Adam's Promise Read Online Free

happening too fast—the confusion, the humiliation, the collapse of Madeline’s dreams. She wasn’t about to be shuffled off anywhere before shehad a chance to think about what she wanted. “I will not come and stay with you, Mr. Coates.”
    â€œWhy not?” he asked, as if her refusal were completely inconceivable.
    â€œBecause…because I don’t want to.” Oh, why couldn’t she come up with something better than that? She sounded like the child he believed her to be.
    â€œWhat we want isn’t always what’s best for us,” he told her. “Or what we get.”
    Madeline bristled at his paternal tone. He sounded like her father—lecturing her, pointing out her constant rebellion. She hadn’t liked hearing it from her father and she certainly didn’t wish to hear it from the man who had just publicly rejected her.
    Then she wondered if there was a double meaning to Adam’s words. Perhaps he was referring to Diana breaking his heart all those years ago to marry a baronet.
    Madeline wet her parched lips. “As I said before, I’ll stay with the Ripleys.”
    â€œYou will do no such thing. You’re my responsibility now. You’re Diana’s sister, for pity’s sake, and I will not leave you here.”
    Madeline could feel the frustration building up inside of her like a rising tide about to overflow.
    All at once, an image of Adam’s first visit to her home in Yorkshire years ago flooded back. She remembered how he had ruffled her hair like a puppy and shown her a magic trick. Good God, what had she been dreaming of? He was four times her age then, and he was twice her age now. She’d been so foolish!
    She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling rankled all over again. She didn’t want to spend any more time with Adam Coates. She didn’t want to look at his irritatingly handsome face and relive this embarrassing stupidity over and over in her mind.
    â€œWhere are your belongings?”
    â€œMy belongings?” she asked, caught off guard.
    â€œYes, your trunks. I’ll have them delivered to my home.”
    She tried to say no, but he was already going to find someone to do it. She followed him. “I told you I don’t want to go with you.”
    â€œI’m not giving you a choice. You’re Diana’s sister and I mean to look after you.”
    â€œI don’t need looking after!”
    He stopped at that and turned to glare at her. She saw an unyielding conviction in his eyes and noted the lines around his mouth. The lines gave him the appearance of a man stuck in a permanent frown.
    Those lines had not existed fifteen years ago—at least she didn’t remember them—nor had they existed in her dreams of him. She did her best to appear unperturbed by all that had happened, and began to think that maybe she should count herself lucky to be spared having to marry him today.
    â€œI see you’re still as headstrong as ever,” he said sharply.
    His comment struck her hard. She hadn’t thought Adam had remembered anything about her, or known that she was headstrong in the first place.
    Then she recalled all the times Diana and Adam had gone for walks across the moors, wanting to bealone. Diana would beg Madeline to go home, but she was too young to understand why, so she’d argued with Diana and followed them anyway.
    So that’s what Adam remembered—the troublesome little sister.
    Madeline stood there, saying nothing, waiting for him to give in.
    He didn’t. He simply rephrased his intentions. “I genuinely wish for you to come and be my guest. As I said, my daughter-in-law is confined to her room and she’ll be disappointed if you do not come. In addition, both my daughter and my youngest son could use some instruction in reading and arithmetic. You have experience, you say?”
    â€œYes,” she replied, before she had a chance to think about