“Innocent! An innocent girl does not steal her older sister’s…” Diana’s outburst halted on her lips. She appeared to be putting all the pieces together on her own, without his help. “She doesn’t know….”
He swallowed uncomfortably. “No, and you can’t tell her. I need to tell her myself.”
“I’ll tell her whatever I want! And don’t think for one minute that I will sing your praises.”
She gathered her skirts and walked quickly to the stairs. Adam went after her. “If you have a kind bone in your body, Diana, you will leave this to me. I love Madeline and I’m going to ask her to be my wife. Don’t take this chance for happiness away from her.”
Diana continued to scurry up the stairs. “I won’t let her marry you. Not after what you’ve done to me.”
“It is not your decision to make. She is a grown woman.”
Diana stopped on the landing. “She is my obstinate little sister! She has always been jealous of me, and she probably seduced you just to get back at me for being prettier and smarter and for always getting what I want! No one haseverchosen her over me!”
Feeling weak and stunned by Diana’s brutal, egotistic honesty, he stood on the staircase looking up at her, squeezing the railing in his fist. It seemed almost impossible that he could have loved her once.
She whirled around with a swish of silks and petticoats and floated the rest of the way up the stairs. A few seconds later, her bedroom door slammed shut.
Adam quickly summoned his thoughts into action. He had to find Madeline before Diana spoke to her. He had to tell Madeline he loved her and explain what had happened with Diana.
He went out to the front porch, but she and Metcalf weren’t there.
Returning inside, he took two steps at a time up the stairs and went from room to room, searching, but the house was quiet and still, all except for Diana’s maid, Hilary, who was stitching a hem in the hall by the window. “Have you seen Miss Oxley?” he asked her.
She shook her head.
Penelope had gone to Mary and Jacob’s house to help them prepare to move in, and the boys were out in the fields. Where was Madeline? He listened at Diana’s door but heard nothing and knew Madeline was not in there with her. If she had been, there would be screaming and tears.
He ran down the stairs and out the front door. A violent gale was still blowing, and the sky was churning with dark thunderclouds. He ran to the barn, checked the chicken coop and the vegetable garden, but couldn’t find Madeline anywhere.
John Metcalf had been with her last. Had she left with him? Gone riding across the marsh?
One more short search of the yard and the house yielded no results, so he quickly saddled his horse. No matter what it took, he was going to find Madeline. And God willing, he was going to make her his own.
Chapter Fifteen
Adam galloped along the ridge top, stopping to overlook the marsh below, while a brawny, brisk wind blasted him in the face. A storm was brewing, there was no doubt about that, and he had to find Madeline. He needed to explain his feelings to her before Diana had a chance to spoil everything. And she would. Heknewshe would. Madeline was deeply loyal to her sister. If she heard Diana’s story first, Madeline would never believe Adam’s love was pure. She would never betray her heartbroken sister.
He kicked himself then, remembering the day he had brought Madeline with him to meet Lord Blackthorne’s ship. With high hopes and grand intentions, he had carried the letter to Diana in his pocket, yet he had not disclosed a word of his plan to Madeline. He’d foolishly believed he had all the time in the world to woo her. He had stalled, waiting for the right time, and now he might have missed his opportunity altogether. The window had slammed shut on his fingers.
When he didn’t see Madeline or John down on the marsh, he wondered if John had taken her to see his new homestead. Deciding it was a likely place to find her, he turned his mount and kicked in his heels, feeling the first cold drops of rain pelt his cheeks.
A short time later, he was thoroughly drenched and trotting into John’s yard. John’s horse was tethered inside the open barn, his saddle gone from his back. A light burned in the kitchen window.
Feeling a surge of protectiveness over Madeline, Adam dismounted and strode to the door. How would he handle this, if Madeline was inside? The impropriety of it was one thing; John would have to be dealt with. But what about Adam’s more important objective—to pour out his heart to Madeline? He certainly couldn’t do it here, and what if he was too late? What if Madeline had fallen in love with John?
Steeling himself against any of those possibilities, Adam knocked on the door. It opened before him, and John stood there in stockinged feet, his waistcoat off, his shirt open at the neck.
Adam felt his gut twist with dread.Please, Madeline, be anywhere but here.
Clenching his jaw, he tried to keep his voice low and controlled. “Hello, John. I’m looking for Madeline.”
John held a half-eaten chunk of rye bread in his hand. He stopped chewing. “I left her at your house over an hour ago.”
An odd mixture of relief and frustration welled up inside Adam. He heaved with a shaky breath. “Did she mention anything about going anywhere? For a walk perhaps?”
John shook his head. “No. Why, is she missing?”
Adam recognized the concern in John’s voice, saw the flash of panic in his eyes, and knew John’s feelings for Madeline—like Adam’s own—were genuine. Although there were times he would have liked to put John on a leaky boat back to Yorkshire, he couldn’t fault the young man for his affections. He was young and unattached, hoping to begin a new life, and Madeline was indeed a treasure.
