Part 28 (2/2)
”Then ...” He tried to pull her a little closer but she gracefully resisted.
”You and the department were my life for five years. I could scarcely forget that.” Her smile returned. ”It was a glorious adventure, a grand journey, and I am, oh, grateful, I suppose, to have experienced all that I did. However ...” A firm note sounded in her voice. ”I am more grateful for what I have found now.”
He steered her through a turn, made somewhat more difficult by his shoes, but nearly perfect. Apparently, some skills were not entirely lost.
”But you haven't answered my question.” Again he braced himself. ”Why did you marry him?”
”It's not an easy answer but I suppose things like this seldom are.” She fell silent for a long moment. ”I wanted a man exactly like my husband. Someone solid and settled and respectable. An honorable man who cared about those things that seem ordinary-home and family and permanence. Apparently the answer is easy after all,” she said thoughtfully. ”When I met Adrian, I realized I didn't want a man exactly like him. I wanted him.” She cast him a brilliant smile and his breath caught. ”And I still do.”
”And yet,” he said cautiously, ”he is not here with you tonight.”
”He will be.” She sighed. ”Sir, my husband is charming and intelligent. And yet, like any man, he can be an idiot as well. But make no mistake, he is my idiot and I love him with every fiber of my being.”
His heart thudded. ”I understood you were no longer under the same roof.”
”Not for long.” Determination showed in the set of her chin.
”Oh, are you going to forgive his transgression then? Not that I know what it is,” he added quickly.
She laughed. ”I'm surprised you don't. I thought you knew everything.”
”I do try.” He shook his head in a mournful manner. ”But I am sadly out of practice.”
”Oh dear, you shall shatter my illusions about you,” she teased.
”I would hate to do that.” He paused. He should stop this now. He knew what he needed to know. And yet ... ”Do you love him enough to forgive him?”
”I love him too much not to. Besides ...” A thoughtful note sounded in her voice. ”One could argue a great sin could be the result of great love.”
”Is that what you think? That you share a great love?”
”Not at all.” The smile on her face was that of a woman in love. With her husband. With him. What a fool he had been. ”It's what I know.”
”Then love is all, is it?”
”Oh my.” She studied him for a moment. ”You're one of those men, aren't you?”
”What men?” he said cautiously.
”One of those men who proudly and arrogantly proclaim they have never been in love.” She leaned closer and spoke low into his ear. ”Those are the ones who have the worst of it, you know, when it does happen.”
”Do they?” He bit back a smile.
”Mark my words, Sir.”
”Well, I am not one of those men. I have been in love but she loved someone else.” He held her a little tighter and this time she did not resist. But there was a distinct air of farewell in her manner. G.o.d, he was a lucky man.
”I see.” She nodded slowly. ”I shall have to a.s.sume you are not speaking of me. Because if you aren't, we shall both be terribly embarra.s.sed that the thought even crossed my mind. If you are, well, then I should have to make certain you understand that your feelings are not returned.”
”Not even a little?”
She laughed. ”Oh, certainly a little.” She shook her head. ”But not enough.”
The last strains of the waltz ended and they drifted to a standstill. He released her with reluctance and slowly escorted her off the dance floor.
He drew a deep breath. ”Thank you, Eve.”
”No, Sir, thank you. I have long felt you were a book whose ending I had failed to read. I have always hated not finis.h.i.+ng a book.” She cast him a brilliant smile. ”I can now close the book and set it away on a shelf with other books.”
He gasped in feigned dismay. ”Left to the ravages of mold and rot and worms?”
”Not at all. Set carefully aside to be cherished and kept safe always.” She smiled in a wry manner. ”But never to be read again.”
”You have no regrets at the turns your life has taken?”
”My life is as I always wished it would be. No, I said I would be honest and that isn't entirely honest.” She paused. ”In truth, Sir, my life is better than I ever imagined it could be, which has nothing to do with my husband's money or position and everything to do with the kind of man he is. Good and kind and clever and amusing. And while he may not have your adventurous spirit, he is the most exciting man I have ever met. At least he is to me. He has my heart and I could not live my life without him.”
His heart twisted. ”Then you have no regrets.” ”Only a fool or someone quite perfect would have no regrets. I am not at all perfect, and I do hope I am not a fool. But my regrets are, for the most part, insignificant.” She smiled. ”I do regret that the only true mystery of my life will never be solved. That I will never know who you are. That I will never know if you are someone I see frequently at events like this. If we have exchanged idle conversation perhaps. Or if you are someone I pa.s.s and nod a greeting to in the park. I regret that I will never know your face.”
”I could be dreadfully ugly, you know,” he warned.
She laughed. ”I doubt that but it doesn't matter.” She tilted her head and gazed up at him. ”Will you grant me a favor?”
”Anything.”
”Someday, when you are very old and gray and you know the end of your days is near, will you send me one last note? Will you solve that mystery for me?”
”I would be delighted.” He chuckled. ”It will be something to look forward to in my declining years.”
”A very long time from now, I hope.”
”Still, one never knows how much time one has left.”
”No, we don't, do we?” For a long moment she stared at him, then she smiled. ”Farewell, Sir.”
”Farewell, my dear Eve.”
She turned and a moment later he had lost her in the crowd. But not for long.
She married him because she loved him. She may well think him an idiot, which admittedly he had been of late, and not adventurous and a man who cared about ordinary things, but she loved him and that was all that mattered.
He made his way through the throng to a side door, slipped out of the ballroom, and hurried to a salon he had found earlier in the evening where he had hidden what he would need to change from Sir. As he had the clothing he would wear to appear as Adrian on under the cloak, it was a simple enough matter. It would take him only a few minutes to discard this costume, change his shoes, and put on a different mask. Then he would return to his wife and take her in his arms.
And never let her go again.
<script>