I’ve been cold half my life and don’t intend to be so ever again.”
He had a sudden vision of a small thin girl locked in a frigid room. “You may keep your fires stoked as hot as you wish,” he promised, the urge to heal and protect once more tightening his chest.
A little smile played about her lips. “I want a bed with a feather mattress so soft, when I lie down I will feel like I’m floating on air. A turkey carpet on the floor so thick, my feet will sink up to the ankles, as if in a pair of fuzzy slippers. Oh, and speaking of slippers—” she turned to Mr. Pendenning “—if those instruments of torture that Jerry Sunderland provided me in the guise of footwear are representative of what I can expect in shoes, I shall remain as I am, barefoot.”
The lawyer chuckled. “Not knowing your size, poor Jerry grabbed the only pair the cobbler had ready. I promise you, my dear, that the bootmakers of London can put on your feet slippers so soft and supple you would swear you were still barefoot.”
“Very good,” Miss Lambarth said. “I shall feed those shoes into the first fire I kindle in my room. And this gown, as soon as a replacement can be found.”
“I’ve already summoned a dressmaker to wait upon you here,” Mr. Pendenning said. “She is bringing several gowns that can be quickly altered to fit. For the rest, I’m sure Lady Darnell will take you to her own mantua-maker and assist you in purchasing as many gowns as you like.”
Adam had to laugh. “I can assure you she will! My stepmother positively delights in shopping. I expect my sister will also petition to join such an expedition.”
“I want pretty colors,” Miss Lambarth stated. “No black. And soft fabrics, like the material of this sofa.”
“I’m sure Lady Darnell will be able to find you something that pleases you. So,” Mr. Pendenning said, “you will go with Lord Darnell, as your mother wished?”
Miss Lambarth looked back at Adam. “A big library?”
“Quite large.”
“A thick feather mattress?”
“Soft as a cloud.”
“Warm rooms?”
“You can make the wallpaper curl.”
At that moment a knock sounded and one of the lawyer’s assistants stepped in. “Mr. Pendenning, you wished me to let you know when the seamstress arrived.”
The lawyer looked over to Miss Lambarth. “Are you ready for that new gown?”
That smile transformed her face again. “Absolutely!”
“And you will accompany Lord Darnell to meet your cousin when it is done?”
After a pause she nodded. “I will go with him.”
“Excellent.” He beamed at the girl. “Show Miss Lambarth and the seamstress to the back office and see that they are not disturbed,” he instructed his assistant.
“I’ll wait here for you, Miss Lambarth,” Adam told her as she walked to the door.
She paused on the threshold to look back at him. “I hope neither of us regrets this.”
Something about her fierce independence sent a rush of awareness through Adam. ’Twas just compassion for her plight and anger at the unspeakable treatment she’d suffered, he told himself as he assured her, “I’m certain your stay in my home will be a pleasure for us both.”
CHAPTER FOUR
AFTER THE YOUNG MAN escorted Miss Lambarth out, Pendenning turned to Adam. “Will you join me for a brandy? After the, ah, surprise of meeting Miss Lambarth, I expect you could use one. I know I could.”
“I would be grateful,” Adam replied.
The lawyer poured the brandy and handed Adam a glass. “I imagine you have questions for me.”
“Indeed! My stepmother told me that Miss Lambarth’s mother left nearly a decade ago. Am I to understand from what I’ve just witnessed that from that time until his recent death, her father kept her a…a prisoner?”
His face setting in grim lines, Pendenning nodded. “As horrifying and incredible as that may seem, ’tis true. How much of my client’s story do you know?”
“Only that Lady Lambarth apparently had a…prior attachment before she married, and when after some years together, she found life with Lord Lambarth insupportable, she left him and the child and fled to her former lover.”
Mr. Pendenning shook his head. “It wasn’t that at all. I suppose your stepmother informed you that Gavin Seagrave is a bit of a rogue?” When Adam nodded, he continued, “His attachment to Diana Forester was as strong as hers to him. When he learned from various sources that her marriage to Lambarth—a man he’d always disliked—was unhappy, he determined to rescue her and the child. He put men on station near Lambarth Castle, and when the opportunity presented itself one day as the two were riding, they seized them. Lady Lambarth’s cries were quickly silenced once she learned who had taken them, but Lambarth chanced to be inspecting a farm nearby, heard the commotion and rode up. Her mother they carried off, but he managed to retrieve Helena.”
Adam shook his head. “It sounds like a scene out of a Minerva Press novel.”
“And might be equally entertaining, were the circumstances not so dire. Needless to say, my client was devastated to have her precious child trapped under the control of a man she both disliked and feared. Six months later she and Seagrave attempted another rescue.”
“It was not successful, I gather.”
“No. Since Helena was forbidden to venture beyond the castle gardens after her mother’s flight, Lambarth discovered them before they were able to spirit her away. As he held the struggling girl, Lambarth shouted to her mother that he would see the child dead before he would let her go and that, should he ever again find strangers on his land or even in the village, he would kill her. My client believed him.”
“So the child was punished for the mother’s sins?”
“I’m afraid so. After that second failed attempt, Lambarth no longer allowed Helena outside the castle, even to accompany him to church. He apparently imprisoned her within the walls, meanwhile putting it about the village that, grieving for the mother who had abandoned her, the child had lost her wits—insuring that if Helena somehow did manage to escape, no one would believe her pleas for help. He also stationed guards around the perimeter of his land and had them make periodic inspections of the village and report to him if there were any newcomers.”
“If she was barred from approaching her daughter, how did Helena’s mother know what was happening?”
“Lady Lambarth’s maid was a local girl who returned to the village after her mistress’s disappearance. One of Seagrave’s agents trailed the girl to London when she went to visit relations there and contacted her. They persuaded her to bring back with her a man who would pose as her cousin. Another of Seagrave’s men, Jerry Sunderland. He settled in the village and practiced his trade, sending what information about Helena he was able to gather and waiting for some chance to help the girl escape. Unfortunately, Lord Lambarth insured there wasn’t any.”
“And so she remained a prisoner until his death.”
“Yes. But though I knew she’d been close confined, even I was shocked by her appearance. I shall severely chastise my clerk for showing you in before I had a chance to warn you what to expect.”
Since there was nothing Adam wished to reveal about his initial reaction to Miss Lambarth, nor could he explain the intense, fleeting response her smile had generated, he remained prudently silent.
The solicitor took a swallow of his brandy. “What she so innocently revealed during tea was even more chilling. I can only thank a merciful God that her mother never suspected the full extent of