Keep My Heart- Prologue

Keep My Heart- 12

As quickly as they had come, they were gone. Olivia had heard no yelling, nothing of the kind. But when Adam came back into the office, he said nothing and sat down. From the wingback chair she had taken quiet refuge in, she looked up at him, eyes wide and glassy and blue. Her dress was pitifully crinkled, her face scarlet and damp with tears.

"They've left," he said briefly, and combed his fingers through his hair tiredly.

"Left?"

 "I've made arrangements for Mrs. Woolworth to maintain Hawke's Vale. We will have to leave in a few days."

"To- for- but this has all happened so quickly," she sighed, hanging her head once again in her hands.

"Life never slows down, Olivia. You will be better off if you embrace that and take a step on the water."

"You mean to say...I should take a chance?"

"Precisely," he replied.

"On what? On who? I've taken chances before, and all it did was leave me unmarried, ruined, and heartbroken," she said bitterly. "It left my life in ruins."

"Take another," he said, flatly.

She shifted sleepily in the chair, and avoided his gaze. She had no energy and no desire to do anything; Adam was troubled and needed some time on the water. But they looked at one another and had the same notion in mind.

Olivia wondered what he had said and what had happened behind the closed doors, and where Rashleigh and Georgiana had gone. The thought had never entered her mind that Adam might challenge his own brother to a duel. Rashleigh was his little brother and he was too much of a gentleman anyway.

Adam was considering what he had told his brother. Leave and do not return. Do not write. No attempts will be made to reach us.

He felt a bit guilty, seeing that even though Rashleigh had done what he had done, he still felt compelled to clean up after the messes. Their father and mother had not been there to raise him, and it seemed that he still had not grown up. He was still a child, and thought anything he wanted was his.

Oh, but wasn't he mistaken? No, he did not receive everything he wanted. What Rashleigh needed to learn was that he did not get everything he wanted on a whim. He was married. He had a wife and a household. But he always wanted what was just beyond his reach. The next thing would make him happy.

But he would never be happy.

"I'm sorry, Adam."

He met her gaze. "There is no need to apologize," he told her, numbly.

"I've torn you from your brother," she proceeded, swallowing hardly. "None of this would have-"

"None of this would have happened if the two of you had never met," he cut in. "But if the two of you had never met, you and I wouldn't have met. We would not be here now."

"What is the good of being here now?" she murmured.

He heard her and partly understood what she meant. It still irked him a bit, but he said nothing. Instead, he thought a minute longer. "Have you ever thought that perhaps there is something more to being here now?"

Wonderstruck, her forget-me-not blue eyes widened. "All the time."

"Then it might be. Until we figure that out, let us live one day at a time."

"One day at a time," she repeated, and all of a sudden, longed to be near to him. If he would tell her the secrets of his heart, if he would put his arms around her...then she might know. He couldn't love her, though. It was entirely impossible to love a woman who had caused so much trouble...

Wasn't it?

At the same time, Adam was thinking that Olivia was in no place to be in love. Emotionally, she had been rent from one place to the next, all in a small space of time.

"I'm sorry for Rashleigh's behavior. When we were boys, I tried my hardest to teach him right from wrong, though it appears some have more trouble than others. He never could quite grasp the things I could." And to think Rashleigh had said Adam was not good enough for her.

"You have always been good, then," she said.

"I have always tried, yes."

"My mother and father would have approved of you. They always wanted a man like you for me."

"A man like me, hm?"

She felt color rise in her cheeks and she looked at her lap, tossing about for what to say. "A good man," Olivia bit out. It was the only thing she knew to say.

"What makes you think that I am so good, and you are so terrible?" His expression was soft and earnest, and there was a gentle furrow between his black, thick brows.

"I have done many sinful things," she told him.

"And so have I. I was always told that there is no sin greater than the other."

"That is what it says," she sighed.

"Why focus on the negative, Olivia, when you have so much good to give? Why do you insist on harping on what you've done, instead of thinking what you will do? What you are doing."

His words bristled on her spine, for she knew he was  . "I have never thought of it that way," she replied.

And then neither of them said a word.

Hey, readers. You're amazing. Especially Bribelle. She's the best. Go check out her story, Fight. It's epic, no lie! :) Also, thanks to AmazingCo-Writers! (I hope I got that right!)

This chapter wasn't very good, a bit of a filler, but there will be more to come.