“Oh bother, of course I love him!” she burst out, the tears now flowing down her cheeks, and yet she felt no shame. “I love him with every cell of my being. And yet I have tried so hard to deny it, to push it away so that it does not hurt quite so much when I come to the realization that I shall likely never see him again. Yet I will think of him for the rest of my life.”
“Rachel,” Sullivan said, placing one hand on her shoulder as he handed her his handkerchief. “You have been a wonderful daughter to your father. You have supported him, you have done his bidding, you have kept his house for him. But to give up the rest of your life because of a deal he made without your knowledge goes above and beyond what any parent should ask of their child. Be happy, my dear. Find your man and do what gives you the most joy in your heart.”
Rachel began crying earnestly as she launched herself into his arms, tears flowing into the shoulder that smelled like tobacco and dusty bookshelves.
“He will never take me back now. He believes I was part of a scheme to bring him here and steal his plans,” she said, wiping her eyes and nose as she pushed away from him.
“I think, when he truly considers the issue, he will realize that you could never betray him like that,” said Sullivan gently. “And besides, that — I have a plan.”
23
For the first time since he had returned from London, Adam stepped into his workroom and looked around it in silence. It was near completely bare now but for wood shavings and the odd piece of metal he hadn’t seen fit to use sitting on or under the table. He was typically fairly particular in keeping his space tidy, but he had left in a rather bit of haste. It had only been a few weeks, and yet it seemed like it had been a lifetime ago that he had held such high hopes for both his work and his life with Rachel. Now the emptiness of the room reminded him of all that he had lost.
He sighed as he threw his bag on the table, emptying it of the contents he had managed to bring back with him. His mind was as blank as the workspace when he tried to think of what next to work on. Clearly, anything regarding his wind model was no longer an option, as Trenton would have the patents on it. If nothing else, the man had enough guile to cover anything that might be required to keep Adam from having any sort of claim to the invention.
He turned around and leaned back against the table, looking out the building’s lone window at the hills beyond. At the very least, he was back where he belonged.
His attention was directed to the door as he could hear footsteps approaching. Not the heavy footsteps of one of his brothers, but the light, skipping pattern he would recognize anywhere as his sister’s. The girl never walked anywhere, he thought with a grin, but rather ran or floated her way through life.
“Adam!” she exclaimed as she came sailing through the door. “I thought I might find you here.”
“Find me you did,” he said as he pushed away from the table and stood to face her, knowing what was to come. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“We just haven’t had any time alone since ye returned—”
“I only returned yesterday.”
“Aye, but still,” she said, determined to say whatever it was she had come here to say to him. “You must tell me what happened, Adam. Tell me all of it. And not just about your wind invention, but about Rachel. And don’t try to tell me there was nothing, because I saw the way the two of you stared at each other, thinking no one was looking. You have feelings for her, I know you do, and I know she feels the same for you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Peg,” he said, as he pulled the two stools of the room from under the table and carried one over to her. “Sit. ’Tis a long story.”
He told her, then, of all that had transpired, leaving out their activities in the hunting cottage, of course. He told her of what he thought he and Rachel had felt for one another, of the proposal her father made to him, and his decision to travel to London. She knew most of that, but when he told her of their marriage agreement she gasped, light coming into her eyes before seeing his expression. For once, she sat and listened, as Adam spoke more words than he likely ever had in one sitting before. Somehow, as much as he had tried to bury the whole situation, it felt good to say it all out loud, to put it out there and get it off his chest. Peggy, for her part, made for a rapt audience, tearing up when Adam told her of Rachel’s decision to do her father’s bidding and marry Thompson, gasping when he told of Trenton’s betrayal.
“So I came home,” he finished. “Where I never should have left.”
“Oh, Adam,” she said softly, her eyes full of tears of pity for him that he didn’t want. “I’m so sorry. What a despicable man.”
“He is,” he said, nodding in agreement.
“But are you absolutely certain of Rachel’s involvement?” she asked hesitantly.
“What do ye mean?” he said, not answering her question.
“It’s just that, when she was here, she was so sweet, and so wonderful, and I could tell how much she not only admired you, but seemed infatuated with you,” she said. “And not only that, but she told you about Vincent and her decision to follow her father’s wishes. Do you really think she would have given you that information if she knowingly betraying you?”
He shrugged. “When I
