Adam's Promise by Julianne MacLean Page B

look that told her otherwise. “It was only a few weeks later that the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia came to recruit families to emigrate, and I was more than ready to hear him out. We came here on the very first ship and made a fresh start.”
    â€œAnd now, you’re a landowner.”
    â€œSometimes I pinch myself.”
    Madeline thought of what it must have been like, for Adam to sell everything, uproot his family and venture across an ocean into unfamiliar lands, whenhis children were so young. Penelope would have been only five years old. And Adam—without a wife to support his decision, or keep him company during the lonely years settling into a strange place—must have often questioned himself and worried for his children’s futures.
    Madeline smiled warmly. “You’ve done well for your family, Adam. You should be proud.”
    He nodded and let his gaze linger upon her eyes for a second or two, then he raised his left hand to look at it. “You know, I think I should take this off now.”
    â€œYour wedding ring?”
    â€œYes. After our conversation about Jane, I’ve been feeling less burdened by what had been keeping it on my finger.” He pulled it off and put it in one of his desk drawers. “I have you to thank for that, Madeline. How can I ever repay you for your kindness?”
    Even in the candlelight, Madeline could see his face go pale. He spoke awkwardly. “And I suppose it would have been bad form to still be wearing it when Diana came. Thank you,” he said again.
    Madeline simply nodded to hide her own face going pale or flushing with pink. She wasn’t sure what it was doing, only that her cheeks were burning. For she had a dozen ideas about how Adam could repay her for her so-called kindness.
    Adam regained the composure in his voice. “So, I’ve told you why I left Yorkshire. What about you? Why were you so eager to leave your home and marry a man you barely knew?”
    She stared at him blankly.
    â€œGood heavens, Madeline, that came out not at all the way I meant it to.”
    â€œIt’s all right, Adam, you’re right. I acted hastily, knowing nothing about where I was going or who I was going to. I was just so happy to be leaving, I suppose I stuck my head in the sand.”
    Maybe she fudged the truth a little, leaving out the part about wanting to marry him because he was the man of her dreams, but she couldn’t very well tell him everything.
    â€œWhy would you be so happy to leave? Was your father that much of a tyrant?”
    Odd, that Madeline had come to Nova Scotia to escape and hide from the scandal that had ruined her, yet now found herself wanting nothing more than to revisit it again and confess everything.
    She supposed she wanted to feel closer to Adam, even though she knew it was wrong and foolish.
    Lord help her when Diana arrived.
    â€œMy father was part of the reason I left Yorkshire, but not all of it. Mostly I wanted a fresh start, for I discovered the hard way that a woman’s reputation is as fragile as glass and, once broken, not so easy to put back together.”
    Adam gazed at her with interest. “What happened, Madeline? You weren’t…”
    She quickly shook her head. “No, it never came to that, but it’s not what happens to a woman that matters as much as what appears to happen. When I was eighteen and visiting Stanley Hall to tutor Lord Jeffrey’s children, the local vicar followed me out intothe garden and attempted to compromise me, for which I gave him a black eye.”
    Adam’s face lit up at that. “Good for you, Madeline.”
    â€œWell, I thought so, too, but my father, alas, did not. He paid the vicar a large sum to marry me, but I refused. The story got out, don’t ask me how, and the vicar blamed me for seducing him. My reputation was ruined, and the vicar lost his position and insisted on keeping the money for