years have been the most rewarding of my life, it is fair to say that everything worked out for the best. In the long run, most things do.”
Adam thought of Antonia and Simon together, and the pain was instant and fierce, stabbing deep inside to where he kept his most secret dreams. But he had never truly believed that Tony could ever be his. She had always been too far above him, both by birth and by her own glorious nature.
In that sense, Simon’s arrival was for the best. God only knew how long Adam would have hovered near Antonia, fearing to speak, waiting for the right moment that would never come.
It was time to stop living for an unattainable dream. Far better to try to match Judith Winslow’s calm good sense. He wondered how he would have responded to Judith if he had never known Tony, and the answer was immediate. He would have thought her lovely and would have wanted to know her better. He was comfortable with Judith in a way that he had experienced with no other woman save his cousin.
There was nothing to prevent him from furthering his acquaintance with Judith. Her marriage might not have been a good one, but she did not seem embittered. He liked the fact that she was a woman of his own age, who had experienced some of life’s highs and lows. He would have found it impossible to open his heart to a vapid chit from the schoolroom.
Adam stood and offered his hand to assist Judith to her feet. She came up lightly, her small hand trusting within his clasp. “Thank you for listening,” he said quietly, hoping his tone conveyed just how much he meant by the words.
Her smile was gentle and grave. “I am glad I could be here with you. It has been good for both of us.”
Between them lay a faint, sweet sense of possibilities.
Chapter Three
Unmindful of his immaculate riding breeches. Lord Launceston knelt on one knee and poked in the scree of loose stones lying at the base of the cliff. Knowing of his interest in geology, Antonia had brought him to this spot, where she and Adam had found fossils when they were children.
Now, while Simon examined the scree, she was free to admire Simon. Even though it had been a week since his arrival and they had spent almost every waking hour together, she could not get enough of the sight of him.
“We’re in luck,” he said triumphantly, rising and showing his prize to her.
“How lovely!” Antonia reached out and took the fossil from his hand, feeling a quick tingle of pleasure as their fingers touched.
The limestone had shattered along a flat plane, leaving a perfect print of a fern, the delicate tracery of fronds dark against the pale stone. “Once Adam found one similar to this, but it was chipped and weathered, in nowhere near as good condition.” Thinking back, she added, “The best fossil I ever found here showed part of a skeleton. A fish neck, I think.”
“Fish don’t have necks,” Simon said seriously.
Antonia was unable to resist saying with perfect gravity, “Then why do they sell cravats for fish?”
When Simon stared at her, she colored. “I’m sorry, that was an absurd thing to say. My sense of humor is quite deplorable.”
Lord Launceston gave her one of his slow, charming smiles. “The problem is not your sense of humor, but mine. When I am thinking scholarly thoughts, I become most boringly literal.” He examined the fossil in his hand. “This is such a fine specimen that it overwhelmed my ability to appreciate wit.’’
He cast an appreciative glance over the crumbling cliff face and the rubble of rocks. “This place is a geologist’s dream.”
Just as Simon was a maiden’s dream. Savoring his chiseled profile and the inviting way strands of black hair curled on his neck, Antonia found herself smiling.
She knew that she was acting like a besotted fool, and she did not mind in the least. She was twenty-six years old and in love for the first time in her life. As a child she had vaguely assumed that she and