Pembroke Palace 05 by A Kiss Before the Wedding

Author:A Kiss Before the Wedding [Wedding, A Kiss Before the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, love, marriage, kiss, british, England, Love Story, historical, victorian, happily ever after, wedding
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Five

Shortly after sunset the following day, Adelaide gathered her hat in her hands, placed it on her head, and tied the ribbon under her chin. She crossed her bedchamber and opened the door, but sucked in a breath of shock when she found her father leaning against the opposite wall in the corridor, arms folded over his chest, nostrils flaring as he gazed at her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked accusingly as he pushed away from the wall and crowded her back into her bedchamber.

“It’s a lovely evening for a walk,” she calmly explained.

He entered the room and shut the door behind him. He was a tall man and he towered over her like a giant. “Do not lie to me, Adelaide. I know where you were last night. I know you went to the maze at midnight to meet Mr. Thomas. Margarite told me everything.”

Adelaide frowned. How had Margarite known? Adelaide had assured her sister that she would not go to meet William. At the time, she had believed in her own heart that she could, and would, resist seeing him again. But in the end she had left her room with the utmost urgency and gone dashing across the moonlit gardens to reach him.

Margarite must have expected her to change her mind. She may even have spied on her.

“I did nothing wrong,” she told her father. “Mr. Thomas is a friend. I felt I owed him an explanation.”

“Why?”

“Because he...” She paused, then raised her chin, squared her shoulders, and spoke with a purposeful degree of condescension. “Because as you must know, he fancies himself in love with me. I had to set him straight, and make sure he understood that I had made up my mind, and we could never be together.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed until he was squinting at her. “Then where are you going tonight?”

“Nowhere,” she replied too quickly. “A walk. There is no cause for alarm. I was firm with Mr. Thomas, and he is gone now. I suspect he is already halfway to Italy.”

Her heart was pounding violently in her chest and she prayed her father could not recognize her panic.

For a long moment he studied her expression. Then his eyes softened and he moved closer. He took her shoulders in his hands and spoke compassionately, as if she were still a child and she had just lost her puppy.

“I know how it is between you and Mr. Thomas,” he gently said. “There is a bond there, for you grew up together, but I cannot let you make this mistake, Adelaide. It is only because he has been away for so long that you romanticize what you were to each other.”

She shook her head and argued, “I am not romanticizing—”

He raised a finger to his lips. “Shh. You must listen to reason. Look around you. You have made it all the way to Pembroke Palace. It is your destiny to become duchess here. The duke adores you. He would have paid any sum to have you.

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