“So, what on earth has been going on, then, young lady?” he demanded, standing in front of her with his arms folded, a look of fury on his face.
“Father, I…” She hesitated, finding that she did not know what to say, despite the many hours she had spent imagining how this conversation would play out. She could not explain the strange arrangement that she had come to with the Duke, without giving away her secret correspondence with Lord Harry, and she knew that revealing those details would make a bad situation a whole lot worse.
“I am not even sure that I want to hear your excuses.” He held up his hand to stop her from continuing before she even had a chance to speak. “The way that I understand it,” he went on. “Is that you have somehow enticed the Duke to court you, and before any kind of decent time period has elapsed, you have allowed him the most scandalous liberties with your person!”
Charlotte stared at her feet. She could not deny that what her father was saying was true, even if the reasons behind the courtship were not entirely as he saw them.
“Father, I am sorry,” she stuttered. “I – I didn’t mean for this to happen.” That much, at least, was true. She could not bring herself to regret the kiss, but she had known as soon as it happened that she should not have allowed it. In the confusion of the moment, she had let it happen, as her desire for the Duke, which up until then she had not even fully recognized, had taken her over.
“Well, what a fine pickle we are in,” he huffed. “Your stepmother is apoplectic with rage. But the Duke seems to be decided, at least.”
“Decided on what?” Charlotte was perplexed. She still could not believe that the Duke really intended to go through with the offer he had so hastily made the previous evening. It must have just been panic in the heat of the moment. He surely would not want to shackle himself to her for the rest of his days when he could have the pick of the young ladies of the ton with all their demure smiles and grace and dowries.
Lord Haddington coughed. “Well, I’m not sure quite how you have accomplished it, in all honesty, Charlotte. A young lady such as you, with barely any dowry and limited personal graces…”
Charlotte flushed. Even her own father considered it acceptable to say such things to her. He never would have done so when her mother was alive. He used to be just as carefree as the first viscountess, not giving a second thought to the opinions of other people, but he had changed so much since her death. And he had changed even more since he had met and married Lady Margaret. Sometimes she thought he was barely recognizable from the man who had been so in love with her mother.
“I wonder what your mother would have had to say about all this,” her father continued, almost as if he was reading her mind. His face changed for a moment, a wistful expression crossing it, but then he shook his head and seemed to snap his attention back to the present moment. “It matters not what she would have said, although I think even she, with all her strange ideas, would not have approved of what happened last night.”
Charlotte wanted to protest, to insist that her mother would not have cared about stupid social conventions, but she knew that her father was right. Even her mother would have frowned upon what had gone on between herself and the Duke behind the shrubbery outside the ballroom in the darkness. It was one thing to follow your heart but another entirely to risk your virtue and your reputation.
“There will be a scandal either way,” Lord Haddington pronounced. “As I said before, your stepmother is much displeased. She is sure that this situation will have a negative impact on your stepsister’s matrimonial prospects. And your own sister’s too, of course!”
Charlotte was close to tears now. She had not realized that her actions could have an impact on Martha, too, but now that she thought about it, she knew that her father spoke the truth. The already tarnished and strained reputation of the Hervey sisters would be ruined forever by her indiscretion. And she knew that she could not even expect the Duke to stick to his word and marry her. It was too much to ask for a man of his status. But her father had said that the Duke had decided. What could he have meant by that?
“Father, I am truly sorry for what I have done,” she said. “I did not think it would cause so much trouble.” She had not thought much about it at all, she reflected, as she remembered the moment the Duke’s lips had pressed hers, and all sensible thought had left her mind in an instant.
He shrugged and walked away from her toward the window. “I suspect that the scandal will blow over eventually, once you are a duchess.”
“A duchess?” she squeaked. “You cannot be in earnest, Father.”
He scoffed. “It does not matter whether I am in earnest. The Duke clearly is.” He turned back to face her, his arms folded again resolutely. “He was here first thing this morning, almost before dawn broke, asking to see me.” He tutted again. “The servants will know there is something amiss with him turning up at such an ungodly hour. I am sure gossip cannot be avoided. The whole ton will know of it before the day is out. I have no doubt about it.”
“The Duke was here?” Charlotte was incredulous. She had been awake since the early hours of the morning, but she had not heard anyone coming or going. Perhaps she had dropped back to sleep at the very moment that he had arrived.
“Indeed,” her father went on. “He said that it had always been his intention to marry you, that he had planned it when he asked to pay court to you, but that he had been overrun by his feelings last night and unable to wait any longer.”
Charlotte flushed again, remembering the sensations she had felt when he pressed his lips against hers and how warm his body had felt so close to hers in the cold evening air.
“So he is determined to marry you, and in all honesty, I cannot see how a better solution could emerge from this situation that you have got yourself into,” Lord Haddington declared. “If he marries you, there will, of course, still be a scandal, but it will blow over in time, no doubt. But if he does not marry you… well…”
Charlotte shuddered. Her father did not continue. She knew full well what the consequences of that would be. She would be ruined and her sister’s reputation forever tarnished, and even her stepsister would be affected, although she was not sure how much she cared about that. And yet it did not seem right that the Duke’s hand should be forced like this.
“But Father, he does not love me,” she said softly.
“Pah!” he retorted. “I do not think you are in a position to be thinking about love at this moment, Charlotte!” He glared at her angrily. “You need to be thinking about repairing the damage you have done to this family’s reputation with your terrible behavior. And love is overrated, in any case.” He sighed. “I loved your mother, and I lost her.”
Charlotte felt a tear slide down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly. She knew that despite everything, the prospect of marrying a duke was not something that would make most young ladies in her position cry. But she could barely think straight.
“Father, will you excuse me?” she asked. “I need to be alone. So much has happened in the last day or so, and I need time to think.”
He scoffed again. “You may think all you like, young lady, but you’re marrying the Duke, and soon. We cannot afford to wait. We cannot give him any time to change his mind!”
* * *
Charlotte ran out into the garden, desperate to escape the house. She felt like she was about to suffocate from the stifling atmosphere indoors, where everyone was furious with her. She had to be alone with her thoughts for a little while.
Her sister! Charlotte knew that she must marry the Duke, or else her sister’s reputation would be shattered forever.
