Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(103)

“Miss Wilcox?”

Georgina jumped at the unexpected intrusion and she scrambled to her feet. “Yes?”

The young maid, Jane, smiled. “Nurse Catherine has requested your presence in her office.”

Her heart raced. Georgina lived in constant fear that one day Catherine would find Georgina guilty for the crimes of her father and toss her from Bristol Hospital. Then Georgina would be well and truly lost.

Jane cleared her throat and Georgina started. “She just said it was an urgent matter, miss.”

Oh God, an urgent matter. While Georgina made the long trek to Nurse Catherine’s office, she told herself it could be anything or nothing at all but the worst possible scenarios played out in her head.

The young maid scurried off.

Georgina leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, willing away memories of Adam though they refused to stay buried. He was everywhere. There was no escaping him.

She knocked on the door.

“Enter,” the woman called.

Georgina opened the door, but hesitated at the threshold. “You wished to see me?”

She gestured her forward. “My dear, there is someone who requested an audience with you.”

She furrowed her brow. The only people who would ever have a need for her were Father and Jamie—and they were both dead.

“Hello, Georgina.” That deep baritone that haunted both her dreams and nightmares filled the room.

She spun around and her hand flew to her breast.

Adam!

In her darkest moments she imagined he’d forgotten about her. She’d tortured herself with the truth—he’d surely not thought of her. Only he was here now. Her mind went blank and she searched for words. “Adam.” Why are you here?

An indecipherable look passed over her face.

Odd, she should know him so very well and yet he may as well be carved from stone for the stiffness to him. She wet her lips. “Why you here?” Then a niggling of fear pebbled in her belly. Gooseflesh dotted her skin at the sickening possibility that he’d come for no other reason than to retrieve her, to bring her to justice, to…She took a step back, toward the door.

He stretched a hand out. “Don’t go,” he said hoarsely. “Please.”

Please. This man who’d endured countless days of torture at her father and Jamie’s hands had never pleaded once. Now he would beg her. To what end?

Georgina nodded once.

“May I speak to my wife alone?” he said quietly.

Georgina’s lips twisted. “I’m not your wife.” He’d not wanted her. She hated the inherent weakness in her that the pain of his betrayal should still ravage her heart.

He closed the distance between them. He stopped a hair’s breadth apart from her. “You are my wife and I’d like to speak to you alone.”

Catherine interjected. “If Georgina will not speak to you, I will have to insist you leave, sir. I merely allowed this extraordinary meeting because I believed you were her husband. However—”

“I’ll speak to him,” Georgina said. She looked back to Adam. “I’ll speak to you, but when you are finished you must leave.”

He hesitated and then gave a curt nod.

Nurse Catherine walked toward the front of the room but paused at the doorway. “If you require anything, Georgina…” She closed the door behind her with a soft click. The meaning was clear. If he were to harm her, Georgina need just call out and help would be there.

Adam would never lay a hand on her. He’d inflicted a different kind of pain—the kind which would never go away.

“What do you want, Adam?” She didn’t allow herself to look up his towering, lithe form. His moss-green eyes could weaken a woman’s resolve and Georgina was not willing or able to turn herself back over to him. He’d hurt her too greatly, and she feared if she welcomed him back into her life, she would always be on a steep cliff that she could teeter over at any moment. She wasn’t strong enough to survive another fall—not at his hands.

Adam brushed her jawline with his fingertips, directing her chin up. Warm shivers radiated out from the point of his touch.

She closed her eyes, hating her body’s awareness of him, hating herself for her weakness.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Why are you here?” she tossed back.

Ah, she’d always been bold and proud. He admired her now more than ever. Framing her face between his hands, he lowered his brow to hers. “I have thought of you and nothing else since you walked out of my life. I lied awake and imagined what I would say to you if I ever found you again, and now you are here, and I am remarkably without words.” He drew in a shuddery breath. “Nothing I can say would be adequate to convey how sorry I am—”

Georgina shoved his hands off her person. Was that was this was about? His sense of remorse? She spun away from him. “If you’ve come to apologize, there is no need. We were both wrong. I was wrong to lie to you and…”

You were wrong to believe the absolute worst of me. You were wrong to abandon me with Jamie.

Folding her arms beneath her stomach, she hugged herself tight.

*

Adam rested his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him.

She shrugged him off and proceeded to speak. “I do not know for what purpose you’ve come. I’ve already told you the reasons for my lies.”