“It is true that I once had a relationship with Lucille. I have told you that before.”
Charlotte winced at the stabbing pain in her chest. Of all the things she had wanted him to say, Lucille’s name wasnot one of them. But she likewise knew that if they were to overcome this, then they needed to push through the painful conversations.
“I know you do not want to hear it,” he said as if reading her mind. “But it is important that I tell you absolutely everything. I want to share everything with you, Charlotte, because I want to share my life with you.”
Her breath hitched. He still loved her, then.
As I still love him.
There was still a chance.
“Very well.”
And then he told her everything. From the moment he met Lucille to the moment he pushed her off his lap that day in Lady Fairchild’s drawing room. He told her the facts, but he told her how he felt at each and every point as well. He told her the good and the bad, opening himself up in the most vulnerable way, and Charlotte softened with each and every word.
“You mean to say my aunt was involved in the entire thing?” Charlotte asked quietly.
Alexander nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so. Lucille said it was Lady Fairchild’s idea, though I wouldn’t put it past either of them.”
Charlotte remained quiet. She sat on the log staring out over the fallen leaves, her mind whirring. What should she believe? She had never been as close to Aunt Lydia as she was to Uncle Elliot, but she had always thought there was love there. She didn’t quite believe it, and yet it made perfect sense. All the pieces of the puzzles fitted together.
“She must have done it for good reason,” Charlotte said, finally turning to glance at him. “Perhaps to protect me.”
Yes, that must be it.She was desperate to convince herself that her relationship with her aunt wasn’t a lie. But hadn’t her aunt proven herself time and again?
“Protect you from what?” Alexander asked. She detected a note of pleading in his voice, and she clung to it. “She wanted to protect your wealth, more like.”
“And is that such a bad thing?” Charlotte demanded. “That she should want to secure my wealth for my own future, my own happiness?”
“If that was her true intention, then no,” he said despondently. “I don’t suppose it is.”
“But you don’t think she meant it for my own future happiness, do you?”
The duke shook his head, and Charlotte nodded. She knew what he thought, and perhaps he was right. After all, didn’t her aunt always prefer the luxurious over the frugal?
They settled into silence again, until Charlotte said, “It’s true then? You’re penniless?”
Alexander looked ashamed for the first time, and Charlotte knew it was true. She knew, too, that he thought himself somehow less of a man for it, but she would never think such a thing. If anything made him less of a man, it was lying or pretending he was anything but what he was. But financial wealth? That didn’t make a man.
“I told you about my uncle,” he said. “He ran the estate down and built a huge amount of debt. It was his sickness that did it, of course. He had always been so responsible with money before that, but nobody saw the danger signs until it was too late. When I inherited the duchy, there was nothing left. The house was—is still—in a state of disrepair, all his business ventures were on their knees, and investors were demanding their money back.”
Charlotte nodded, her eyes once more on the floor in front of them. “So you did want me for my money then?”
Alexander let out a loud laugh that echoed through the trees, and Charlotte looked at him in surprise.
“What on earth is so funny?”
“I’m sorry, my lady, but no. I do not want you for your money. I must be truthful and tell you that it did cross my mind, that I did think about how beneficial your inheritance would be to my estate—it’s natural that such a thing would occur to me. But no. I absolutely do not want you for your money, and neither do I need it.”
She frowned at him. “But you just admitted that you’re penniless.”
“No.” He shook his head, his eyes to the sky as if remembering. “No, I think you’ll find that’s not what I said. I believe, if you had listened closely, you would have heard me say that the duchy was penniless when I took over.”
“But the house is in disrepair—”
“Yes, that much is true,” he said with a nod. “For now.”
Charlotte growled in frustration and got up from the log, stomping her foot. “Would you stop talking in riddles, you infuriating man?”
