Chapter 7

Adrian proposed to me in the winter of 1955.

It wasn't the first time he had asked, but it was the first time I didn't refuse immediately.

He stood by the frozen lake at Hartwell Manor, holding the ring my mother had left me.

No reporters, no family witnesses, no roses spread across the ground.

I had told him once that my mother hated roses.

Because roses were what my father sent every mistress he ever had.

Adrian remembered.

He had prepared nothing at all. He only asked whether I was willing to trust him once.

"I can marry you."

I looked at him. "But I have one condition."

"Tell me."

"I won't accept a third person."

"This isn't about illegitimate children, and it isn't about whether you'd bring her in front of me."

"Kissing, sleeping with someone, drinking from her throat, or any short thing you think isn't worth mentioning. I can't accept any of it."

Adrian didn't laugh at me for being as naive as a human, and he didn't tell me that a vampire's life is too long for that.

He took my hand, as serious as a man reading out a vow that life and death depended on.

"There won't be a third person."

"Evelyn, I didn't pursue you so that you could live the life your mother lived."

"If I ever break that promise, you don't have to listen to me explain."

"You can simply leave."

That was the day I said yes.

Seventy years later, he seemed to have forgotten what he said.

I hadn't.

Preparations for the anniversary dinner entered their final stage, and I went back to Blackwood Manor.

Adrian sat through the tasting menu with me himself and had Agnes take away a dessert I didn't care for.

When the dining room was empty except for the two of us, I set down my glass and spoke as if I were making small talk.

"All that news about you lately made me think of my father."

Adrian's hand paused.

Only for an instant.

"I'm not like him."

"I know." I looked at him. "So I'm just curious. What do you think now of vampires who keep a string of human lovers?"

He frowned, and there was something close to disgust in his face.

"A pack of fools spoiled by having too much time."

"Some of them think a human only gets a few decades, so a relationship like that hardly counts."

"How long something lasts has nothing to do with loyalty."

He took my hand and ran his thumb slowly over my knuckles.

"Evelyn, you don't need one photograph dragging all of that back up."

"I told you I would never let you become your mother."

I watched him, and my heart felt like it was being drawn tight by a thin wire.

He knew the right answer perfectly well.

He knew better than I did exactly what to say to put me at ease.

"And if one day you fell in love with someone else?" I asked.

"That day won't come."

"Adrian, life is very long."

"Which is why I have more than enough time to keep choosing you."

When he finished, he bent his head and kissed the back of my hand.

His phone lit up on the table.

The screen was facing up. I wasn't trying to look, but the notification came into view whole.

The sender was Claire.

The Langham, room 1708.

I miss you.

Adrian picked up the phone and switched off the screen as if it were nothing.

"Victor is pushing me about foundation business."

He had even prepared an answer in advance for a question I hadn't asked.

Ten minutes later he took a call.

"I'm sorry, darling." Adrian stood up. "Something's come up at the company. I need to go into London."

I didn't stop him.

"Go."

He bent down to kiss me, and before he left he told Agnes to turn up the heat in the bedroom.

As the car pulled out of the grounds, I sat alone at the end of the long table.

The candlelight wavered over the wine he hadn't finished.

I took out my phone and looked up the Langham.

From the manor it is exactly an hour's drive.

And Adrian had told me he was only going to the office.