“Will you please unfasten your buttons so we can get you undressed?” A blue broadcloth sailor suit had been laid out at the foot of the bed. While Paul worked soberly at the buttons with Alice watching, Adam went to join Byron at the window overlooking the garden.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that everything has come to rights, knowing you,” his friend remarked.
“Knowing me? Are you referring to the dissolute, bored, detached libertine I was when I met Cathy?”
Glancing over, Byron saw the smile that flickered over Adam’s mouth. “You may have been flawed, and you doubtless still are, but there was always something inside of you that gave me hope. Something... fine.”
He looked at him through slightly narrowed eyes. “Have you been talking to my bride? Those are the sorts of things she likes to say.”
“You may pretend to be sardonic about it all, but look at what you’ve done since you found the treasure. You’ve helped Basil recover and restore Crowe’s Nest—”
“Well, he’s not really such a bad sort, and I didn’t want him lurking about as our enemy. I rather like the notion of a descendant of Xavier Crowe living there, don’t you?”
“You shared a portion of the treasure with Herbert Stoute and many other descendants of Stede Bonnet’s slaves. As a result, Mr. Stoute was able to get medical care for his wife and take care of his family.”
Adam shrugged. “What’s the use of money if you can’t do something good with it? If anyone deserved to benefit from Bonnet’s piracy, those families did.”
“You also started a new school, not only for June and her classmates, but also for other girls, and you gave over more than half the building your law office is in!”
“Did I have a choice? I took Cathy away from the south side of the island when she came home, but she wouldn’t live here if we didn’t make arrangements for her students. Besides, that building was far too quiet with just my office in it, and I’m not there often enough. Too many rooms were going to waste.” He flicked a speck of lint from his sleeve. “After the wedding, it might be more convenient to spend part of the week in Bridgetown. Cathy can teach again, and I won’t have to travel back and forth.”
“You’re not fooling me, you know.”
He laughed. “I’m damned if I will start spouting off about my virtues, so save your breath.”
“Papa!” called Paul.
Byron caught his sleeve as he turned away and said softly, “And, you made burial arrangements for Gemma last month.”
“Even my old libertine self would have done that much. She was Paul’s mother.”
Soon, Paul was dressed in the sailor suit and broad-brimmed straw hat that Cathy had chosen. Adam took him over to see his reflection in the mirror, and he beamed. “I the Ring Bear.”
“That’s right, Button, and it’s a very important task. Now, take Alice and Uncle Byron down to the garden. Your uncle Theo and his friends have just arrived, and I know he’s waiting to see you.”
Alone in the north bedroom with its freshly painted blue walls, Adam indulged in a moment’s reflection on the past, when he and Cathy had shared this narrow bed while her mother held court in his bedroom. Even then, he had loved her, but the barrier he’d erected between himself and the world had prevented him from understanding such a delicately complex emotion... and what it required in order to thrive.
He dressed with efficient care in a tailored frock coat, vest, striped trousers, and cravat. A starched white wing collar stood out in contrast to his tanned face. After quickly brushing his dark, silver-flecked hair back from his brow, Adam adjusted his cravat and went out into the corridor. The door to the bedchamber he shared with Cathy was closed.
He knocked.
The door opened just enough for June’s nose and one shocked eye to appear. “Sir! You can’t come in; you know you can’t. It’s bad luck.”
“That’s nonsense, June. I have a gift for my bride, and it’s something that she must wear during our wedding, so you’ll have to let me in.” He looked over her head. “Cathy! Don’t make me break the door down. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
Her laughter carried into the corridor. “Come in then, darling brute.” She opened the door herself, and the sight of her made his heart turn over.
“June,” he told the girl, “I have a very important task for you. Go downstairs and watch for the landau. Let me know the moment it arrives.”
“The landau?” Cathy repeated as June hurried away. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s not your job to understand anything today, my love. All you have to do is look beautiful, which you can do even in your sleep, and say ‘I do’ when the parson asks you if you’ll have me.”
She shook her head, noting the way his dark eyes roved over her. “You are being nonsensical. Nonsensical and prurient.”
“I suppose I should save my prurience for later, hmm? You do look exquisite, Cath. So much more beautiful than in New York last autumn.”
Turning to survey her reflection in the mirror, she knew he was right. Today, she wore a lovely but simple gown of ivory silk overlaid with lace-trimmed silk muslin and banded with satin at the fitted waist. The low, square neckline was draped simply so that just the tops of her breasts peeked enticingly above the fine silk. There was no train, no veil, no crystals or pearls, only Adrienne Raveneau’s antique fan hanging from a delicate chain around her waist.
“I certainly feel more beautiful, and that’s what counts, isn’t it? Goodness, when I think back to that day... I was so nervous, and so foolish.”
“Let’s not waste time thinking back when this moment is so perfect.” Raveneau stood behind her at the mirror. Her rich hair was massed on top of her head, and he kissed one of the escaping tendrils that brushed her temple. “Close your eyes.”
Her heart was beating fast as she obeyed, feeling his fingers on the nape of her neck and then the coolness of jewels. When Cathy opened her eyes and saw a glittering collarette of sapphires and diamonds around her neck, she drew a breath in wonder.
“It’s a Raveneau family piece,” Adam explained, “given by my great-grandfather Andre to his bride, and then passed down to Gran Adrienne.” Turning her in his arms, he murmured, “She would be very happy to know you are wearing it today.”
“I love it. Really, there aren’t words.” Standing on tip-toe, she kissed him, shaping her small hand to his jaw. “I almost wish we didn’t have to go downstairs...”
“You have become quite insatiable, my beauty! And, I confess that I would agree with you if Paul weren’t waiting for us in the garden. He’s very proud to be the ‘Ring Bear.’”
Cathy giggled softly, but before she could reply, a harried-looking June appeared at the door. “My lord, the landau is here!” Pausing, she looked over her shoulder. “And, a guest is coming up the stairs right now!”
Before the last word was out of June’s mouth, a slender bespectacled man appeared and stepped inside the bedroom. He took off his Panama hat and stared straight at Cathy with pleading eyes.
“Angel?”
With a sound of disbelief, she ran to meet her father and held fast to him. “Papa— how— how can this be?”
“I had a letter weeks ago from Adam, urging me to travel to Barbados for today’s ceremony,” he said, patting her back. “I am so grateful to him for affording me this opportunity to be part of your life again.”
“And are you... alone?” The word caught in her throat. Once again, Cathy saw the carriage on Fifth Avenue and the young woman her father had kissed in broad daylight. “Papa, did you bring her here?”
He took a deep breath. “No. I am alone. That, uh, interlude is ended. I woke up one day and realized that I was behaving like a fool, carrying on with a girl young enough to be my daughter!”
Cathy’s heart softened further. “Well, who could really blame you after decades with Mother? You deserved to be a bit foolish, even to be in love.”
“The crime lay in keeping such a secret for so long. I deceived everyone around me.”
Adam came closer and caught his father-in-law’s eye. “We are all human, sir.”
“Yes, yes, so very true, and it’s kind of you to say so.”
“Not at all,” he replied with a self-deprecating smile. “I’ve become rather an expert on the subject of human flaws. In your case, sir, I believe that you were a very good man caught in a web of unbearable circumstances.”
Jules continued to hold his daughter while his eyes grew misty. “After our dear Stephen died, it finally dawned on me how brief our time on this earth is. The largest fortune in the world can’t change that.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Papa,” Cathy exclaimed. “It finally came to me that, no matter how much I might wish it, Mother will never understand that.”
“I won’t speak ill of your mother, but we know that she will not change. My only chance for some real love and happiness, apart from being your father, was to separate from her. I am just so sorry to have hurt you in the process.”