Adam's father was not happy. When he arrived from New York, he did not say a single word to his own son. And frankly, Adam did not want to speak to him either. Their relationship had cracked. Since that day Mr. Lancaster Sr. decided to hire a prostitute for Adam, Adam no longer wanted that bond there once was. Mrs. Lancaster did not seem to notice their sudden distance towards each other, but John, Adam's little brother, did.
John walks inside the carpentry, hands in his immaculate uniform, head hanging low. Adam looks up from his sketching and smiles, but the boy does not smile back.
"What's the matter?" Adam asks putting his pen down, all his attention on his brother.
John shrugs.
"Come on, something is in your mind, tell me what it is," Adam insists.
John looks up, his eyes red from tears. Adam stands rapidly and kneels before him. "What's wrong? Did someone bother you at school?"
"No," he replies in a tiny whisper.
"What is it then?"
John rubs his eyes and speaks, "Are you and father fighting?"
Adam sighs trying to come up with an appropriate response. "We had a minor disagreement. That's all, nothing to worry about."
"Then why was father telling mother that you were being difficult and that you wanted to be as far away from him as possible."
"He said that?" Adam asks more to himself than to his brother. "Well, it will blow over. Father and I are more different that people think. You don't need to worry yourself about all this. Next thing you know, it'll all be over."
"Really?" asks John quietly.
"Of course, you'll see."
"John, please excuse us," Mr. Lancaster's voice comes from behind Adam, Adam's back tenses. He doesn't want to see him.
"Yes sir," John replies and runs off swiftly out the door.
"Adam we need to talk."
Adam stands and turns slowly, his father stand before him looking so perfect as usual.
"I believe you misunderstood me when I asked the concierge to intercept your letters, I was doing it for us," his father explains.
Adam shakes his head and almost wants to laugh. "This has nothing to do with the letters." His father looks confused so he continues. "This has to do with you hiring a prostitute and letting her in my room."
His father looks taken aback. "Well, I just thought you needed to relax a bit."
"Oh, you thought you were doing me a favor by leading me to temptation?" Adam replies nastily.
His father laughs, Adam's patience is wearing thin. "Temptation? Oh no son, please, I was merely offering you an escape from that bothersome hotel."
"An escape?" Adam spits angrily. "You are the one who insisted I get married. You basically forced me to marry Sophia. Now you push these women my way, I can't comprehend your intentions."
"I truly think you are over thinking everything. Marriage is a contract between a man and a woman, the women promise to take care of the family, and we promise to treat them well. You got married because you needed to settle down and have a family. Sophia married you because she wanted a man to support her financially. See?"
Adam rubs his eyes in frustration wondering where the prostitutes took part in all this. "At my wedding, we promised each other to be for each other in sickness or in health, to be loyal to each other no matter the circumstances. To be faithful until death do us apart. Don't you see father? Faithfulness is what makes a marriage."
His father shrugs. "Empty promises, son. Those are empty promises we make because it is tradition, that's all."
Adam sighs feeling a heavy weight on his chest. "I didn't."
His father furrows his eyebrows not knowing if he heard correctly. "You didn't what?"
"My promises were genuine. I promised my wife, loyalty and faithfulness from the beginning, so I would appreciate it if you could stop this nonsense." Adam walks to his desk and returns to his notes. "You can do what you like with whomever you like, but don't get me involved."
His father stands tacitly, wanting to make things better, but he realizes that he can't. He walks out without turning back.
Ò Ò Ò
As Sophia places the basket with their lunch on the table that Adam had finished working on days ago, Adam grabs a couple of unfinished chairs improvising their lunch date. Adam's watches Sophia intently as she takes out food wrapped in tissue paper, her hair back in a complex braid and her simple dress made her seem like she was working in a farm, a look he didn't necessarily hate.
He pulls out a chair for her and she accepts it sitting gracefully. The food smells delicious, Adam is so angry that he had forgotten about the lunch date, making Sophia's arrival a pleasant surprise. As he watches his wife seemingly happy to be by his side, he wonders why his father was acting like the way he was acting. Before Adam got married, he never saw his father at Mona's, he never saw her with other women. Was all this always happening and he hadn't paid attention or was this the beginning of a destructive pattern?
There was always some distance between his parents. His father, though he dared to tell people that he was a better man now that he got married, he never displayed it at home. Not when Adam was younger, not now. He doesn't know why all this is upsetting him so much. He was used to seeing his father indifference towards his mother, having affairs shouldn't be much of a surprise. But maybe now that Adam is a married man, now that he met the woman of his life, he can't seem to be able to lie or cheat on her. Shouldn't every marriage be like this?
"Adam?"
Adam looks up at his wife, and overwhelming feeling to let it all out threatens his composure, but he gains control of it rapidly. But Sophia caught a glimpse of it.
She starts serving their lunch as she says softly, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"About what?" Adam replies.
Sophia shrugs. "I don't know, about whatever is aching you."
Adam wants to tell her everything, he feels like if he could just get everything off his chest then he would feel better, and maybe even feel renovated.
"My..." he comes to a halt as he sees her sweet eyes watching him. "I promised I would be honest with you."
"Yes?" Sophia urges on.
"But I also promised I wouldn't hurt you," he whispers as he struggles to figure out the next step.
"Adam, you're scaring me," he hears Sophia say shakily. Adam jumps up as he realizes how bad he's putting his thoughts into words.
"Oh no. No, no, no, it's nothing like what you're thinking," he says even though it could have been.
"What is it then?" she pleads. "What happened in New York?"
Adam takes a deep breath, "My. . ." he takes her hands in his and smiles. Why should he burden her with this? He walked out, he did the right thing, why should he tell her about the mess his father was trying to involve him in? A lady like Sophia should not hear these sort of things. "What happened was that I have never treasured you so much like I treasure you now."
Sophia blinks in surprise. "What?"
"Yes," Adam starts feeling exuberant, he pushes his chair closer and cups her face with his hands. "Whatever happened in New York made me realize that I can't stop thinking about you, and that my life was completely empty without you, that there's no other woman in this world I rather be with."
Sophia watches him and smiles. "You are..." she pauses and decides that a kiss will describe her feelings better than all the words in the English language.
The opening of the door interrupts them, Sophia pulls away rapidly covering her flushed cheeks, Adam straightens in his chair with the feeling of wanting more.
"I'm sorry," says a man Adam has never seen before. "I'm looking for Miss Sophia Willis, Mr. Willis said I might find her here."
Adam studies the man as he stands to receive him. He's tall and bulky looking, like he's used to hard labor, his face rigid and stern. He's watching Sophia as Sophia seems to slowly recognize him.
"Adrian?"
The man smiles at the sound of Sophia's voice. "Miss Willis..."
"Mrs. Lancaster now," Sophia corrects him immediately filling Adam with pride.
The man chuckles. "Right, you are married, congratulations."
Sophia smiles and grabs Adam's arm. "Yes, let me introduce you, Adrian, this is Adam Lancaster, my husband. This is Adrian Gibbs, Lucia's husband."
Adam stares at the man dumbfounded, as far Adam knew, Lucia Willis was a widower.
Ò Ò Ò
"I met her almost seven years ago," starts Adrian Gibbs as he's sitting on the sofa beside Sophia. "She was visiting Georgetown, where I grew up. You ever been?"
Adam nods. "Once, years ago. A quiet town."
"Yes, Lakewood reminds me a lot of it, except that Georgetown is not quite this big. I suppose that's why I wanted to marry Lucia. She was from a small town, and well, that's what I was searching for."
"That's very ambiguous when searching for a wife," Adam comments.
Mr. Gibbs nods knowing how ridiculous everything sounds. "I spoke to Mr. Willis a week after I met her expressing my wish to marry her and take her with me to Europe. My uncle had a shop you see, in England. I'm a blacksmith and I heard his forge was doing very well, so we got married in my hometown."
"It was a beautiful wedding," adds Sophia at the sudden change of Mr. Gibbs mood.
"It was, wasn't it?" he replies nostalgically.
"Did you go to England?" asks Adam.
"Yes, but Lucia refused to go with me. She had said how she couldn't be so far away from her family. Which I coudn't understand, when I told her about my plans for us, she seemed to be up for it, even excited. When the time came, she denied everything." He sighs as he leans forward rubbing his head. "So I left without her. She stopped replying to my letters and I didn't hear from her again."
Adam moves uncomfortably wondering if he knew about his brief involvement with his wife.
"Last thing I heard was that she remarried?" Mr. Gibbs asks.
Sophia nods. "She did but he left and the marriage was annulled."
"We weren't even married for a year and she went ahead and . . ." he can't finish his thought. "I'm not returning without her."
Sophia turns to Adam baffled, Adam doesn't know if he heard correctly. "You want to take her to England with you?" Adam asks trying to clarify it.
"Yes," Mr. Gibbs replies very determined. "My uncle passed and I inherited his forge. The business is good which means I can give her everything she wants." He turns to Sophia with a hopeful smile. "She'd come with me, won't she?"
"I don't know," she says nervously. "Things have changed."
"I know but if I say the right things. . ." he trails off. "I heard the rumors, you know," he says instead.
"What exactly have you heard?" Sophia enquires.
"About the convent and her . . . occupation."
Adam leans forward wanting to get his attention. "Are you sure you want to take her with you?" Mr. Gibbs turns to him almost offended but his face changes as he reconsiders.
Adam sits back allowing Mr. Gibbs to consider his actions. Sophia gives him a distressing look, Adam gives her a reassuring one, but he knows that she can feel Mr. Gibbs' pain.
Perhaps this could be the best thing that could happen to Lucia, Adam ponders. She could go somewhere new where no one knew her past, and if she gave it an effort she could start a new life. A life without scandals.
"Have you spoken to Lucia?" asks Sophia breaking the silence.
"Not yet. I was hoping you could speak to her before I go see her, maybe let her see the advantages to coming with me."
"I don't know if she'll want to listen to me..."
"But she will!" he interrupts making her jump. "You are the only one that can speak to her, put some sense into her."
"But I..."
"Please Sophia," he begs as he takes a hold of her hand, Adam sits up alert unaware of his overprotective stance. "At least let her know that I'm here for her, just so she won't be too surprise when I do go see her."
Sophia watches Mr. Gibbs sympathetically, his distress obvious in his rugged face. "Alright, I'll speak to her tomorrow morning."
"Thank you Sophia, thank you!" Mr. Gibbs stands and attempts to hug her but Adam stands along with him and he decides against it. "Mr. Lancaster, a pleasure to meet you, you're a very lucky man," he tells Adam as they shake hands.
"Yes I am," replies Adam.
"Well, I better be off. Sophia, thank you again. Forgive me if I interrupted your evening."
Adam shrugs assuring him he didn't, even though he did.
Once Mr. Gibbs was out the door he turns to Sophia. "I thought Lucia was a widower."
"She claimed to be when he left." She faces Adam with an anguish face. "What do I tell Lucia? That her long lost husband has come to claim her back?"
"Yes, that's exactly what you should tell her."
She lets out a laugh. "She's going to hate me more than she already does. She didn't even want to marry him, you now. I believe she married him just because he gave her all these expensive gifts. I think she thought he had a fortune."
"And when she found out he didn't?"
"She refused to go with him to England. I just hope she doesn't hurt him. He's a very good man, he doesn't deserve to get hurt again."
Adam wraps his arms around her compelled by her tender heart. "You need to stop worrying, you do what you promised and leave. Lucia is a grown woman, she'll know what to do."
Sophia sighs. "You're right."
Adam gives her a peck on top of her head and holds her for a bit longer. They would be better off if Lucia did leave, they will both have a reminder of their past behind them, no longer inflicting them.