Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

“Do you think so?”

“I know so.” Addy pulled back and cupped her face. “Olympia, you are so much braver and brighter than you think you are. I know you can do anything you put your mind to, because I’ve seen you achieve things you didn’t think were possible. That’s how I know you’ll be just fine without me.”

Olympia looked down at the ground. “I still don’t want you to go.”

“I know.” Adelaide hugged her again. “I will miss you so, so much, but remember what I said. You can call me or text me or email me whenever you want, okay? I’ll even learn Snapchat for you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise. I’ll figure it out.”

Olympia nodded, then gave her one last big hug before she let her arms fall away.

Boris stepped forward then and was the quickest goodbye of all—a simple, grandfatherly hug that I was sure Adelaide needed in that moment. “Please drive safely, Adelaide, and let us know when you’ve arrived home.”

“I will, Boris. Thank you.” She reached up and kissed his cheek, and I could swear he blushed slightly.

Then it was just me.

The hardest part would be saying goodbye to her, because it was the very opposite of what I wanted to do. I wanted to sweep her up and carry her back inside and lock her in that bloody library until she came to her senses.

If only it were that simple.

I walked over to her instead of her coming to me, and it gave us a little space between Ma, Boris, and Olympia. “So… This is it,” I said after a moment.

Adelaide nodded. “Yes. I suppose it is.” She didn’t look me in the eye—I didn’t know if that was a wouldn’t or a couldn’t, but I doubted I’d find out. “Thank you. For letting me spend the summer here and tutor Olympia. It was a pleasure.”

“Thank you for helping her the way you did. She’s come a long way in only a few weeks and it’s all because of you.”

“Well, she had a lot to do with it.” She smiled, barely even glancing in my direction. “And… thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything you did for me. For Treacle, too. If it weren’t for you, I think I’d still be stuck writing a book I didn’t feel in my heart, and I definitely wouldn’t have had a few weeks that were as wonderful as the ones we had.”

A little piece of my heart broke off. “Then… I will thank you for the same thing. You made my life a lot brighter this summer, Adelaide, and I’m very grateful for the time we spent together.”

She nodded and blinked quickly. “I should go. I don’t want to get caught in any lunchtime traffic on the way home, so…” Her voice almost cracked at the end, and she turned around and rushed to her car.

I couldn’t move. Watching her get in the car was one of the most excruciating pains I’d ever felt, and my heart was screaming at me to stop her and tell her the truth, but my mouth wouldn’t move.

My limbs were all frozen in place, and the sound of her engine starting cut through me like a knife. I felt nothing but pain—pure, raw pain that spread through my body and made me grit my teeth together.

She was going.

She was really leaving.

She turned her car towards the driveway and slowly pulled away. The gravel crunched under her tires, and all I could do was watch as her car got smaller and smaller until it finally reached the gates, turned right, and disappeared.

Adelaide was gone.

And all I was left with was a gaping, empty, aching hole in my chest where I was sure my heart used to be.

She’d taken it with her.

I dropped my chin to my chest and closed my eyes.

Gone.

She was gone.

And she wasn’t coming back.

I took a deep breath and looked up.

“Papa?” Olympia said in a thick, sad voice. “Are you sad?”

I forced a smile. “A little bit, yes.”

She let go of Mum and walked over to me, then reached up and gave me a big cuddle. “Is that better?”

“Oh, much better. Thank you, sweetheart.” I fought back any emotion that was threatening to escape. I couldn’t let her see how much I was hurting. “Why don’t you go to the kitchen with Boris? I’m pretty sure there’s ice-cream in the freezer, and maybe he wouldn’t mind getting you some.”

“Oh, ice-cream,” Boris said, his own voice slightly thick with emotion. “I do like ice-cream. Come along, Olympia. Let’s see how many scoops we can eat before anyone finds us, shall we?”

Olympia nodded and trotted off with him, slipping her hand into his. They disappeared into the house, and Ma waited for a moment before she came over to me.

“Alexander, are you all right?”

I drew in a deep breath. “I didn’t think she’d leave, you know. I thought she might change her mind.”