Page 97 of Charming Artemis

“He, then, was also a member of the House of Lords?”

Adam nodded. “And he had a family of his own yet never begrudged me the time he spent helping me. His wife was ceaselessly kind and thoughtful toward me as well, though I was by then the gruff and off-putting person well-known to all and sundry.”

It was difficult to imagine Adam as anything else.

“An invitation was sent to their family when I married your sister,” he continued. “I sent it personally. The only one I penned myself. The rest, you understand, were decided upon and issued by my mother.”

“Then you were able to have your honorary father at your wedding.” Her heart ached anew. “I had so hoped to have mine.”

“No, Artemis, I didn’t. They didn’t come.”

She looked to him, surprised. “Why not?”

“Because they were in mourning. The gentleman who had been, in many ways, a father to me had died earlier that year.”

“The same year as—” A suspicion began to form in her mind. “Brier Hill is where the Lampton heir lives. It’s very near to Falstone Castle.”

He nodded.

“And the Earl of Lampton claims a seat in the House of Lords.”

Again, a nod.

“Your father figure was... my Papa.”

“And he was remarkable,” Adam said. “I haven’t the least confusion at your very real and very immediate attachment to him and his to you. I’ve never met his equal. He and his wife taught me to always champion the cause of the vulnerable. They are the reason I rushed here three years ago to come to the rescue of their soon-to-be daughter-in-law. No matter that I insisted my attendance at the dowager’s house party was forced upon me, I came in support ofherand in deference to the memory ofhim.”

“Is he the reason you tolerate the current earl? I know he irritates you at times.”

“That is a rather complicated thing, Artemis.” He actually looked a little embarrassed. What was happening? “I knew Lampton when he was a young child, though I’m certain he doesn’t remember that. Under different circumstances, we probably could have been friends.”

“What circumstances would have brought that about?” She couldn’t even imagine.

But Adam shook his head. “Let us simply say, life dealt a few too many blows.”

“Including Papa being—” The sentence refused to emerge. She struggled so much to accept that the man she had so long searched for was irrevocably out of reach.

“Charlie’s parents are the reason why, when your predicament with Charlie came about, I didn’t simply shoot the boy and have it over with. I see so much of both of them in him, and that gives me more hope than I can express.”

“He is very kind to children,” she said, hearing the softness in her voice.

“Just as his father was.”

Artemis took slow breaths, trying to take in so much so quickly. “Charlie is also very kind to me now.”

Adam nodded. “The late Lord Lampton was unwaveringly loving toward his wife. Charlie will have learned well how to be a tender and caring and respectful husband.”

“I have seen that side of him more often of late. I am trying to trust in it, but trust doesn’t come easily for me.”

He stopped their forward movement and turned to fully face her. He set his hands lightly on her arms. “We have not always got on, Artemis. We are enough alike that we have butted heads over the years. But I need you to know that I love you like my own sister. I have from the moment I overheard you telling Persephone that she was the best mama you’d ever had. I recognized in you the same pain and loneliness, the same feeling of being utterly lost that I had struggled with at your age. I wanted to be a support to you the way the late earl was to me, but I didn’t know how. I’ve likely done a terrible job of it over the years.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. Adam was never this vulnerable, never laid bare his emotions, and it was stirring her own.

“Why have you never spoken of your connection with them?” Artemis said. “When we were here for the house party, you didn’t say a word. At the wedding and the wedding breakfast, you didn’t say anything. Charlie’s parents were clearly a significant part of your life, but no one has any idea.”

“When the earl died, I felt very much at sea, trying to determine how to move forward. My father had told me, ‘Dukes don’t need people.’ I clung to that, told myself it was true. I needed it to be, because I could not bear to mourn another father.” Adam swallowed what appeared to be a lump of emotion. “I protected myself from that pain by pretending it didn’t exist. Life had permitted us a great deal less time together in the years before his passing; he had a large family to look after, and I had a tremendous load of responsibilities. I told myself that I’d imagined the connection between us, that it had been less significant than I’d let myself believe it to be. If I didn’t think very hard on what I’d lost with his death, then I was convinced it wouldn’t hurt so much.”

“Protective walls,” she muttered, knowing full well she had plenty of her own.

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