Mater patted his cheek. “Have faith, my boy. The two of you will find your way.”
Artemis appeared at the top of the stairs in a carriage dress of deep green. It made her eyes even more emerald.
Mater slipped her arm away from him but took his hand in hers. “She is, without question, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. It is almost shocking.”
“The first time I saw her at your house party two years ago, I couldn’t even speak to her,” Charlie said. “I’d never met anyone so beautiful and poised and confident. I was overwhelmed.”
“What changed that?” Mater asked.
“Shespoke tomeand broke the spell.”
Mater squeezed his hand. “You discovered she was human?”
“I discovered she was a pest.”
Mater bit back a grin. “Charlie.” Her scolding tone fell a little short of the mark.
He laughed lightly. “I am trying, I promise. I’m simply not always successful.”
“So long as you keep making the attempt.”
Artemis was there with him only a moment later. “I suppose we had best be on our way.”
He nodded and motioned her toward the door. The carriage would be waiting for them. She offered a few breezy farewells to her family and floated out. He knew she did not feel as light as she pretended to be. She had often shown herself to be a good actress. He didn’t even know thetrueArtemis.
Mater hugged him fiercely. He called on the emotional tourniquet he’d learned to utilize during his Eton days when leaving his mother and home had left him teary. The teasing and prodding had been unbearable, so he’d found a way to keep it all at bay.
“Come visit the Park,” she instructed, still holding fast to him. “You know you are always more than welcome.”
“I love you, Mater.” He was proud of his composure.
“And I love you, Charlie.”
Feeling his emotions too close to the surface, he pulled back and offered a dip of his head. He snatched his hat from the waiting butler and popped it on his head as he walked swiftly from the house. He climbed into the waiting carriage and onto the rear-facing seat across from... his wife.
Lud, how had this happened? His life was topsy-turvy with no opportunity in sight for righting it. He had lost his career, his future, his chance for love and happiness in marriage. And he felt as though he’d lost his mother and his home as well.
“It is quite disappointing to be leaving London so soon,” Artemis said, eyeing the passing buildings. “There are so very many people I never got the chance to see.”
She was bemoaning her lost social opportunities. Both their lives had been turned inside-out, and she mourned nothing deeper than Society.
How often Charlie had heard his brothers refer to bits of wisdom Father had offered, insights that had helped them solve the difficulties in their lives. Father, whom Charlie hardly remembered, had saved them.
Who was going to savehim?
Chapter Eight
The journey from London hadrequired several days. While Artemis had not been made privy to Charlie’s exact financial situation, she knew he was not particularly deep in the pockets. The changes of horses must have been provided by either Adam or Lord Lampton.
They would likely be living off her dowry. All young ladies with substantial dowries worried that they were being pursued exclusively for the money they would bring to a marriage. Artemis had endured more than her share of would-be suitors who’d shown themselves to be utterly uninterested in her as a person but focused, instead, on what she would add to their coffers. It had happened over and over again. Every Season. Every at-home day. She could say little for the marriage she had been tossed into, but she did know Charlie hadn’t wanted to marry her for her money. Heavens, he hadn’t wanted to marry herat all.
They’d not spoken much during their journey. They’d ridden in silence, eaten in silence, retired to separate bedchambers at every inn only to rise the next morning and sit in the carriage in silence for hours on end.
How was she to endure a lifetime of this? She’d barely survived a childhood of it.
On the afternoon of their final leg of the journey, Charlie had broken the quiet of the carriage. “We’re approaching Brier Hill. I haven’t been here since I was little, but there is no mistaking the area.”
It was at least an attempt at a cordial conversation. She grasped at it. “Why did you stop visiting?”
