Madeline rolled onto her side to face her sister. “Was it difficult for you, being married to Sir Edward when you could not forget Adam?”
Diana nodded, and Madeline was suddenly curious about more of her sister’s deeper feelings.
Madeline thought of Mary and Jacob and how they’d always told each other every thought and feeling, and consequently, Madeline decided that even though she was having a hard time with the situation now, she should try to think of the future and nurture a closer relationship with Diana. She was flesh and blood, after all, and wasn’t it time Madeline reached out to forge a true bond with someone?
“Did you love Sir Edward at all?” she asked.
Diana blinked up at the ceiling. “He was my husband and I respected him, but it wasn’t easy being his wife. I was young and naive when I married him and I had no idea how the world worked. I thought I was marrying into a fairy tale—becomingLadyThurston—but to them, I would always be a tenant farmer’s daughter. Edward only married me to badger his mother. He already had his heirs from his firstproperwife. I was just a pretty reward.”
“But he seemed so in love with you.”
“It was lust, Madeline, not love. Part of the curse of being beautiful, I suppose.” She rolled over to face Madeline, and stroked her curly hair. “You’re lucky. When a man falls in love with you, he will love you for what you are on the inside, not what you look like on the outside.”
Despite what Madeline felt was a backhanded compliment, she smiled consolingly at Diana in the dim, flickering candlelight. “Adam truly loves you, Diana. You can be certain of it. If it had been lust, he would not have carried a torch for you all these years—a torch that still burns as brightly as the day it first sparked into flame.”
Diana sighed. “That’s what I try and tell myself. It’s what kept me going when the reality of my marriage sank in. I had to believe that somewhere out there, Adam loved me. Even when he married Jane, I clung to that hope.”
Madeline confided in her sister. “I read one of your letters to him. He kept them, Diana. All of them.”
“He did?” Diana’s voice beamed with surprise and happiness. “He never answered them. I feared he had crumpled each one.”
“No, he still has them and he treasures them.”
Diana rolled onto her back. “I am so happy, Madeline, to be reunited with him at last. It’s inconceivably romantic, as if we were meant to be together. That it’s our destiny and God is making it happen. Will you stand with me on my wedding day?”
Madeline swallowed over the painful lump in her throat. “I will be honored.” Then she yawned and rolled over onto her side, facing the wall. She tried to keep her voice from trembling as she closed her eyes and said wearily, “Good night, Diana.”
Chapter Thirteen
For the next two days, Adam escorted Lord Blackthorne all over the marshlands, explaining the workings of the dykes and theaboiteaux.When the lieutenant-governor realized that entire hay crops would be lost and the land would become inoperable if the dykes were not maintained, he became more open to the idea of establishing stronger requirements for the farmers, as well as attaining some funding for yearly maintenance.
Feeling pleased with the results of the visit, Adam and the rest of his family said goodbye to Lord Blackthorne and his servants, and waved to the convoy of carriages as it rolled with a flourish out of the yard.
Adam took a breath. Instantly everything seemed quiet. He turned to see Diana and Madeline standing arm in arm, smiling and waving one last goodbye.
“Congratulations, Adam,” Madeline said. “You’ve done it.”
He would have liked to hug her then, to twirl her around and celebrate, but Diana was smiling at him and he could not.
“Congratulations for what?” Diana asked, and Adam realized he had not explained his concerns about the marsh to her, nor had she asked why he and the lieutenant-governor had gone riding every day. Had she thought it was merely a social visit?
When he didn’t answer right away, Madeline answered for him. “Adam has just secured Lord Blackthorne’s support to fund the maintenance of the dykes and protect the marsh.”
“Protect it from what?”
“From flooding.”
“Flooding? Heavens.” The information barely had a chance to reach her ears, when she turned toward Agnes. “Mrs. Dalton, what time is lunch being served?”
“One o’clock, my lady.”
Without another word about the marsh, Diana turned to go into the house. “Well, I best go and dress, then. It will be our first meal alone as a family, and I want it to be special. Will you summon my maid please, Mrs. Dalton?”
Adam watched her, feeling dumbfounded, trying to remember what he had expected when he’d sent his proposal to her originally. He’d thought he’d known Diana, but he hadn’t. He only knew a fantasy of her, what hewantedher to be.
A moment later, everyone was gone, and Adam was left alone in the yard. A longing flared through him, and he could not keep it buried any longer. The time had come. He would break off his engagement to Diana today.
After lunch, Madeline heard the tapping of hoofbeats up the driveway, and knew Adam had returned from his inspection of the fields. She sat up straighter on the bench, forcing herself to ignore him—she would not turn around to look—and fight the clattering, painful awareness inside her heart.
