“I must decide on our futures,” she replied.
Adeline made a face.
“Ourfutures?” She asked, “But you do not even know me.”
“No,” Deborah mused, “But I am beginning to wonder if I should.”
Adeline continued to look at her oddly.
“You are very strange,” she stated.
“Hm. Perhaps,” Deborah replied, then quickly added, “Now it is my turn to ask the questions.”
“But you did not really even answer mine!” Adeline retorted with a frown.
“Why do you not like your uncle?” Deborah asked, ignoring Adeline’s complaint and focusing once more on her bruises.
“He is nothing like my parents. Even if he is my mother’s brother,” Adeline answered, her tone bitter. “I never even met him before she died. He just showed up at her funeral, told me he was to watch over me from now on, and brought me here. I barely see him. Barely talk to him. Not that I want to, mind you. He will not play with me like my parents used to. He just keeps hiring more nannies and governesses, who have all been awful.”
Then a satisfied look took over Adeline’s face as she crossed her arms.
“I ran them all off, though,” she stated proudly. “If they cannot be nice to me, I will certainly not be nice to them.”
“And your uncle? Is he nice when you do see him?” Deborah pushed, wanting to know if those bruises were from him.
“He’s not anything,” Adeline replied with a shrug. “I am not even sure he notices me.”
Deborah tried, through carefully phrased questions that were not exactly direct, to discover who had given Adeline those marks for the next hour. Yet not one of them brought her any closer to discovering the creator of them. She did, however,discover that Adeline, while obviously a little wild child, was also very lonely, and that this feeling was no doubt the cause of her disruptive behavior. She also discovered that she was the first woman, aside from the various governesses and nannies, that Cedric had ever brought to the house in the year since Adeline moved in, which she found quite odd, given his reputation. Though she supposed that was what brothels were for.
At one point, with their tea long since drunk, Adeline announced that she was bored with Deborah’s questions and was going to go back to her room. Deborah bid her goodnight, but Adeline just sighed carelessly, so much like her uncle, and left. For a long while, Deborah stayed in the kitchens alone, pondering what she was going to do.
“I have made a decision,” Deborah announced.
Cedric looked up from his newspaper as he sat at the breakfast table, a dark brow perked.
“Good morning to you as well, Miss Hunt,” Cedric replied. “I trust your night was pleasant enough?”
“Hardly,” she retorted dryly. In fact, she had not slept a single moment, even after she finally found her way back to her room.
Without waiting for an invitation, Deborah went to the chair to Cedric’s right. He smirked as he watched her, and a moment later, a maid appeared with a cup of tea.
“May I get you anything to break your fast, Miss?” the maid asked politely.
Deborah turned to her with a smile. “Two poached three-minute eggs would be lovely, thank you. And some buttered toast if you please.”
“Of course, Miss, my pleasure,” the maid replied, and quickly left.
“Well, it is nice to know you can still be kind. Even if it is not toward me,” Cedric mused.
She leveled an icy look at him and snickered.
“I give kindness where kindness is due,” she replied coldly.
Cedric chortled as he closed his newspaper and turned his body toward her in his chair.
“So, you have made a decision?” He asked. “Are you paying me or wedding me?”
His tone was so casual, as if the question was not at all what decided her future. It caused her annoyance to flare, andDeborah drew in a deep breath through her nostrils to stop the snapping retort she had in mind.