“I do not fool myself into thinking that you will tell me what is wrong, Charlotte, though I wish you would confide in me,” David whispered. “Your mother has alluded enough to me that heartbreak could be behind all of this.”
Charlotte looked away. She stared at the leaves that danced in the breeze. A light rain had begun to fall from the grey clouds, but neither she nor her father showed any wish to turn around and return into the house.
“I do not like to see you in this way, Charlotte.”
“I know.” She inclined her head toward him. “If I could improve my mood with the click of my fingers, I would, Father, but I cannot.”
“I know that, too.” He nodded. “Yet there are things I can suggest, ways that we could improve our moods.” He turned the pair of them so that they were walking under a curtain of tree branches, a little protected from the light rain though it continued to fall. “I know this is little comfort, but I do know what heartbreak is like, Charlotte.”
“You do?” She jerked her head toward him in surprise.
“Before your mother and I married,” he paused, wincing a little before continuing, “we did not have the easiest of courtships. As you know, we like to argue –”
“Yes, I think I had noticed that,” Charlotte murmured wryly, managing the smallest of smiles that her father matched.
“We argued badly one day in our courtship. We broke it off for months.” He shook his head, repeatedly. “Worst few months of my life, that was.”
“How did you bear it?”
“With difficulty.” He smiled rather sadly. “In the end, I wouldn’t undo our argument, for we both went away and rediscovered ourselves again, before we came back together and met one night by chance at an assembly. We realized that night, despiteour arguments, we did not want to live without each other.” This time, his smile was buoyant. “Months of misery ended in the happiest night of my life, but I’ll tell you this, Charlotte.”
He hesitated, halting their walk and turning to face her. “Time alone is not necessarily a bad thing. It means we learn ourselves more.”
“Very philosophical, Father.”
“Well, maybe I have some wisdom in me.” He smiled. “Trust me, Charlotte.”
She did trust him. She nodded, taking in his words fully.
“Live your life as you wish to while your heart recovers,” he pleaded. “Do what you wish to do with your life,” he urged. “Now, what is it you would like to do? Above everything else, what do you wish for?”
“I…” She stumbled with her words for a second. What she wished for was a big thing, and she knew if she did it, it would cost them money. It would mean either eating into the reserves that Gerard had given her or pleading for it from her father. “What I wish for, I cannot do. It would cost money.”
“We’re not yet destitute, Charlotte. Yes, we economize, but we can afford a few things, and as I have just told you, some of my investments have recently improved. Come, tell me what it is you want.” He encouraged her on, his smile warm.
“My friend Frederica. She has recently traveled. Where she has gone…” She paused, hanging her head.
“Ah, I see. You cannot tell me.” He nodded in understanding. “I have read the scandal sheets, Charlotte. I read the story only yesterday of your friend’s compromising position.”
“It’s awful, Father,” she murmured. “It was not Frederica’s doing. She was trapped. She has run now, in the effort to avoid a marriage she does not want.”
“I cannot blame her for it.” His understanding gave Charlotte hope.
“I would like to be able to visit her, but it would be a journey, a long journey.”
“You’re going to have to tell me where, Charlotte, otherwise how will I arrange a carriage for you to visit her?”
“You will let me visit her?” Charlotte asked excitedly. “But… the money.”
“Let me worry about that.” He patted her hand on his arm. “Charlotte, it should never have been your worry in the first place, our money. That is my responsibility.” He smiled, encouragingly once again. “Now come, where is it you would like to go?”
“Cornwall,” she whispered, “but you cannot tell anyone. If the news of where Frederica is got back to her parents?—”
“I shall keep the secret.” David laid a hand over his heart in earnestness. “Come, let’s return inside as this rain is getting worse. We shall make the arrangements to see your friend.”
It was a small thing, barely measurable at all, yet as Charlotte returned to the house, she felt a tiny spring in her step that had not been there before.
Gerard stepped down from the carriage into a deep puddle. The water splashed up his hessian boots and onto his trousers, though it made little difference to his clothes. It was raining heavily, the sky’s tears practically flooding the ground in seconds.
