Page 20 of Heart of Decadence

“I’ve begun this badly. It is a little involved, as many requests of Jonathan’s tended to be. Please, my dear, sit down.” She seated herself and picked up her now-cold tea. “Let me ring for more.”

“I’ll ring for tea.” Marcus waved her back into her seat. “Begin your tale, my lady. I am all ears to find out what the devil went on.”

“Very well.” Amelia sat with her hands primly folded in her lap. “Our correspondence began almost as soon as the ink had dried on the settlement papers. I was surprised and pleased to receive the first one, which was most flattering, as I recall. But soon after they became much more amorous and he began to suggest assignations where we might meet to become more…intimate.” It had been difficult enough to confess all this to her parents; however, to be stating it all so baldly before her husband and his family… She closed her eyes against tears. It had been her own folly not to inform her mother about the content of the letters. She must pay the piper yet again, it seemed.

“Please continue, my dear.” Nathan had gathered her hand in his and threaded their fingers together.

Nodding, she summoned her courage once more. “To discourage him, I told him I was afraid my mother might intercept the letters and intimated that she would read my correspondence from time to time. I hoped this would curb his epistolary efforts, but instead he came up with a plan to circumvent my scheme. He arranged with a former housemaid of his, who now lived in London, to receive our letters. The idea was for her to hold my letters from him until I called for them. I would read them and leave them with the maid, Mary Adams. I would also leave any letters for Jonathan with Miss Adams to pass on.”

“So where is this Mary Adams now? How may we locate her?” Nathan leaped to his feet, so animated she believed he might try to fly around the room.

“My parents tried, but after Jonathan’s death everything was in disarray for a month at the least. Then when the rumors began, they questioned me, and I told them about Mary Adams.” She looked from Nathan’s hopeful face to Celinda’s more cautious one. “I gave Father her address, but by then, she’d left. No one there knew where she’d moved to. Father even questioned Lord Carrington’s other servants, but the maid had been gone for some time and they could not hazard a guess where she might be.” Amelia shrugged. “So you see, the letters are well and truly lost—either thrown away, which I think is most likely, or still with the missing Mary Adams.”

The silence around the room would deafen her in a moment.

“Well, this seems discouraging and particularly futile.” Celinda spoke up, the only one of them not looking like grim Death had come to visit. “Still, I think we may as well do some sleuthing rather than staying home feeling helpless.”

“Celinda is correct, Marcus.” His wife reached for his hand and he gave it to her immediately. “We can still do something, even if there’s not much evidence left. We must make a start.”

“Then we are agreed we shall try to locate Mary Adams?” Nathan rose and the others followed suit. “Marcus and I will approach Carrington’s family. See if they or their servants remember anything of Mary. Also if they have any other correspondence belonging to Carrington. It’s long odds, but it won’t hurt to ask.”

“Kate, Celinda, and I will return to the lodgings where Mary lived ten years ago. Perhaps neighbors will remember her still or have some idea where she may have gone.” Amelia sighed. “These are not odds I would wager very much on, my dear.” She gazed up at Nathan, love for him warring with the dismay of fighting the same losing battle once more.

“Do not fret, love.” He pulled her into his arms, and she reveled in the comfort she found in his touch. “We will find a way to vindicate you and restore you to Society where you deserve to be.”

“And if we cannot?”

He sighed and held her closer. “We will cross that stream when we come to it.”