Page 91 of Dangerous

Mia briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them she saw he’d drained his glass and was staring blindly at the wall.

“I can still remember what I felt in that instant and it wasn’t jealousy. I’d known of her lovers for years.” He laughed. “Hell, I’d been relieved. No, what I felt that night was hatred.”

That same emotion glowed in his face as he spoke of the long-ago event. In that moment she could have believed him capable of anything, even murder.

“I hated what she’d done to me, to our children, to our life. And now she seemed determined to sully one of the few places that remained sacred to me. My own house. I didn’t bother knocking.” The smile he gave her was feral. “I found Veronica in bed with not one, but two men. I’d heard both men’s names before but wasn’t acquainted with either. One was the middle son of an impoverished baron who’d been part of Veronica’s court when I first met her. The other was a mere boy—the son of an obscure country squire. Naturally, the two men were horrified. But not Veronica. At first she was furious. How she raged at me when I kicked out her lovers.” He laughed and shook his head. “Even at the time I found the men’s expressions amusing. I told them my second would attend them and then opened the door. They scrambled out of my house, tripping over each other to get away, clothes and shoes bundled in their arms as they scurried into the night. All the while Veronica screamed.”

The humor drained from his face. “Veronica refused to go back to Exham. I don’t want to talk about what I had to do to get her there. She was unbearable when we reached home. She was also pregnant.”

Mia met his cold stare. She knew now that he was always at his most emotional when his expression was inhumanly cool and impassive.

“She was inconsolable after she gave birth to Melissa. I engaged a nurse this time, but the woman could not be awake every hour of the day.” He shrugged, the lines around his eyes and mouth deeper and more distinct. “She escaped and went to the west turret. It was a miserable night, so it’s hard to say if she had an accident or jumped. Either way, she died. There was no question of my having murdered her as I was asleep in my bed at the time. One of the footmen had seen Veronica leave the room and followed her.”

“Then how is it that everyone in London believed you killed her?” she demanded.

“People don’t require proof to believe anything, darling. They believe what they want to believe. They knew we’d hated each other for years and they made up their own, more interesting story.”

“Tell me about the duel.”

Adam gave a genuine laugh this time. “Oh, the older man took off to the Continent. The younger man showed up, so frightened he soiled his breeches. I gave him a bit of a thrashing and sent him home with nothing worse than a few bruises.”

“See, you cannot even hurt a man who deserves it.”

“Oh, he didn’t deserve either Veronica or me. He was just a boy.”

Mia didn’t agree with his assessment, but let the matter lie.

He tipped his head to one side and smiled. “Actually, it feels rather good to tell the story to another person.”

“You’ve never told any of this to anyone?”

“Who the devil would I tell it to?”

“I don’t know—perhaps your second wife?”

“I doubt I exchanged above a hundred words with the girl. Poor, poor Sarah.” He shook his head. “My second marriage was a mistake only I can claim.”

“What rubbish! She spoke the words, did she not?”

“Yes, she did. But she had no choice in the matter.”

“How is that?”

To her surprise, he colored. “I beat her father in a card game—took everything he had. When I went to inspect my winnings I found Sarah there, living alone in a house with a couple of old servants who’d been too loyal to leave her.”

Mia gasped.

“It seems she’d been living that way for some time. She had no money, no family—her father had disappeared not long after our card game—and no place to go.”

“So you married her?”

Adam nodded. “So I married her.”

“But what . . .”

“What happened? Well, it turned out Sarah wasn’t as alone as I’d believed. In fact, she was already pregnant when we wed.”

Mia shook her head. “Oh, Adam.”