Page 11 of An Affair at Stonecliffe

She smiled. “Yes, that sounds just like Adam. Did you? Frighten her, I mean?”

“I didn’t intend to, I assure you. I only wanted to talk to her. But she took off, scampering across the rooftops, apparently, just to avoid me.”

“The rooftops!” Adeline stared. “With the boy along?”

“Yes. I’m beginning to think she’s half-mad.”

“Oh, Carlisle, what should we do? Is she dangerous? Might she hurt Gilbert?”

“No, no,” Carlisle said quickly. “Not at all. If anything, she clings to him too tightly. She grabbed him and held him back when he started toward me. She kept an eye on him the whole time we were talking, as if he might run away. She spoke rationally enough, but she was tense and on edge. She accused me of trying to abduct him! She wouldn’t talk to me inside the store or her home; we had to be in the public eye. She wouldn’t even get into my carriage.”

The countess’s eyebrows shot up. “But why?”

“I’ve no idea. I ask you...do I look like an ogre? Like someone who would kidnap a child?”

“No, dear, of course not.” Adeline smiled and reached out to pat his knee. “You are always a complete gentleman. But she doesn’t know that. You are somewhat imposing. Your stature. Your station in life. The high standards you hold. I can imagine that someone unused to being around gentlemen might be intimidated. And your first meeting was unfortunate.”

“I know.” Carlisle groaned. “I bollixed it up. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was too blunt. Too quick.”

“Whatever else she may be, she is a mother. No mother would be willing to hand over her child like that, just for money.”

“I am less sure of Noelle’s motherly love than you.” Carlisle smiled at her. “You tend to color other people’s actions with your own virtues. But you’re right. I should have been more subtle. I should have waited, brought her back here and let her get bored and decide to leave on her own. But still... I don’t know why that would warrant her being afraid of me. I only tried to give her money.” He thought of the wariness, even fear, in Noelle’s eyes. It made him feel unaccountably guilty. “I wouldn’t have taken the boy from her by force. Or harmed her. You know I would never hurt a woman.”

“I know you wouldn’t. But perhaps she has been around other men who would.”

Carlisle glanced at her, startled. “I hadn’t thought...” The idea of a man hitting Noelle—hitting any woman, of course, no matter how bloody infuriating she was—made his skin crawl, but he knew the countess might be right. “Not Adam.”

“No, not Adam. But Thomas told me what sort of woman she was before she met Adam.”

“He did?” Carlisle shot her a look of surprise. The earl always shielded his wife from anything sordid or low.

“Not in so many words.” Adeline’s smile mingled fondness with exasperation. “But I am not quite so naive as the men of my family like to believe. I was able to gather that he meant she was one of the women who offer their ‘favors’ to the young men in Oxford. And since Adam’s death, given the sort of places you’ve found her, well, she wouldn’t have met many gentlemen.”

Carlisle nodded. He hadn’t told the countess all the details of the areas Adam’s son had lived in, or the vast number of times Noelle had dragged the boy from one place to another. It would have worried the countess needlessly. But Carlisle was aware of just what low types of men Noelle would have encountered. “So perhaps it’s not me, but men in general that she fears. That might explain...”

“Explain what, dear?”

“What? Oh, nothing.” He had never revealed to the countess his fears about Noelle becoming a rich man’s mistress; it was much too shocking and would only agitate her for no reason. “Just...um, it would explain why she is so skittish and distrustful, I suppose.”

“Will she bring Gilbert home?” Lady Adeline’s voice caught in her throat.

“If I have anything to say about it, she will,” Carlisle replied grimly.

“Well, I do hope you won’t scowl at her that way, my dear,” Adeline said lightly. “If you turned that face to me, I might flee.”

“No one could look at you with anything other than affection. But I assure you that I will not scowl. I will be agreeable, whatever I may think. She promised not to run again if I promised not to grab the boy from her. It was an easy enough vow since I had no intention of doing so.”

“Of course you would not.”

“However, she seems to think I would, so perhaps she’ll keep her word. I’m keeping an eye on her, just in case she’s lying.”

“I must go to London.” The countess stood up. “I have to see my grandson. I’ll speak to her, mother to mother.”

Carlisle rose, too. “I’m certain you would have more success than I, though I hate the notion of you having to plead and placate her.”

“I will do anything.” Adeline’s usually gentle voice was like iron. “Whatever you think of her, whatever I think of her, whatever she’s done or been, I will be her friend.”

“I know. And whatever it takes, I will bring you your grandson.”