“Perhaps ye should ask what the lady wants, instead of presumin’ ye ken her mind.” Gerard looked at Charlotte, seeing her cheeks had turned pink. “Me lady, would ye like to stay here and talk with the baron? Or would ye like to return with me to our seats?”
She didn’t hesitate and took his arm. A warmth spread through his gut, and he placed his hand over hers on his arm. Her fingers were petite beneath his own, but now safe in his clasp, as he led her away. As he glared back at the baron just once, he caught out of the corner of his eye the way that Lady Winchester broke off in her discussion with her sister, and followed them, smiling greatly.
“Thank you,” Charlotte whispered as they neared the balcony once again. “I did not know how to escape his attentions without causing a scene.”
“Daenae be afraid to cause a scene if ye feel unsafe, lass,” he assured her in a whisper.
“You may not always be there, though,” she said with a smile. “You smoothed the situation well indeed.”
“I’ll be there. If ye have need of me.” He meant that promise, but noticed the way she was earnestly staring at him, without blinking.
“What does that mean, Your Grace?”
He didn’t have time to answer, for a bell had rung. The next act was about to begin.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Charlotte closed the book resting in her lap and turned to face the window. The glass was streaked with water tonight as the rain came down hard.
She’d been hoping to go to see the Duke of Rodstone, to thank him for the gift of his gown as she hadn’t had the opportunity to do so the night before, but that had been made impossible by the sheer strength of the rain and wind.
She glanced back into the body of the room to see her mother and father must have retired for bed, for the settee they usually occupied together was quite empty. Harry had his place in his armchair, with Rose sitting before him as they played cards.
“You cheated.” He pushed the cards back toward her.
“Did not,” Rose muttered, pushing them back the other way.
“You did.”
“When did you become so argumentative?” Rose sighed loudly.
“It doesn’t matter,” Harry sighed and picked up the cards again.
Charlotte sat forward, intending to ask her brother what was wrong. It was plain to her now there was some hidden reason for his increasing need to argue with everyone around him. Could it be some way to keep everyone else away from him and stop revealing too much? She parted her lips, ready to ask, when there was a tap at the door.
“Lady Charlotte?” the butler called, peering his head around the door.
“Yes?”
“You have a visitor,” he explained in a whisper. “Most insistent on seeing you. I have put them in the library.”
“Thank you.” Charlotte blushed deep scarlet as the butler left.
Surely it cannot be him.
It was mad to think that the Duke of Rodstone had come to see her, but was it not also possible? After all, she had crept off to his house more than once. Had he come to hers too?
She glanced at her brother and sister, ready to make an excuse for her absence, but they had lapsed back into another argument.
“You cheated.”
“I didn’t. You did! Why are you like this these days?”
Charlotte ignored their argument and left her book behind her as she stood and hastened out of the room. She took a candle with her, lighting her way as she hurried to the library. She stepped inside, her whole stomach quivering in anticipation.
It cannot be him. It just can’t be!
In her mind’s eye, she saw the way he had come and offered her an escape at the theatre the night before, when she didn’t want the attentions of Baron Winslow. The safety he’d radiated, the protection, still stunned her. When she’d taken his arm and he’d placed her hand over hers, she was certain it was the safest she had ever felt.
