Page 90 of Dangerous

“Adam?”

He finished chewing his bread and washed it down with some tea. “Yes?”

“Will you tell me something of your other marriages?”

His eyes widened comically. “Now? You wish to hear about my infamous marriages now? After weeks of being married?”

She nodded.

“You are an unusual woman, Mia Exley.”

A sense of warmth and well-being flooded her at the sound of her married name. “The reason I never asked you before is that I never believed you killed your wives, Adam.”

“Oh, how can you be so certain?”

“I could tell even that first night.”

“How is that?”

“You never looked ashamed or worried, only annoyed—at the stupidity of those who would believe such a thing. You are not the kind of man who hurts women, children, or anyone weaker than yourself.”

“I appreciate your blind faith.”

She cupped his jaw. “Please, tell me what happened.”

He sat back in his chair and sighed. “Why not? I suppose I should work in chronological order. I was nineteen when I first saw Veronica. She was—” He stopped and shook his head at whatever he saw in his head. “Well, she was unlike anything I’d ever seen.”

Jealousy for his dead wife rose in her throat like choking bile. The look on his face as he peered into his past was rapt. What dangerous box of secrets had she pried open?

“If I’d not been a young idiot, sick with calf-love, I would have taken note of what a devil she was. She tormented me and every other man who vied for her hand until matters reached a fever pitch, culminating in a challenge to the first of three men I would call out because of her.”

“Three?”

“I didn’t kill him, but he would never use his arm again.” His lips twisted with disgust. “I was a fool, almost blind with joy when she consented to marry me.”

Mia reached for her cup, her hand shaking so badly she left it in its saucer. He’d been in love with Veronica.

Adam was lost in his memories. “Veronica was a creature of pure passion, completely lacking the coldly rational outlook that had been drummed into me from birth. At first I was charmed by the differences between us. But I became less enamored of her tempestuous nature after Catherine was born.” He frowned into his teacup.

“Why? What happened then?”

He inhaled deeply before looking up, his gaze flat. “Veronica became even wilder after she realized she’d not given birth to a son. She wanted nothing more than to leave the child in the country and remove to London.” He shrugged. “I indulged her wishes until she became pregnant with Eva. Those were perhaps the longest nine months of both our lives. She was ... devastated when she realized she’d had a second daughter. I kept her at Exham as long as possible, staying with her in the country even though she began to hate me—and my mother and sister, not to mention her daughters.” He looked at her and this time Mia knew he was seeing her.

“I kept her at Exham, hoping she would overcome her unreasoning hatred of her own daughters. I didn’t touch her.” His razor-sharp cheekbones were stained a dark red. “I was afraid to get her with child.” He shook his head. “How can a woman hate her own baby?”

Mia realized it was a serious question. “I saw it happen in the harem. Sometimes a woman would just neglect her child. Sometimes”—she grimaced—“sometimes mothers tried to hurt them. I don’t know what it is, but it must be a horrible, horrible feeling.”

“When I suggested we stay in the country and miss another Season she became insane. She attacked me with her hands. I tried to reason with her—to calm her—but she broke and ran from me like a madwoman.

“When she failed to return home by dark, I went to the stables to saddle a horse and go find her.” His lips curled bitterly. “I found her in a stall mounted on one of my grooms. She laughed in my face and mocked me.”

Mia reached for his hand. “Oh, Adam.”

“I knew I had to let her go to London—to get her away from my family.” He turned his hand palm up and clasped her fingers hard. “From the moment we arrived in London she immersed herself in an almost violent whirl of gaiety. It was easy to ignore her sexual liaisons and orgies as we moved in different circles by then. I was too relieved to be shed of her to care what she did, as long as she did it away from me.

“At the end of that Season she went to Brighton and I went home.” He squeezed her hand, his face sick with guilt. “I was a coward and glad to be away from her. To be honest, I would have been happy never to see her again. As it was, I didn’t see her for almost two years. I spent the time at Exham with my mother, sister, and the girls. There were days I could almost forget she existed.” He pulled his hand away and pushed himself out of his chair. “I’m afraid I need something a little stronger than tea, my dear.”

He sat down again with a glass of brandy. “I couldn’t stay in the country forever and had to go to London on business. I was shocked at the changes in Veronica—physical and emotional. She was—” He took a drink. “Well, she looked haggard and worn to the bone. We rarely saw each other and she never slept at Exley House. I’d been in town a few weeks when something woke me at perhaps three or four in the morning. I noticed a light beneath Veronica’s door. I could hear the sound of voices—male voices—along with my wife’s.”