“Not a suitable match?” she repeated, shaking her head at her uncle’s words. “I am the granddaughter of a viscount, not duchess in my own right! Even by your standards, my marrying a duke would be a step up—several steps up! And he has proven himself to be a good man. He is neither rake nor gambler. He is kind and proper. How could you think him unsuitable?”
“I think perhaps Lady Charlotte isn’t aware of the truth,” Lucille said in a quiet yet confident voice from the corner of the room.
Charlotte spun around and glared at her. How she was growing to hate this woman who had somehow infiltrated herlife. She wanted nothing more to do with her. “And what is it to do with you?” she demanded.
“Come now, Charlotte,” Aunt Lydia warned. “I know you are upset but there is no need to take it out on our guest. Don’t forget your manners.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucille said, raising her hands in the air. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just—”
“No, you’re quite right,” Aunt Lydia said. “It appears our niece is blind to the truth about this man she supposedly loves.”
“What truth?” Charlotte spat. “If there is something to be said, then please say it. Otherwise perhaps I shall have to take matters into my own hands.”
Uncle Elliot sucked in his breath. “And leave the folds of your home?”
“If that’s what it takes, then yes.”
“No, Charlotte,” Aunt Lydia said. “That would be a very foolish move indeed. The duke is debt-ridden. He’s a pauper.”
“I have a wealth of my own,” Charlotte snapped back, though the words had shocked her. Alexander hadn’t mentionedanything about money troubles, and she wondered at yet another secret being kept from her.
“That is exactly the point,” Uncle Elliot said. He leaned forward as if to grasp her hand and comfort her, but she snatched her hand away. She did not want his comfort.
“Charlotte, can you not see that he is using you to get to your inheritance?”
Charlotte scoffed, shaking her head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. He loves me.”
“No,” Lucille said softly from the corner. “He lovesme, but he wants your wealth.”
Charlotte rose from her chair, propelled by the anger that now surged through her. “And you, my lady, are a fantasist if you truly believe that.”
She turned and marched from the room, her skirt snapping between her legs as she went. She thumped up the stairs and stomped her room where she promptly slammed the door shut. It may have been childish, but if they wanted to treat her as one, she might as well act as one. She threw herself onto the bed and began to sob.
It was around half an hour before there came a gently knocking the door.
“Come in,” Charlotte muttered.
To her surprise, it was not her uncle but Aunt Lydia who popped her head around the doorframe.
“May I come in?” she asked.
Charlotte shuffled on the bed until she was sitting up and leaning against the headboard. She nodded.
Lydia sat down on the bed next to her and took her hand. “I know you are disappointed, Charlotte. But you will get over this, I promise. I know it is hard to believe, but that just shows how clever a manipulator the Duke of Ashbourne truly is.”
“It’simpossibleto believe,” Charlotte replied.
Aunt Lydia patted her hand. Charlotte supposed she meant it as comfort, but it made her want to squirm away.
“Lucille told me herself. The duke explained his plan to her—to marry you for the money and then, once secured, to elope with her.”
Charlotte couldn’t stop herself from snorting. “And why, pray tell, would she then come and tell you? She would have everything she wanted—the duke and the wealth!”
Aunt Lydia shook her head and sighed. “You have such a bad opinion of her, but she is a good lady. It hurt her moral sensibilities to think of an innocent such as yourself being so hurt and used.”
Charlotte shook her head again, astonished at the nonsense her aunt spouted. “You trust Lucille’s judgement so greatly over mine, do you? Do you honestly think me so foolish and naïve that I would fall for such nonsense, do you?”
“It is not like that,” Aunt Lydia pleaded. She seemed to glance around the room, searching for an answer, and when she returned her attention to Charlotte, she spoke quickly. “I have seen evidence of his manipulative skills with my own eyes. I have seen the way he looks at Lucille, heard the way he speaks to her. Do not take me for a fool either, young lady.”
