there were no servants at hand (sleeping off a binge of purloined claret in the pantry, no doubt), I opened it, thinking it might be a tradesman or someone come to call on Adair. Instead, standing on the steps, satchel in hand, was the wild-eyed charismatic preacher from Saco.
His jaw dropped upon seeing me and his cunning face lit up with pleasure. “I
“I know you too, sir,” I replied, horrified, drawing back, unable to guess what in the world had brought him here.
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, then. What is your name and how did we meet?” he asked, still smiling but in a way meant to hide the calculations going on in his head, trying to recall where we had met and under what circumstances.
So instead of answering him, I asked, “Why have you come here? Do you know Adair?”
My guardedness seemed to amuse him. “Of course I know him, why else would I show up on his doorstep? I know him in the same way that
And then it came to him, his face lighting up with lurid delight. “Oh, I remember now! That little Maine village not far from the Acadian settlement! That’s where I met you! Without the drab brown dress-you are barely recognizable in blue silk and French lace! It’s an amazing transformation, upon my word. Left the Puritans behind without a regret, have you? It’s always the quiet ones who turn out to be the most wild at heart,” he said, narrowing his eyes to slits and leering, probably guessing that we stood a good chance of ending up in bed together. All he had to do was ask Adair and he was unlikely to be denied.
At that moment, we were interrupted by Adair’s voice booming from the landing above us. “Look who has turned up at my door! Jude, come for a respite from your travels? Come in, come in, it has been too long since I last saw you,” he said as he jogged down the stairs. After embracing Jude heartily, he noticed that Jude was staring at me in gleeful anticipation and so he asked, “What is it? Do you two know each other?”
“As a matter of fact, we do,” Jude said, circling me, making a great show of drinking in the sight of me. “I wrote to you about this young woman some time back. Do you recall a letter describing a promising unspoiled beauty with a feral streak?”
I drew myself up, chin held high. “What do you mean by that?”
But Adair only chuckled and brushed my cheek to assuage my anger. “Come now, my dear. I think his meaning is plain, and you wouldn’t be here at my side if it wasn’t true.”
The unwelcome visitor’s eyes swept over me like a housewife’s hands testing a piece of fruit. “Well, I’ll wager she’s unspoiled no more, eh? So, you’ve made this little spitfire your spiritual wife, have you?” Jude asked Adair in a mocking tone, and then he addressed me. “It must be your destiny, my dear, for you to turn up here, don’t you think? And you are lucky, Adair, that you didn’t have to make the journey all the way up there to get her-trust me, it’s not a trip I would wish on anyone. She made a bit of trouble for me when I was there, too. Wouldn’t introduce me to the fellow I wrote to you about.”
He had to be referring to Jonathan. I held my tongue.
“I wish you would refrain from that ‘spiritual wife’ nonsense, at least when you’re around me. I’ve no use for that religious mumbo-jumbo,” Adair said as he threw an arm around Jude’s shoulder and led him into the drawing room, where our visitor made a beeline for the decanters of wine. “Now, who is this you’re talking about? What fellow?”
The preacher poured a full glass for himself. “Didn’t you read my letters? Why ask me to write about my observations if you aren’t going to pay any attention to them? It was all in my report to you, about what I found in this godforsaken backwater village way up in the northernmost corner of the territory. Your latest acquisition here”-he nodded at me as he took a gulp of wine-“kept me from meeting a remarkable young man. She guarded him most jealously, from what I could see. This man is exactly what you’ve been looking for, if the stories I heard about him were accurate.”
My skin crawled; something terrible was afoot. I stood paralyzed with apprehension.
Adair poured wine for himself, offering none to me. “Is this true, Lanore?” I didn’t know how to respond and, in any case, common sense deserted me at that moment. “I see by your silence that it is. When were you going to tell me about him?” he asked.
“Your spy has it all wrong. This man is not worth your attention.” These were words I never thought I’d say about Jonathan. “He’s just a friend from home.”
“Oh, hardly unworthy of attention. We are talking about Jonathan, the man you bragged of to Alej? Don’t be surprised; of course Alejandro told me. He knows not to keep secrets from me. So, to be clear, this Jonathan, this paragon of beauty, he is the man you love? I am disappointed, Lanore, to find that you are so easily led by a handsome face-”
“Who are you to speak!” I said, outraged. “When it comes to love of beauty, who is the one who gathers pretty creatures to him like an art collector? If love of beauty is shallowness, you are far more guilty than I-”
“Oh, do not be so quick to take offense. I’m only teasing you. The fact that this Jonathan is the man you believe you love is reason enough for me to want to meet him, don’t you think?”
Jude raised his eyebrows. “If I didn’t know better, Adair, I’d say you sound a trifle jealous.”
In a panic to change Adair’s mind, I pleaded, “Spare Jonathan. He has a family who depends on him. I don’t want him drawn into this. As for loving him… you’re right, but he is gone from my life. I loved him once but no longer.”
Adair cocked his head, and appraised me. “Oh, my dear, you lie. You would have given up on him by now, if that were the case. But you love him still. I feel it here,” he said, as he touched my breast above my heart. His sparkling eyes, flecked with a note of pain, bored into me. “Bring him to me. I want to meet the man of amazing beauty who has fascinated our Lanore.”
“If this is about bedding him, it won’t do you any good. He’s not-like Alejandro or Dona.”
Jude blurted out a rude laugh, then covered his mouth quickly, and it seemed for a moment that Adair, bubbling with a spike of rage, might strike me. “You think I am only interested in this man to swive him? You think that is my only use for a man such as your Jonathan? No, Lanore, I want to meet him. I want to see why he is so deserving of your love. Perhaps we are like souls, he and I. I could use a new companion, a friend. I am sick of being surrounded by fawning sycophants. You’re all little more than servants-treacherous, scheming, demanding. I am sick of all of you.” Adair stepped away and slammed his empty glass down on the sideboard. “Besides, what complaints could you have about your life here? Your days are spent in pleasure and comfort. I’ve given you everything you could want, treated you as a princess. I’ve opened your world, haven’t I? Freed your mind from the limitations put there by those ignorant priests and ministers, and introduced you to secrets that learned men spend their lives seeking. All these things I’ve given you freely, my dear, haven’t I? Frankly, your ingratitude offends me.”
I bit my tongue, knowing nothing good would come of pointing out all that he’d put me through. What could I do except bow my head and murmur, “I’m sorry, Adair.”
He clenched and unclenched his jaw and pressed his knuckles against the table, using the silence between us to show that he was coming down from his rage. “If this Jonathan is truly your friend, I would think you’d want to share your good fortune with him.”
That may have been Adair’s view of my life with him, but it only demonstrated the extent of his delusion. The truth was more complicated; grateful as I was, I was also afraid of him and felt like a prisoner in his house. I’d been made into a prostitute and didn’t want Jonathan to see me like this, let alone draw him into this predicament with me.
As he left the room, Adair smirked over his shoulder at me. “Don’t think for a moment that you fool me, Lanore. You protest, but in your heart you want this, too.”
I could not let Jonathan suffer the same fate as me-ever. “Jude is not exaggerating; Jonathan lives far, far away,” I continued, ignoring his slander. “You’d have to travel for three weeks by boat and carriage and have nothing at the end of it but forest and field. No parties, no gaming. Not even a public house to put you up.”
Adair studied me for a second. “Very well, then. I will not make this trip, if it is as tedious as you say. You will go and fetch him for me. That is a fine test of your loyalty, don’t you think?”
