“I’m sorry, I—” He stumbled over his words. “You’re Diana’ssister?What was your name again?”
Madeline squared her shoulders against the stinging humiliation and labored to speak in a steady, dignified voice. “My name is Madeline.”
Adam stared at her for another few seconds. “Yes, I think I remember you now.” He paused again. It was the most acrid silence she’d ever experienced. “Was there some kind of problem? Why didyoucome?”
This couldn’t be happening….
Dear God, she felt as if she were going to be ill. “I…I was told you wished it.”
“No.” He paused. “Well, this is awkward, indeed.”
“Awkward for whom, sir?” Madeline replied sternly. “For you? Or for these people standing behind me?”
Thankfully, the others recognized the hint and casually dispersed, including Mrs. Ripley, who gave Madeline a sympathetic pat on the arm before turning away.
She was now standing alone, face-to-face with Adam Coates, not knowing what in the world to say to him—to this man who only a moment ago she had thought was her husband-to-be.
“Who told you I wished for you to come?” he asked directly.
“My father. He said you wrote him a letter.”
Adam’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “I did write to him, and to Diana, as well. Did he not deliver my note to her?”
“Not to my knowledge. She was away in London when your proposal arrived. I never saw the letter and I never even said goodbye to her. I barely had time to write and tell her where I was going.”
The muscles in Adam’s jaw clenched visibly as his anger took root and burst forth. He began to pace in front of Madeline. “I was more than clear about wanting to marryDiana.He had no right to send you instead. What was he thinking of?”
Madeline had to work hard to maintain her dignity, when her whole being was winding tight with rage at her father.
At Adam, as well, for humiliating her like this in front of everyone. Not to mention for crushing her dreams without even noticing, or taking the time to consider the fact that she, too, might be disappointed.
“My apologies for the misunderstanding, sir. My father has a tendency to manipulate things to his liking.”
“Manipulate? He sent me the wrong bride!”
Madeline gritted her teeth together, unable to hide her fury any longer. “Sir, you are not the only one who has been inconvenienced by this. I just spent forty-six days on a damp, creaky ship eating dry oatmeal and drinking stale water, and now you tell me in front of everyone that I’m not the one you ordered, and I shouldn’t have bothered. I believe I’ve had quite enough insults and frustrations for one day.”
He stopped pacing and looked at her—reallylooked at her—as if for the first time. “Didn’t you think it strange that I would ask for your hand? Didn’t you question what your father was telling you? Diana and I have a history together, a past, and you were just a child then. You’re still a child now.”
“I’m twenty-two, sir.” She was quite unable at this point to keep the ire out of her tone.
“Ah, I see. Twenty-two, and wanting marriage so badly you were willing to deceive a man to get it.”
“It was my father who deceived you, not I!”
He did not accept her declaration of innocence; he merely continued to pace back and forth in front of her. “Whether you knew the truth or not, you played a part in it. Diana was the obvious choice. Lord in heaven, what wereyouthinking?”
What was she to tell him? That she had been thinking with her foolish, lovesick heart? That she had dreamed of marrying him since she was a child and had spent the past six weeks fantasizing about a wedding night in his arms? A lifetime in his heart? That she’d believed he wanted to marry her, too, because she’dwantedto believe it?
What a fantasy it had been! The man in her dreams had been full of mirth and adoration. This bitter, belligerent man was nothing like the young man she remembered.
“My father assured me you had asked for my hand. I had no reason to question the truth of it.”
Someone nearby split a log with an ax. The sharpcrackmade Madeline jump. She felt as if someone were taking an ax to her heart as well.
Adam’s chest heaved with a sigh. “No reason to question it? Do you not have a mind of your own?”
Oh, this was too much. “To tell you the truth, Mr. Coates, I do have a mind of my own—a mind to poke my father with a knitting needle, and if I may say so, you could use a poke yourself.”
