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Islington's eyebrows lifted just as his lips tugged to one side, “I’d love that, but that night…you said you could not marry me. May I ask why? Is there another I should be worried about?”
“No, there is no one,” Adelaine felt her heart tighten at her lie. “You must know how it is with us women…or me, to be honest. I have dreamt of the person, my personal King Arthur, shining armor and all. The man who’s too good to be true. When I do find him…you, you were just a tad too perfect to be believable. The girl inside me did not see what was in front of the woman I am. I apologize for making you so confused.”
He took her hands this time and she prayed there were not cold or clammy. Islington smiled. “I’m delighted to hear that. Since I am bound to prove myself to the dreamer child in you, would you like to extend our courtship then?”
“I was going to ask you the same question,” Adelaine breathed out nervously. “Yes, I’d like that but don’t go jumping into jousting tournaments for me.”
“Funny,” Islington said slyly. “I was thinking about challenging the Baron of Ayrton to one. But that would satisfy me more than you.”
“May I ask why?”
“Rourke gets on my nerves,” Islington’s lips flattened. “He’s just a tad too sanctimonious for my liking.”
The opportunity was ripe for her to get him to speak on himself but this time she vowed to listen, “Is he roaming the streets with carafes of holy water to save the lost and misguided?”
“Hardly,” Islington sneered. “I have a list nearly a mile long, but that is not fair to subject for you to listen to.”
Oh, drat. The one time I needed him to be self-seeking he goes to be selfless.
“I’d appreciate that,” Adelaine said, swiftly seeking something to distract him with. “Last year in November, were any of your men sent to fight in Scotland?”
“I don’t have any fighting men, but my father rallied about two hundred to send off. My territory covers a lot of farming, mining and iron works,” Islington said. “I’m still grieved that your brother died there.”
“Thank you,” Adelaine’s smile was tremulous. “But that is not what I was going after. Did you think it was right for our King to start the war where innumerous people died?”
“To be exact, King James was the one to be blamed,” Islington said. “Why did he object to a simple suggestion to drop the Catholic church causing His Majesty to send the first assault in the first place.”
“And my second point,” Adelaine added. “Just because his conflict with the Holy See pushed him to break from the Church does not give him the right to decide for anyone else. They are many who have found satisfaction with the Catholic way and to switch so suddenly would disrupt so many lives. It lead to the massacre in Scotland where far too many died. It’s not too difficult to see that the men were only defending their way of life. Fathers were torn from their children and boys from their parents, leaving women husbandless and girls fatherless for something that could have been sorted out over a table.”
Islington’s head canted to the side, “Why My Lady, you have such passion speaking about the Scots. I suspect a…underlying cause for such emotion. It even sounds personal.”
Knowing her face sported a look of deep concern, Adelaine said, “It’s an old fault of mine. My father keeps telling me I have a tender heart and that I am sometimes too sympathetic for my own good. I lost my brother at the war, I can only think of what other families are facing now, for the English and the Scottish.”
“Ah…” Islington nodded. “I understand. But may I applaud you on your sensitivities. Many wouldn’t have given a fig about the lives of others.” His smile went sly. “Are you sure you were not a Saint in another life?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What have I told you about flattery?”
The young lord shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I should stop trying, does it?”
A maid came in with a tray of tea, plates of honey bread, butter, and jams. Adelaine nodded her thanks but then faced Islington. “You are superbly infuriating. Milk or sugar, My Lord?”
“Both and did you mean infatuating instead of infuriating? Because I am very taken with you,” Islington smiled as Adelaine added the sweeteners.
Oh, good lord.
Adelaine managed to redirect the conversation into more relevant issues of the day and their discussion was mingled with the nibbling of the treats. Their discussion then began to bounce from topic to topic with thin connections between them. They went from Italian art to French dress to mocker
y about the King’s failure to have his doublet buttons meet, and lastly to the silk smuggled into the country to make dresses.
“One day I’ll take you to the far East where you can see how silk is made,” Islington said. “And India where you can ride the elephant of a Maharaja.”
“I’d have to earn your trust first,” she said.
“We’ll be husband and wife then,” Islington smiled. “I am sure marital trust would come with those titles.”
“Excuse me, in a moment's folly, I thought you meant during the courtship,” Adelaine said while settling down her cup.
Islington came near her, and his blue eyes were shadowed with a look she was not ashamed to say she knew off—desire. “Despite my looks and my station, I am a simple man, Lady Adelaine, and with simple wants. And from the very moment, I saw you I knew what I wanted and that’s you.”
