Charlotte’s temper flared. “Well perhaps if you hadn’t so rudely disappeared from my life and then reappeared like a rabbit popping out of a hole, then I—” She stopped and stared at him disbelieving. The man was laughing. Actually laughing! “And what, pray tell, is so funny?”
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “Nothing at all.”
“And do gentlemen often laugh atnothing?” she demanded, irrationally incensed.
“Often, yes,” he replied with a tease on his lips. “After all, we are so very different from you gentler ladyfolk.”
“We are not so different, you and I. Men and women, at their hearts, are one and the same.”
Charlotte turned her nose up and pushed her horse forward, taking the lead. The duke allowed her forward a few paces before following her. She arched her back as she rode, hoping he could see the curve of her body, the plumpness of her buttocks, and she shook her hair out like a peacock fanning his feathers.
“And there is the Miss Charlotte Fairchild I have come to know and love.”
Love?Charlotte’s back straightened and her muscles tensed. Surely he didn’t mean it? He couldn’t. It wasn’t possible. Love was not on the agenda for their friendship. Love was a foolish thing for foolish people, and neither of them were foolish.
Except maybe I am, just a little.
Alexander had obviously also noticed hisfaux pasfor he cleared his throat. “I mean it in the most platonic of ways, naturally.”
“Naturally.”
They meandered around the park happily, reminiscing about Cheslea’s wedding as if it were years before, and talking about their dreams for the future.
“I’ll be honest, I hadn’t expected to ever become duke,” Alexander said.
Charlotte glanced over at him. He looked completely relaxed, seemingly at peace, perhaps more so than she had ever seen him.
“How so?”
“The title belonged to my uncle,” the duke explained. “But alas, the man became terribly ill and, well, the rest is history as they say.”
“Oh, I am sorry for your loss.”
“He’s not dead,” the duke replied. “At least not in body. In mind and spirit?” He sighed. “That’s a different matter altogether.”
“Where is he now?” Charlotte asked, her intrigue piqued. “Not in the gaol, surely?”
“Of course not! I couldn’t bear to think of him in such a wretched place.”
“So you care for him?” Charlotte looked at him in a new light. There seemed no end to this handsome man’s abilities.
“We have a nurse. And the physician visits often, of course, but—”
“That must be terribly difficult for you, especially when you have a duchy to run. But it is honorable, too.”
The duke sighed. “It can be, I admit, though I do not wish to be ungrateful or sound resentful, for I am not. But… well,” hewaved a dismissive hand in the air. “Let’s talk of happier things, shall we? Like the opportune coincidence that led to us bumping into one another at the theater.”
“Opportune indeed,” Charlotte said. “My uncle is not a fan of the theater and as such, I rarely get to attend. It is quite the coincidence that we ended up there together.”
He looked at her with a wry smile. “Fate is not always the cruel mistress she is purported to be, my lady. Sometimes, we ought to be grateful for the kindness she shows us. It is twice now that she has brought me into your company.”
Despite herself, Charlotte blushed. She had never been one for swooning or acting coy, but Alexander’s sweet words had penetrated the wall of hardness she had built around herself, nudging at the romantic heart she hid deep inside. It was rare, too, that he was kind rather than mocking, and though she enjoyed his teasing, she found she rather liked it when he spoke sweetly too.
“You mean to say it was fate who brought you to the trees near the lake? Fate that caused you to stand and watch?”
“Ah, fate may have driven me there, but she did not make me watch. That was all you, Miss Charlotte. I could not tear my eyes away from the beautiful, mysterious creature in the water now, could I? You were quite the sight to behold.”
Charlotte guffawed, snorting unladylike through her nose. “It seems the angels have your tongue today, Your Grace, for you are full of compliments—even if they are skirting on the edge of inappropriate.”
