The clouds had taken over the sky, blocking most of the sun and darkening the stables. Adam approached her slowly, his arms raised as though she was a mare in need of calming. “I apologize,” he said. “I was thinking short term. It really does not sound like it is going to let up anytime soon.”
“Perhaps it will,” she said, moving past him to peek out the door. “Or perhaps it won’t.”
Adam came to stand so close behind her she could feel the body heat emanating from him onto her back. She stilled, unsure of how to handle the situation. He had seemed so bothered minutes before, and now he was merely conversational. It was a drastic change, one she had not seen in him before.
“I believe you are right. It appears as though it will rain for some time. I suppose we ought to make a run for the house.”
Cori turned to look at Adam and found him closer than she imagined. His red hair was wet, water drops clinging to the ends, and his cravat was a soggy mess. She smiled despite herself at his unkempt appearance, realizing she must be equally disheveled.
“What is it?” he asked, his voice low.
Cori shook her head. “I am merely admiring your cravat.”
He glanced down and a few drops of water fell from his head onto her cheek. His hand immediately came up to wipe them away, his fingers lingering on her jaw. She found herself holding her breath, the intensity in his eyes calling to her and pulling her in. She leaned forward of her own accord, her lips nearing his.
His mouth curved into a delectable smile and his gaze flitted to her mouth. His hands came around her waist, pulling her closer to him, when a loud bang hit the back wall of the barn and the couple jumped apart.
“The wind,” Adam said, jogging across the barn to pull the opposite door closed. Rain came in sideways, flooding him while he worked.
Cori watched him struggle with the door. Confused, she stepped back and leaned against the wall. This was not how a man acted who was in love with another woman. He had regarded her with such warmth and intensity. He’d held her waist so firm and gentle.
Slipping through the front door she ran through the rain, fighting the wind to reach the house. Rainwater trailed down her face, her jaw burning where Adam had caressed her earlier.
It was ridiculous that she allowed herself to become wrapped up in his arms—both literally and figuratively. The man did not care for her beyond friendship and the qualities she brought to the marriage. If she succumbed to his attractions, then he would survive. It was Cori who would come away crushed.
Wouldn’t she?
Doubt crept in, but she did her best to evade it.
She made it into the foyer, slamming the door closed against the wind and dripping onto the marble floor. She requested a bath to be sent up at once and climbed the stairs with haste. She wanted to get away before Adam made it inside.
She needed to be alone.
Chapter 15
Adam paced the carpet of the breakfast room. He had never been so concerned with an answer to a question in all his life. The door opened and he halted, disappointed to find the maid returned, a small shake to her head.
“What did she say?” he asked sharply.
“Her maid said she took a tray in her room.”
Adam groaned. He wanted to spend time with her. He needed to. Not only did he want to assure himself that she was all right, he was never going to break through the barrier Cori erected around herself without knowing her better.
He had spent his entire life watching a loveless marriage operate an estate, massive social agenda and parliament. He had thought he knew what he wanted in a wife when he proposed; a companion to manage the household and social engagements while he maintained his duties to the King. It was clear when he chose her that Cori was a thoughtful, elegant woman who would fill the role to perfection.
What he hadn’t counted on was the caring.
Adam cared, deeply, about what Cori thought. He wanted to know where she was and with whom she was spending her time.
He was not afraid to admit to himself that he was falling in love with his wife.
The letter he had received the day before only made things more complicated, and Adam felt it important to discuss the situation before anything could happen to ruin the progress they had made the last few weeks.
If nothing else, he needed to prepare her.
“Shall I retrieve her?” the maid asked, looking at Adam with mild curiosity.
“No. That is all.” He dismissed her, filling a plate haphazardly at the sidebar and sitting down to eat, unsure of what he was spooning into his mouth. His only goal was nutrients at present, and then he would be able to consider the matter at hand and the best way to go about correcting it.
He could enter her bedchamber, but that would break the code he had set for himself after that very first night: he needed her to come to him.
“Blast it!” he said, startling the footman poised against the wall. He ran a hand over his face and stood, marching toward the stairs. Forget the code. He needed to talk to his wife, and he was going to talk to her now.
* * *
Cori looked over her shoulder at the large, imposing estate and wondered if Adam could see her from the breakfast room as she rode away. Slipping out of the house had felt so cowardly, but she needed some time away. She clicked her tongue and Chance took off, jogging over the familiar, wet terrain. She was unsure if her solo ride would cause discord with her husband. While it was true that they had fallen into the routine of riding together following breakfast, they had never explicitly made it a daily plan.
And at present, Cori merely wanted to see her sisters.
She felt at once that something was different when she rode up to the stables and left Chance with Tim, her parent’s groom. Crossing the muddy earth she stepped up to the front door and Harvey opened it, letting her into the foyer.
“Cori! What are you doing here?” her mother asked from the top of the staircase, her face a perfect picture of surprise.
“I have come to see Meg and Marjie. I did not realize you would be home.”
Mother began descending the stairs. “They are up in the school room, but I suppose you are welcome to see them.” She appeared wary and Cori was not at all sure why. The last she’d seen her mother, she was overjoyed at the superb match Cori had made. It had been foolish of her, perhaps, but she felt like she had finally made her mother proud.
She glanced up to the sour, pinched face her mother had so often given her and sighed. She did not look like a proud mother one bit.
Cori bid her mother farewell and mounted the stairs, eager to be in the schoolroom and regain some normalcy. She discovered her youngest sisters writing while their governess sat at the front of the room. All three of them turned when she opened the door.
“I apologize for the intrusion. I only came to say hello.”
“It is not Tuesday,” Miss Hooplin replied.
“Yes, it is not Tuesday.”
“May we have a short break?” Marjie asked, her angelic face beseeching her governess.
The older woman looked from Cori to her sisters and said, “Five minutes, and not a moment more.” She stepped from the room and Cori heard a door close down the hall.
“What is it?” Meg asked, her pale eyebrows drawn together.
Cori shrugged, coming to sit near them. “I missed you.”
“Of course you did!” Marjie squealed, coming to snuggle on her lap. Cori put her arms around her youngest sister, holding her close for a moment as though her warmth and exuberance would chase away the melancholy. Would she ever have children of her own? Or would Meg and Marjie be the closest she ever felt to mothering? It was impossible not to feel a thread of rejection that Adam had yet to visit her room. She could only hope the matter would correct itself in time.
Biting back tears, she shook her head. “I do not know why I am so emotional. Perhaps it is just that marriage is not quite what I had anticipated.”
“How is marriage
then?” a voice asked from the doorway. Cori glanced up sharply to see Rosemary stepping into the room. Her face was drawn; her eyes looked tired.
“Hello, Rose,” Cori said, eliciting a scowl from her sister.
“Looking forward to spending some quality time together?” Rosemary asked before smiling like a feline and slinking away. It was clear their relationship had a long way to go before it would mend. If, indeed, it ever did.
“Don’t mind her,” Meg said. “She is still licking her wounds. I don’t think she understands how you were able to steal Lord Arnett from her.”
“I didn’t steal anyone!” Cori nearly yelled, affronted. “He approached me. Wait…” She eyed Meg and Marjie, then continued. “Does everything think that is what I did? Steal Adam from my sister? Does no one understand it was he who pursued me? That he proposed to her first?”
Meg and Marjie’s innocent expressions said more than words ever could. Mortification filtered through Cori’s body, stunning her. Of course she knew Rosemary desired Adam for a husband after Lord Hammond’s death; both she and their mother had made that very clear. But Rose had refused his proposal, and Cori did not go out of her way to take Adam, she had simply agreed to be his wife. What she questioned now, was whether she would have made the same decision if she’d known before what she knew now: that he had deeply loved her sister, and only married her out of spite.
After a moment, she stood. She needed to remove herself from her former home.
“Where are you going?” Marjie asked, disappointed.
“Home—er, well. Away. I need to get away.”
Cori fled the house, unsure if anyone watched her retreat. She jumped onto Chance’s back and flew from the stables faster than was safe, the ground wet from the previous day’s rain.
She approached the jump—the hedge her father deemed unsafe. Deciding in a moment so quick she did not consciously claim it, she turned Chance toward the hedge, gripping her tightly, tensing herself for flight.
She leapt obediently into the air, and it was as glorious as it was terrifying. The moment Chance’s hooves hit the ground she rocked forward, gasping for breath and laughing at the madness of it. Her father was right, it was unsafe and she had nearly not cleared the hedge. But, she did it. And the exhilaration filling her was a cure for her melancholy like nothing before.
A horse came into view and she recognized the man’s flaming red hair at once. Her mood shifted, irritated that he had come after her. Cori turned Chance for the back fields of her parents’ home and let the mare have her head. She could faintly hear Adam calling to her, but ignored him, eager to be alone. She had only just regained some composure and Adam had the power to undo it again.
Chance was fast, but Adam’s horse was faster. He caught up to her within minutes, reaching out to grab hold of her horse’s bridle. She resented his manhandling and glared at him. “I will slow,” she called, forcing him to release her horse.
Chance came to a stop, chest heaving in time with Cori’s.
Adam was glowering. “What was that for? Do you realize how dangerous that jump was with all this mud?” he shouted, jumping from his horse. He came around to pull her down and she unhooked her leg just in time to avoid a painful dismount.
He set her roughly on the ground and she nearly toppled, heavy mud squelching beneath her boots. She had enough of Adam’s high-handed treatment of her. Blood boiling, she registered the fire in his eyes, sure it matched her own.
“I was fully capable of jumping that hedge, clearly. And I desired some solitude,” she said finally, chest heaving.
He looked shocked. “Whatever did I do?”
Cori turned from him. Stomping away from her husband and their horses in a thoroughly flooded field, effectively ruining the hem of her favorite riding habit.
“Cori, stop,” he said, grabbing her arm.
She wrenched it free of his grip. “Must you always do that?” she shouted.
He reared back as though he’d been slapped.
“You needn’t grab me,” she said, softening her tone.
“I apologize,” he said stiffly. “I was unaware.”
Cori searched his gaze, surprised to find him genuine. Why must they argue? She was so defeated, so unsure of everything: herself, her marriage, her place in the house and now within society. She was a lone island amidst many moving ships and she merely wished to understand whether the ships were friends or traitors.
Adam spoke, softer now. “I apologize if I’ve hurt you.” His clear eyes regarded her closely and she was suddenly overcome with doubt. The women who had gossiped at her wedding and the letters she had found in the drawer proved how unfaithful Adam’s heart had been, but the way he looked at her now told an entirely different story.
Tears sprang to her eyes and she looked to the sky, wishing them away. Adam’s hand moved to wipe them away but he halted, hesitating before dropping his hand again.
That action hurt her more than any previous words. She had driven another wedge between their already rocky relationship.
“May we begin anew?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
Cori took a deep breath. It had to be everything, or it would achieve nothing. She needed to lay her doubts and insecurities at his feet and leave them for him to do with what he would. Their marriage would not be able to thrive otherwise.
“What I mean is, may we pretend today is the first day? This is the first moment for us. There is no preexisting relationship between our families; you have never met Rosemary.”
He winced and she faltered.
Gathering courage, she continued, her voice laced with tears. “I am ordinary, that I know, but I can be a good wife if you will allow me the time to prove myself. You needn’t always hide away and write your letters. You may trust me with details of estate business or whatever else worries you. I can be your confidant and friend. If nothing more, Adam, I can be your friend.”
He searched her face, his shoulders slumped forward. “You are not ordinary, Cori Arnett. Indeed, you are far from ordinary.”
He swept her into his arms, claiming her lips with a passion she had never before imagined. She slid her hands up to grip his lapel and returned the kiss, hopeful for the message it brought.
Moments later he leaned his head back, resting his forehead on hers. “I was never in love with your sister,” he said. Cori tried to step back, but he held her strong, looking her in the eye. “I was infatuated, yes, but when she chose Hammond and I saw her true character for the first time, I was not only repulsed by her, but by what I had let myself fall for. I went to Italy to clear my head, but I did not need the space to heal from her. That happened before.”
“But when you came to take leave of my father, I watched you. I saw the longing in your eyes as you spoke to Rose.”
Adam shook his head. “There was no longing. Only disgust. How the mind can perceive things so faulty at times.”
Cori considered his words. It made sense, of course. But it was not easy to wrap her head around. The letters Rosemary had clandestinely sent him painted a romantic picture of young love and a promised future. A future he now claims he had let go of before even leaving England.
“And as far as hiding away,” he said, “I have been unable to write any of my correspondence these past few weeks because my new wife has had me thoroughly distracted.”
Cori glanced up sharply. “How do you mean?”
“I mean,” he placed a light kiss on her forehead, “that I’ve been too busy thinking of you to get much of anything done. That is why I must constantly go to my study to take care of business. There is no business being taken care of.”
Cori grinned as Adam kissed her cheek. “Perhaps I have misunderstood.”
“It seems to me you’ve misunderstood a wealth of things,” he murmured before taking her lips once again.
Later when they mounted their horses, Adam said, “I am sorry that I was not more honest about my relationship with
Rosemary. It was thoughtless of me. I should have considered that you would wonder about it.”
Cori nodded, pulling chance up beside Adam’s horse. “I admit I was confused to learn that you proposed to her first.”
His head jerked up. “I never proposed to your sister.”
The women’s voices repeated in her mind. “I heard it at the wedding breakfast.”
Shaking his head, he regarded her closely. “I do not know what gossip you heard, but I have never asked Rosemary to be my wife.”
Calm spread through her, and her joy grew when he asked, “Will you dance with me this evening at Lady Dunview’s ball?”
“Yes, of course.”
He cleared his throat. “I’ve also got some news.”
Cori watched him expectantly. His face distorted in an expression of apology.
“My family has returned from London, and our mothers have come up with a plan.” He ran a hand through his hair, then directed his horse toward home. “It seems Rosemary has become fodder for excessive gossip. She is having trouble finding a suitor in Town, and your mother fears she has lost hope of a respectable match.”
“Because of Lord Hammond’s death?” That did not add up.
He shook his head. “No, she has developed a reputation of being loose. She was found alone with a man, embracing. Her character has been called into question. Your mother has approached mine, and they believe if we lend her our consequence, she can overcome the scandal before it blows out of proportion. She might regain some respectability if we are to chaperone her.”
A pit formed in her gut, growing heavy with increasing dread. Was it normal to care very little for one’s sister’s lost respectability? Cori did not wish Rosemary ill, but chaperoning her about society was a sure way to lose the little footing she had just attained with her husband. They were only beginning to know one another.
Training her gaze straight ahead, she asked, “Do you wish to chaperone her?”
“No.”
Her breath caught, his answer so sure and swift. She looked over sharply, his sincere, deliberate face bouncing with the horse’s gait.
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