside her. He wore a stunning mask designed like a black bear.

  “What is your name for the evening, your ladyship?” he asked.

  Adeline smiled coquettishly over a peacock fan that matched the mask she wore. Adeline decided that Penelope sounded like the right sort of name for a peacock.