by Kim Bowman
Georgina gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth. Hope soared in his chest and he allowed himself to believe for an infinitesimal moment she intended to capitulate and accept his unworthy hand.
Then her glance slid away. “I lied to you about something else, Adam.”
He froze.
“I once told you that I didn’t dream, but that was a lie. I did dream. I used to dream there would be a man who would fall in love with me.” Her lips turned up in a heartbreaking smile. “In my dreams, I would be a mother to these incredibly plump, angelic babies with rounded cheeks and sweet giggles.”
He was lost in the dream of those children. He wanted those babies. He wanted them with her. Only her.
“Let me give you—”
Grace touched her fingers to his lips. “I spent the past three months warring between anger for your total lack of faith in me and my love for you.” She sucked in an audible breath. You broke my heart, Adam.” Those words were flat. Matter-of-fact. You ruined that dream beyond repair. I can’t marry you.”
Adam surged to his feet. “No,” he barked. Determination coursed through him. He had not found her only to lose her. Not again. Fate had already separated them too many times. “You can.”
You have to, because I am nothing without you. I am an empty shell of a man when you’re not near.
She shook her head, dislodging a single strand of chocolate brown hair. “As much as I love you, I cannot wed you.
He didn’t move.
Georgina brushed the loose curl behind her ear. “There are too many lies. You’d never truly be able to forgive me for being your captor’s daughter, and I would always be waiting for you to realize you couldn’t stay married to me. It’s easier this way.”
A muscle ticked at the corner of his mouth. “You’re wrong. It doesn’t matter to me who your father is. I thought it mattered, but it doesn’t.” And it didn’t. He’d only just fully realized that now.
Tears filled her eyes. A fat, lone tear trailed down her cheek. It was followed by another, and another. She swatted at them as though embarrassed of the show of emotion. “Please go,” she begged.
Adam’s jaw flexed. She thought he would leave and never look back. But then, he’d never given her much reason to believe in his constancy. He gave a curt nod and walked stiffly to the doorway.
~~~~
Georgina watched him go and wanted to plead with him to forget every foolish word she’d just uttered.
He looked at her once more before he left. “This is not over, Georgina Markham.”
Her legs gave out beneath her, and she wilted to the floor like a dying flower. A spark of gold caught her eye, and she reached for the signet Adam had left behind.
She knew Adam leaving was for the best, but she could not keep herself from wanting him. She would always love him.
Georgina buried her face in her hands and wept.
Chapter 32
Georgina went through her morning ablutions. The sun glared into her small chambers, bright and unforgiving. She stole a glance at her reflection in the bevel mirror. She barely recognized the wan creature with dark circles under her eyes in an uncharacteristically pale face. Following Adam’s swift exit the previous afternoon, she’d been unable to sleep or think. He occupied her every thought.
In the dead of night, she’d lain awake staring up at the small crack across the ceiling, Fool, fool, fool. She’d sent him away. How many hours of how many days had she dreamed of Adam loving her, loving her even with knowing about her connection to the Fox and Hunter? Her pride, her fear of being hurt again by Adam had driven her motives.
She pinched her cheeks hard, trying to send some blood flowing through her white skin. Her efforts proved futile.
Georgina opened the door and stopped.
A simple sketch hung on the wall. She walked up to it, studying — she squinted — what appeared to be a meal of roast chicken and potatoes.
Georgina walked down the hall until she came upon another drawing. This one of Bristol Hospital’s front façade.
She continued and found sketch after sketch: a woman’s hands, a songbird… a woman. Her breath caught. Georgina drew to a halt, her gaze riveted to her own image. It was a rendering of Adam’s cell, with her kneeling beside his chair, rubbing his wrists. She yanked it from the wall. Her heart raced as she studied the picture.
Nurse Catherine appeared. She looked at the page clutched in Georgina’s fingers. “It is very odd, you know. There are these sketches throughout the hospital. Perhaps you should follow them and see where they lead.”
Georgina angled her head.
The kindly older woman gestured down the long hall and Georgina continued walking. The sketches were everywhere. There was the moment Adam had twirled her around his prison cell, forever memorialized in charcoal. That scene gave way to his ballroom when he’d danced her around, with Tony laughing on the sidelines.
The images led her all the way to the foyer.
She stumbled to a halt. A vibrant rainbow had been painted on the white wall above the hospital’s entrance. Periwinkles, daisies, and pale peach and pink roses lay scattered on the floor, beneath the painting. Standing amidst the blooms, peppermint in hand, stood Adam.
Her throat worked. “What are you—?”
“I thought long and hard about what you said. I thought about when I fell in love with you and realized it was a collection of moments. From the moment I first met you, you began to work your way into my heart. Your place there grew and grew, and now…” He held his hands up. “Now you fill all of me. Heart, mind, and soul. I am nothing without you. A time long ago, Georgina, you went chasing rainbows. All these years, I was the one waiting at the other end. I know I’m not much of a treasure, but I love you. I know I’ve wronged you, but—”
“Be quiet,” Georgina rasped. She buried her fist against her mouth, attempting to stifle a sob.
Adam’s hand fell quivering to his side, the children’s treats tumbled to the floor.
“I love you,” she choked out. She ran the remaining distance between them and launched herself into his arms. Adam wrapped his arms around her.
He pressed his lips hard against her temple. “Marry me. I will spend the rest of my life making amends, Georgina.”
Her tears fell unchecked down her cheeks. She pulled back slightly and, leaning up on tiptoe, passed her gaze over his face. “I don’t want you to spend the rest of your life making amends. I want you to spend it simply loving me.”
A glimmer lit his moss green eyes. Adam smiled. “Forever, Georgina. I promise you, forever.”
Epilogue
Georgina caressed her swollen belly and reached for another peppermint.
Adam glanced up from his sketchpad. A golden curl fell across his eye, lending him a boyish look, so very different from the dark, tortured man she’d first met. He grinned at her. “Are you well, love?”
Georgina arched her back and continued to stroke the place beneath her heart, where her and Adam’s child rested. She smiled back at her husband. “I have never been better.”
Adam returned his attention to the drawing in front of him.
Georgina leaned her head against the chair.
Most of her life had been spent dreaming of a different life — a husband, a family. Of simple happiness.
She closed her eyes. A smile played about her lips as she realized that this moment was what dreams were made of.
~The End~
About the Author
Christi Caldwell is the bestselling author of historical romance novels set in the Regency era. Christi blames Judith McNaught's "Whitney, My Love," for luring her into the world of historical romance. While sitting in her graduate school apartment at the University of Connecticut, Christi decided to set aside her notes and try her hand at writing romance. She believes the most perfect heroes and heroines have imperfections and rather enjoys tormenting them before crafting a well-deserved happily ever after!
When Christ
i isn’t writing the stories of flawed heroes and heroines, she can be found in her Southern Connecticut home chasing around her feisty five-year-old son, and caring for twin princesses-in-training!
Visit www.christicaldwellauthor.com to learn more about what Christi is working on, or join her on Facebook at Christi Caldwell Author, and Twitter @ChristiCaldwell
Other Books by Christi Caldwell
Winning a Lady’s Heart (A Danby novella)
Author's Note: This is a novella that was originally available in A Summons From The Castle (The Regency Christmas Summons Collection). It is being published as an individual novella.
For Lady Alexandra, being the source of a cold, calculated wager is bad enough...but when it is waged by Nathaniel Michael Winters, 5th Earl of Pembroke, the man she's in love with, it results in a broken heart, the scandal of the season, and a summons from her grandfather--the Duke of Danby.
To escape Society's gossip, she hurries to her meeting with the duke, determined to put memories of the earl far behind. Except the duke has other plans for Alexandra... plans which include the 5th Earl of Pembroke!
A Season of Hope (A Danby novella)
Five years ago when her love, Marcus Wheatley, failed to return from fighting Napoleon’s forces, Lady Olivia Foster buried her heart. Unable to betray Marcus’s memory, Olivia has gone out of her way to run off prospective suitors. At three and twenty she considers herself firmly on the shelf. Her father, however, disagrees and accepts an offer for Olivia’s hand in marriage. Yet it’s Christmas, when anything can happen…
Olivia receives a well-timed summons from her grandfather, the Duke of Danby, and eagerly embraces the reprieve from her betrothal.
Only, when Olivia arrives at Danby Castle she realizes the Christmas season represents hope, second chances, and even miracles.
Forever Betrothed, Never the Bride
Hopeless romantic Lady Emmaline Fitzhugh is tired of sitting with the wallflowers, waiting for her betrothed to come to his senses and marry her. When Emmaline reads one too many reports of his scandalous liaisons in the gossip rags, she takes matters into her own hands.
War-torn veteran Lord Drake devotes himself to forgetting his days on the Peninsula through an endless round of meaningless associations. He no longer wants to feel anything, but Lady Emmaline is making it hard to maintain a state of numbness. With her zest for life, she awakens his passion and desire for love.
The one woman Drake has spent the better part of his life avoiding is now the only woman he needs, but he is no longer a man worthy of his Emmaline. It is up to her to show him the healing power of love.
Never Courted, Suddenly Wed (Book 2-Scandalous Seasons Series)
Christopher Ansley, Earl of Waxham, has constructed a perfect image for the ton--the ladies love him and his company is desired by all. Only two people know the truth about Waxham’s secret. Unfortunately, one of them is Miss Sophie Winters.
Sophie Winters has known Christopher since she was in leading strings. As children, they delighted in tormenting each other. Now at two and twenty, she still has a tendency to find herself in scrapes, and her marital prospects are slim.
When his father threatens to expose his shame to the ton, unless he weds Sophie for her dowry, Christopher concocts a plan to remain a bachelor. What he didn't plan on was falling in love with the lively, impetuous Sophie. As secrets are exposed, will Christopher’s love be enough when she discovers his role in his father’s scheme?
Always Proper, Suddenly Scandalous(Book 3-Scandalous Seasons Series)
Geoffrey Winters, Viscount Redbrooke was not always the hard, unrelenting lord driven by propriety. After a tragic mistake, he resolved to honor his responsibility to the Redbrooke line and live a life, free of scandal. Knowing his duty is to wed a proper, respectable English miss, he selects Lady Beatrice Dennington, daughter of the Duke of Somerset, the perfect woman for him. Until he meets Miss Abigail Stone...
To distance herself from a personal scandal, Abigail Stone flees America to visit her uncle, the Duke of Somerset. Determined to never trust a man again, she is helplessly intrigued by the hard, too-proper Geoffrey. With his strict appreciation for decorum and order, he is nothing like the man' she's always dreamed of.
Abigail is everything Geoffrey does not need. She upends his carefully ordered world at every encounter. As they begin to care for one another, Abigail carefully guards the secret that resulted in her journey to England.
Only, if Geoffrey learns the truth about Abigail, he must decide which he holds most dear: his place in Society or Abigail's place in his heart.
First Full-Length Book in the Heart of a Duke Series
“For Love of the Duke”
After the tragic death of his wife, Jasper, the 8th Duke of Bainbridge buried himself away in the dark cold walls of his home, Castle Blackwood. When he’s coaxed out of his self-imposed exile to attend the amusements of the Frost Fair, his life is irrevocably changed by his fateful meeting with Lady Katherine Adamson.
With her tight brown ringlets and silly white-ruffled gowns, Lady Katherine Adamson has found her dance card empty for two Seasons. After her father’s passing, Katherine learned the unreliability of men, and is determined to depend on no one, except herself. Until she meets Jasper…
In a desperate bid to avoid a match arranged by her family, Katherine makes the Duke of Bainbridge a shocking proposition—one that he accepts.
Only, as Katherine begins to love Jasper, she finds the arrangement agreed upon is not enough. And Jasper is left to decide if protecting his heart is more important than fighting for Katherine’s love.
Non-Fiction Works by Christi Caldwell
Uninterrupted Joy: Memoir: My Journey through Infertility, Pregnancy, and Special Needs
The following journey was never intended for publication. It was written from a mother, to her unborn child. The words detailed her struggle through infertility and the joy of finally being pregnant. A stunning revelation at her son's birth opened a world of both fear and discovery. This is the story of one mother's love and hope and... her quest for uninterrupted joy.
Coming Soon by Christi Caldwell
November 7th, 2014
A Scandalous Seasons novella
"A Marquess for Christmas"
After causing a scandal last Season, Lady Patrina Tidemore ruined her good name and has little hope for marriage... until she meets the Marquess of Beaufort, a frosty nobleman with a broken heart. Can these two help each other heal and find love at the Christmastide Season?
Now Available Christi Caldwell
September 15, 2014
Book 4 in the Scandalous Seasons Series
“Always a Rogue, Forever Her Love”
Miss Juliet Marshville is spitting mad. With one guardian missing, and the other singularly uninterested in her fate, she is at the mercy of her wastrel brother who loses her beloved childhood home to a man known as Sin. Determined to reclaim control of Rosecliff Cottage and her own fate, Juliet arranges a meeting with the notorious rogue and demands the return of her property.
Jonathan Tidemore, 5th Earl of Sinclair, known to the ton as Sin, is exceptionally lucky in life and at the gaming tables. He has just one problem. Well…four, really. His incorrigible sisters have driven off yet another governess. This time, however, his mother demands he find an appropriate replacement.
When Miss Juliet Marshville boldly demands the return of her precious cottage, he takes advantage of his sudden good fortune and puts an offer to her; turn his sisters into proper English ladies, and he’ll return Rosecliff Cottage to Juliet's possession.
Jonathan comes to appreciate Juliet’s spirit, courage, and clever wit, and decides to claim the fiery beauty as his mistress. Juliet, however, will be mistress for no man. Nor could she ever love a man who callously stole her home in a game of cards. As Jonathan begins to see Juliet as more than a spirited beauty to warm his bed, he realizes she could be a lady he could love the rest of his life, if only he
can convince the proud Juliet that he's worthy of her hand and heart.
Redeeming the Deception of Grace
by Kristin Vayden
Prologue
The magic of Christmas captivated Grace Hashiver each year. Yet as each year passed, she gave into the call of sleep and failed to wake in time to see Father Christmas. Tonight she was not making that same mistake. She softly tiptoed down the hardwood stairs without making a sound. This year she was a year older, a year wiser — she was eight. Her lace nightgown whispered against the wooden floor as she made it down the stairs and through the hall undetected.
The light was dim but brighter than usual from the extra candles her father always requested to stay lit all night on Christmas Eve. She sensed her slight shoulders lift in a deep breath before she tiptoed to the parlor. After a quick glance behind her, she walked into the room, richly scented from the cedar boughs placed over the hearth. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and relaxed. She hadn’t missed the magic. The fire crackled as she sat in the chair facing the tree and struggled to stay awake as time ticked forward. Perhaps this time, she would see the magic of Christmas when the clock struck midnight.
