Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(32)

Adam couldn’t think of a place he wanted to be less.

Fox and Hunter’s cruel laughter echoed off the walls of Adam’s brain and he flinched.

That wasn’t altogether true. There were places far worse than this dreary institution.

“This is your idea of a diversion?” Adam mumbled.

He groaned at his brother’s booming laugh. Nick thumped him on the back. “It is an improvement from the company you find in a bottle of spirits.” There was a hint of reproach in those words.

Adam peered at Nick from the corner of his eye, heat making his cravat incredibly tight. He resisted the urge to tug at it, unwilling to let Nick know how his admonition had shamed him.

The truth that Adam kept from him—the tale of his captivity and the countless rounds of torture he’d endured—were not grounds for Adam’s dependence on spirits. His stomach tightened. He hated that he had lost so much of his self-control. After months of indulging, he had to accept that the intoxicating pull of brandy was not strong enough to dull the pain that haunted him. It was the type of agony that couldn’t be healed with a soothing balm or tonic.

He curled his hands into tight fists at his side. And all this because of the two bastards who’d taken him prisoner. If he found them, he would take great delight in—

“Adam?” Nick interrupted.

He started. “Fine,” he answered the unspoken question. He gave his head a shake. “Let’s get on with it,” he snapped, and started up the steps.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Nick had gone off to his meeting and Adam remained rooted to the entrance hall of Middlesex Hospital. He shifted his weight from side to side, unable to stave off the surging sense of awkwardness. What had possessed him to allow Nick to drag him here? The last thing the men in this hospital needed was a visit from a former spy and current reprobate brother to the Earl of Whitehaven. Feeling foolish that he’d allowed Nick to drag him along, Adam spun on his heel and hurried to take his leave. He had nearly reached the front door when an older, graying nurse appeared before him, cutting off his path to freedom.

“Mr. Markham, might I show you around?”

Bloody wonderful.

“Yes,” he growled.

If the nurse detected the spark of impatience in his laconic response, she gave no outward indication. He followed her down the long corridor, the echo of their footsteps sounding off the wall.

He noted how she continued to steal surreptitious glances from the corner of her eye at him. He may as well have been a two-headed demon for the way the woman eyed him.

Adam’s jaw set stonily. At one time, he could have charmed the heart of the coldest dowager. Fox and Hunter had destroyed his ease around other people. Now whenever he moved around strangers, it felt more like visiting a menagerie of exotic animals.

“The men will be so very grateful for your visit.”

He rather doubted it. He didn’t offer much in the way of company. In fact, they’d probably prefer empty silence to anything he had to say.

They entered a large room with several rows of neat, white hospital beds. Adam started. He’d expected a quiet, sterile space, not this bright cheery room with pictures adorning the walls. At the tables beside each man’s bed was a small vase of flowers. The winter sun glinted through the windows, wreathing the room in an ethereal glow.

His gaze followed one of the sun’s rays and he froze, suspended in a world where dream met reality.

Her back was to him, but he’d recognize that untamable mane of brown curls in a crowded ballroom.

His heart pounded hard and fast within his chest.

Georgina.

She poured a glass of water and handed it to a graying man.

“Mr. Markham?” the nurse at his side prodded.

He shook his head. “Georgina!” he called.

Her body stiffened.

The nurse gasped. “I’m sorry, sir. This is most improper. Why don’t we return to the front hall?”

Like hell.

Adam started toward Georgina. He’d found her at last—the proverbial needle in a haystack—and he did not intend to lose her now.





Diplomats for the United Irishmen will be received in Paris. The leader Emmet will go to France. He has appointed Fox as the English lead during his absence.



Signed,

A Loyal British Subject





Chapter 10




Over the years, Georgina had lost count of all the bad things that had happened to her. Yet, she could count on two hands the number of wonderful things that had happened to her, and all of them involved Adam Markham.

Since she’d found work at Middlesex Hospital, she’d lived in constant fear that Father and Jamie would find her and punish her for her role in freeing Adam. Whenever a stranger visited the facility, tendrils of fear would fan out and wrap around her lungs, making breathing difficult. At those times, she wished she could curl herself into a ball of invisibility. She’d done a remarkable job of going unnoticed—until now.

The tall man striding across the room like an avenging archangel was different than she remembered. Although lean, his body had the healthy weight of muscle to it. At the furious pace he’d set, his unfashionably long, golden hair whipped free of the queue at the base of his neck. Her fingers all but trembled from the urge to brush back those strands kissed with golden sunlight.