Page 23 of A Trickster’s Temptation

‘It resulted from a deplorable act on my part.’

‘Abigail and Winnie guessed. You didn’t tell them.’

‘If… if I had truly wished to conceal our rapport, I would have done it. They never would have been able to intuit an ounce of what occurred.’ Adam looked down; it was too painful to look in Mary’s eyes as he confessed what he’d attempted to keep hidden even from himself. ‘But… but I think a part of me wanted them to know.

‘Why?’

‘Because I was proud. Proud and surprised and—and happy. Happier than I had ever been in my life. And some part of me, a part that I should have kept chained, wished for the whole world to know just how happy I was.’

It was the truest thing that he had ever said. Adam closed his mouth, shocked at his own honesty, then looked back up at Mary.

Mary’s eyes didn’t hold fear any more. Instead they were full, full to the brim with sentiments that Adam couldn’t define but felt at his own core.

When Mary spoke again, her voice was less quiet. ’How did you find me?’

‘It took a long time.’

‘I don’t think it did.’

‘… Fine.’ Adam bit back a smile. Even in moments like this, Mary could still pin him to the spot as if he were a butterfly on a board. ‘Once I had summoned up the courage, it took a morning’s work.’

‘You didn’t ask Abigail or Winnie. They didn’t know.’

‘I assumed that.’ Adam paused. ‘I also assumed that they… well, that they wouldn’t want to see me.’

‘I think Winnie would have tried to scratch your eyes out.’ Mary stopped for a long moment, then gave a soft smile that made Adam’s heart skip a beat. ‘But I think Abigail might have listened, even if she wasn’t able to help you.’

‘I’ll remember that for the next time you vanish.’ Adam said the words before he could think better of them. Mary stiffened; Adam held up his hands, stumbling over his words. ‘Ex-excuse me.’

‘You still haven’t said how you found me.’

‘I knew you wouldn’t stay with Abigail or Winnie for long, and if you were with your parents I would have heard about it. So I assumed you had gone away somewhere, somewhere far enough away to forget the pain I undoubtedly caused you. Given that you haven’t ever mentioned friends or relatives who live by the sea, I could only assume that you had chosen to stay in a hotel.’

‘A lot of assumptions.’

‘Of course.’Nothing ventured, nothing gained.‘But I was correct.’

‘A hotel by the sea.’ Mary paused. She slowly folded her hands in her lap; Adam watched, lost in the pale delicacy of her wrists just visible above her gloves. ‘That’s quite general, whereas—whereas your appearance here is quite specific.’

‘Yes.’

‘And so, once you had made your assumptions, how did you come to find me?’

‘Your servants.’

Mary blinked. ‘Pardon?’

‘Your servants. I assumed the disguise of one Mr. Henry Chesterton, a gentleman determined to open a hotel for ladies and gentlemen who wished to enjoy the sea air without spending a great deal of money. Your housekeeper and various maids had a great many opinions on the subject of how hotels should be run—and over the course of writing them down, a task that took many morning hours and several cups of your cook’s very fine tea, they mentioned in passing that the master’s daughter was currently with a friend at the Harrow Hotel in Whitby.’

‘I… I see.’

‘And then I assumed, and this may have been the most audacious of my assumptions, that there was no friend.’ Adam swallowed, his throat suddenly very tight. ‘Is there?’

‘… No.’

‘And that something else, not simple friendship, that brought you here. Something that—that may be the same thing that has brought me here.’

The cool sea air suddenly seemed hot, warmed by the strength of what still remained unsaid. Mary looked down for a moment, evidently steeling herself, while Adam remained still.

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