Love Is Blind (31 page)

"Yes, of course." The woman sighed, then squeezed Clarissa's hand again. "My dear girl, when I said that Adrian would be relieved to hear that your spectacles were broken, it was not because he does not like them or would find you less attractive in them. It was because he fears that once you have spectacles, you will not be attracted to him any longer."

"What? Why would he think a thing like that?" Clarissa asked with surprise.

"His scar, dear," Lady
Mowbray
answered.

"Oh,
pish
-posh," Clarissa muttered with a wave that

illustrated the level of importance her husband's scar held for her. "He is lovely even with it. Why, goodness—without it, it must have been almost painful to look on him!"

Lady
Mowbray
nodded and admitted, "He was as beautiful as any Greek god. As beautiful as an angel. And he still is, in my opinion. But. . ." She sighed. "The ladies of the
ton
demand perfection in all things, and look on him as a fallen angel."

Clarissa found her eyes narrowing with anger. "Of course, at first the wound was much worse. He attended court
direcdy
afterward, while he was still swollen and scabbed. That
did
distort his face a good deal at the time, and the ladies of the
ton
—ever determined to prove their 'delicacy'—fainted at the sight of him." She made a disgusted face. "It started with young Louise Frampton. She had carried a
tendre
for Adrian for years, and was truly distressed and
did
faint when she saw what the battle did to him. But no one had warned her ahead of time, and she was also laced too tightly." Lady
Mowbray
added dryly, "Our Louise was a bit on the largish side, and when she heard that Adrian had returned, she had her maid stitch her up tight. The poor girl felt an idiot afterward for fainting, then felt even worse when she heard that other girls had taken to doing it to prove they were as delicate as she." "Oh, dear," Clarissa murmured. Lady
Mowbray
nodded sadly. She added,
"I
know something
 
happened with
 
Lady Johnson
 
as well, though I am not sure what, but it all worked to send him home. Adrian packed up and returned to
Mowbray
at once. And he stayed here." She peered sadly into the past. "No matter how often I or Mary visited and told him his scar was much improved and he

should return to society, Adrian would not listen. Finally I realized that I would have to get tougher with him, else he would stay out here and never leave. I began to nag."

Clarissa bit her lip to keep back the amused smile that wanted to claim her lips. Lady
Mowbray
had made the announcement with a shudder of horror that bespoke how she felt about having to nag.

"And I was unrelenting until he finally gave in and attended court this year."

"I
am most grateful you did," Clarissa said firmly, squeezing the woman's hand. "Else I never should have met him."

Lady
Mowbray
smiled. "This is true. Had I not nagged him into going to London this year, the two of you might never have met."

'Yes." Clarissa frowned as she considered the possibility: never meeting him, never dancing with him, never kissing him, never... Why, she might be married to
Prudhomme
this very minute, she realized, and probably ready to throw herself off a cliff! She shuddered at the very idea of the wrinkly old man touching her in the ways Adrian did.
Dear God!

"Well," Lady
Mowbray
murmured. "Let me do one more thing and instruct you now to let him see that you have spectacles. He needs to know that you can see him and still love him. And you need to see that he will love you with or without spectacles." Adrian's mother patted her hand, then got gracefully back to her feet. "Now, I should go along to my room. And we shall keep this little visit between ourselves. Somehow I do not think my son would be pleased to learn that I saw and spoke to you before he did. He has apparently been up pacing the salon all night, waiting and worrying."

Clarissa's eyebrows flew up at this news and she glanced at Kibble in question.

The butler's bulldog features shifted into a grimace, and he nodded. "I forced his lordship to leave while we tended to you, Lady Clarissa. He—of course—did not wish to go, but he was questioning my every order and just generally getting in the way. I had to be firm." Clarissa's eyes widened. She was surprised to know anyone could make Adrian do something he did not wish to do.

"However," Kibble continued, "I also promised to fetch him if there was a change. I shall get him now, but first would like to say that Lady
Mowbray
is right. You should really tell him that you know what he looks like, and that you love him the way he is. The man is as self-conscious of his looks as are you with your spectacles."

Kibble escorted Lady
Mowbray
from the room, leaving Clarissa in a quandary. Was it true? Had she been going without her sight for nothing?

Clarissa frowned over the matter. The very fact that Adrian had not mentioned her getting new spectacles had convinced her she had read the situation correctly, and that he did not think they would look good on her. However, his mother and Kibble had cast a new light on the matter. If what they said was true, her husband was self-conscious of his own looks.

She shook her head. Scar or no scar, Adrian was the handsomest man of the
ton.
Clarissa found it hard to believe he did not realize how attractive he was. He seemed so confident and commanding all the time.... Clarissa's thoughts scattered when the door to her room started to open. Out of habit she snatched off

her spectacles and slid them under her pillow. She was so used to hiding them, she did not even think twice about it.

"Clarissa."

She recognized her husband as he entered and strode across the room. It seemed to her that his entire being screamed of worry.

A second man entered behind him, then another, and while Clarissa thought the second man was her father, she had no idea about the third. Adrian dropped against the side of her bed and scooped her against his chest.

"Thank God you are all right," he said, hugging her tightly and stroking her hair. "We have been worried sick."

"Yes, we have," her father said, and she felt his hand rub her back. "We were up all night waiting for you to wake up."

"I am sorry to have worried you so," Clarissa murmured, hugging Adrian back and reaching for her father's hand.

"Nay.
'Tis
not your fault." Both men spoke at once, and all three of them smiled; then Adrian released Clarissa and sat back to peer into her face. He was close enough that she could see the lines of worry around his eyes.

"We knew by about midnight you would survive, but Kibble could not tell us if you would wake up with all your faculties still in place, or if your mind would be damaged somehow."

"Oh." Clarissa managed a smile.
"I think my faculties are fine."

Adrian smiled and kissed her gently on the nose.

"We are glad
vou
are well," the third man said.

Clarissa frowned, dunking she recognized the voice, but unable at first to place it.

"Do you think you could tell us what happened?" he added.

Her eyes widened. "Mr. Hadley," Clarissa said with surprise as his name suddenly clicked into place. "Whatever are you doing here?"

"I sent for him," Adrian said. "He arrived an hour ago."

"Oh."

"Do you feel up to answering the question?" her husband asked with concern.

'Yes, of course. I am fine, really," she assured him, giving his arm a squeeze.

"Then can you tell us
exacdy
what happened?" Hadley repeated.

Clarissa wondered why he was asking
tbe
question. Why he was even there, really. But with all three men waiting in what felt like an impatient manner, she decided to answer first and then ask her own questions.

Clarissa quickly repeated what she'd told Kibble, about coming to the room for a bit of privacy and then eating some of the pie, her stomach bothering her, and then sleeping. The room was silent for a moment as she finished; then Adrian murmured, "Kibble said that your not eating much of the pie may have saved you from being more ill."

"Then 'tis good I was not hungry," she said wryly.

"Indeed," Hadley agreed.

"You could have been killed," her father said harshly, apparently upset that Clarissa seemed to be taking things so lightly.

"That was undoubtedly the plan," Hadley murmured.

"Kibble does not think there was truly enough poison in the pie to kill her," Adrian said soothingly. "Even if Clarissa had eaten the whole piece, he does not think she would have died. He suspects she just would have been sicker."

"Poison?" Clarissa said with alarm. "In the pie?"

She saw their heads turn as the three men glanced at one another, but no one seemed eager to respond. 'You are suggesting that I was poisoned?"

When they were all silent again, she asked, "What is happening? Why would someone wish to poison me?"

Adrian blew a little sigh out between his lips, then said, "Clarissa, I have asked you this before, but are you
sure
there is no one who would wish you harm?"

Clarissa stared at him. She did recall his asking if she had any enemies, anyone who would wish to do her harm. It had come up so naturally in that conversation after making love that she hadn't thought anything of it. He'd told her a tale about a friend who had found out someone was trying to kill him, and then he'd murmured that he didn't think he had any enemies who would wish him dead, and did she? Clarissa had thought they were just talking. Now she realized he'd been worrying that someone was out to harm her. But why?

"No, of course not," she decided. "Why would anyone wish me harm? I have never hurt anyone in my life. Perhaps they were trying to poison you and I ate it by mistake."

"Me?" Adrian said with surprise. "Why would you think someone was trying to kill me?"

"Well, my lord, why would you think they are trying to kill me?" Clarissa replied, growing a bit testy. "After all, you are the one who does not listen to your

mother when she tells you things. Perhaps there are others you do not listen to and who are trying to get your attention."

Adrian's mouth twitched with amusement; then he said solemnly, "No one is trying to kill me, Clarissa. The pie was meant for you."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Well, for one thing, I was not even in the house. And I am not the one who rests in the afternoons; you are. Besides," Adrian pointed out, "it was in
your
room."

Clarissa grimaced unhappily at that logic; then her eyes narrowed. "But you asked me about someone trying to harm me days ago. Did you think then that someone was trying to hurt me? And if so, why?"

Adrian hesitated and sighed. "Clarissa, you have suffered innumerable accidents since your arrival in London for the season."

"Because I have not had my glasses," she pointed out.

Clarissa didn't think he agreed that this was the reason behind her accidents, but he didn't argue. In fact, he didn't say anything. His head was turned, and he seemed to be looking at Hadley.

Before Clarissa could say anything else, Adrian kissed her forehead and stood. "I need to have a word with my man. I will return shortly."

The two men left the room, and her father took Adrian's place on the side of the bed, but his attention was on the door through which the men had just left. Both Clarissa and Lord
Crambray
could hear the murmur of voices as the men conversed.

Knowing her father wished to join in whatever conversation was taking place but was reluctant to abandon her, Clarissa sighed and waved him off. "Go on.

Join them. I wish to get up anyway. Perhaps you could send my maid to me and order a bath sent up?"

"Yes, yes." Lord
Crambray
patted her hand with relief and escaped. Clarissa heard the murmur of voices pause as he joined the other two; then it began again and moved off up the hall.

Shaking her head, Clarissa sat up and slid her feet off the bed. She had stripped off her soiled gown and drawn on a robe before it occurred to her that she didn't have anything to read in the bath. She was in the mood for a good long soak after the trials of what had happened and all she'd learned, and she liked to read in the tub.

After a hesitation, Clarissa headed for the door. She would just slip down to the library and find something to read. She'd be quick about it and—if she was very lucky—would not run into anyone. Clarissa had a lot to think about, but was not in the mood for thinking just now. After she'd relaxed a bit in the tub with a book, she would consider what her husband feared was going on, as well as what she'd learned from Lady
Mowbray
and Kibble.

Chapter Seventeen

"I do not understand," Lord
Crambray
said, following Adrian into his office. "Are you telling me that you have known for some time that someone was trying to kill Clarissa and you did not say a word to me? Or to her?"