Page 51 of Deviant Duchess
“Stay?” He requested.
Deborah’s brows tensed as she looked from him to Adeline.
“Oh. Well, I unfortunately did not know your parents, Adeline, so there is not much I could say,” she said, her tone apologetic.
“That is alright,” Adeline replied, scooting over on the couch and patting the space, “I should like you to stay too, please. We like you near, do we not, Uncle Cedric?”
Cedric let out a soft chuckle.
“We certainly do,” he agreed, turning his gaze back to Deborah.
After a brief look of hesitation, Deborah smiled and nodded. Cedric released her wrist, noting how he immediately missed the touch of her skin against his, and settled back into his seat as he watched Deborah take one beside Adeline. His heart performed another strange flip as he watched his niece lay her head on Deborah’s shoulder, as if they had always known one another.Deborah, in turn, leaned down and kissed the top of Adeline’s head, causing a small smile to break out on the little girl’s face.
“The story, Uncle,” Adeline prompted, “Please?”
“Right,” Cedric muttered, snapping out of his moment of awe. “Well, my darling, I am afraid I do not know much about your father. What I can tell you about him though is that he loved your Mama very,verymuch.”
Adeline’s dark eyes sparkled as her smile grew bigger.
“He did?” She asked, her tone hopeful. “It was not some fairytale Mama told me?”
“Oh, no,” Cedric chuckled as he shook his head, “Their love was quite deep. Not just for your mama, but for you as well.”
“Hmm,” Adeline hummed happily, “I am so happy to hear that. Mama had told me as much.”
“And you did not believe her?” Cedric asked.
Adeline shrugged.
“He died when I was little, so I do not remember much of him. But I remember when Mama would take me to her friends’ houses afterward. I remember that those couples argued openly.All of them. So I always wondered if Mama was just telling me that to make me feel better.”
Cedric glanced toward Deborah and saw the sympathy in her eyes as she looked at Adeline.
“It is true that in our time, love matches have become quite rare,” he confessed, “But your parents were blessed enough to have found one. It is a shame that they only had a short time with one another. Truly.”
Adeline snuggled closer to Deborah, who lifted her arm and wrapped it around the little girl for added comfort.
“Keep going?” Adeline urged, settling into Deborah’s side.
“Ah, yes, your Mama,” Cedric said, then chuckled. “Gosh, she was a force. A beautiful, intelligent force, even when she was as young as you. Our father…”
Cedric paused, his heart aching with sadness.
“Our father wanted certain things for your mother,” he said after a while, “But she cared not for his plans. Stood up to him. Made her own claims for her life, and when she married your father, she proved to our father once and for all that he could not and would not control her.”
“Did that make him angry?” Adeline asked, “My grandfather, I mean?”
“Oh yes,” Cedric replied, clasping his hands tightly together as harsh memories pushed into his mind. He took a breath and centered himself. There were some things Adeline did not need to know.
“He is not important to this story, though,” he added hastily, “What is important was that your mother got the life she had always wanted. With your father. With you. She loved you both very much, and it is very clear to me that she passed that strength of hers right into you.”
“And my darling,” he said after pausing to catch his breath and clock his racing heartbeat, “My darling, you look so much like her. Soverymuch of her beauty reflects in you. In your features. In your stubbornness. In your want to have the life you see in your mind.”
He drew in a heavy breath, feeling a sadness he was usually able to keep at bay close in.
“So.Much.Beauty.” He rasped, looking into Adeline’s shining eyes.
At his ankle, he felt a small brush of something. He glanced down, and his heart skipped a beat as he found that while Deborah was holding Adeline, she had stretched her foot under the knee-high table between them and was gently caressing it over his ankle.
