Page 91 of Charming Artemis

“Ginger biscuits?” Jason tossed out.

They were jesting, but Charlie had every confidence they were taking the matter seriously. “Make it bread pudding and sweetshop peppermints, and you might just be on to something.”

They looked at him, curious.

“Bread pudding is her favorite dessert,” he explained. “And Father purchased her a peppermint at her village sweetshop more than once.”

“He did like sweets,” Corbin said.

With a look of nostalgia, Philip said, “He probably was as excited about going inside the shop as she was.”

“I don’t remember that about him,” Charlie said. “Maybe I should tell Artemis about that. It might help.” He shrugged. “But then, what do I know?”

“Don’t fret,” Layton said. “We’ll not let you drown.”

Relief rolled over Charlie. Far from stumped, his brothers were going to help him. Better still, they were going to help Artemis.

“What is our third item for discussion?” Jason asked Philip. “You indicated three matters, and we’ve discussed only two.”

Philip steepled his fingers and eyed them all with a look a pirate captain would have been hard-pressed to match for authority and mischief. “Brothers, I think it is time and past we did something about George Finley.”

Chapter Thirty-One

The day arrived for thefirst of the brothers’ plans to be put in place, plans they likely should have acted on years earlier. Charlie dropped into his bedchamber to fetch his gloves and hat, preparatory to making the journey to Finley Grange.

Unsurprisingly, Artemis was inside. She hadn’t left the room in the daytime for days.

Charlie set his hat and gloves on the bedside table—both far finer than what he’d worn before Wilson, Mr. Layton, and Philip had undertaken his transformation—and sat on the bed next to her. “I’m going to be passing through Collingham. Can I bring you back anything?”

She shook her head. “No, thank you.”

He took gentle hold of her hand. She’d been very distant these past days. While she didn’t speak much, and certainly not on the topic that clearly weighed most on her, she had let Charlie hold her hand. He clung to that small connection and the hope it offered that she wasn’t entirely out of reach.

“Perhaps when I get back, we could go for a walk down to the Trent or take the pony cart over to Collingham,” he said.

“Mr. Finley lives on the other side of Collingham. Despite his...kindoffer, I do not wish to go anywhere near his home.”

Charlie turned toward her. “What ‘kind offer’?”

She took a weary breath. “He told me, in decidedly oily tones, that he was a very accommodating host and would be quite pleased to play intimate host to a married lady.”

For a moment, he couldn’t respond. Through his shock and anger, he said, “Finley propositioned you?”

“And he made perfectly clear his evaluation of my character, that I was the sort of lady who would unabashedly accept such an offer.” She shuddered a little. “I required all of two seconds to realize the man is a snake. The look on his face after I called him a doddering old man left me with no worries that he’d try again, at least not with me. But I suspect there are plenty of other women he mistreats.”

That was, unfortunately, true. “He has harassed Catherine for years. It’s infuriating.”

Artemis’s gaze settled on the window. “The skies are heavy. I hope you aren’t caught in the rain while you’re out.”

“Philip would never remain out in weather that might render his coiffeur unflattering. And now thatIam quite fashionable, I must worry about such things as well.” Doing his best mimic of his oldest brother, Charlie said, “How dare nature wreak havoc on perfection.”

Her fleeting smile was a bit forced, a bit sad. She looked so weighed down. He didn’t know what to do.

“Think about going for a walk with me,” he said. “If the weather doesn’t hold, we can always go tomorrow.”

She nodded, but there was no enthusiasm in it. A few months earlier, he would have dismissed her rejection as a sure sign of her conviction that she was above her company. How little he had understood her then. He saw more of her now. He saw loneliness and pain and a broken heart. He saw a little girl who’d been terribly alone and a lady who had endured too many losses.

Charlie pressed a quick kiss to her hand before rising and taking up his hat and gloves. Her gaze remained on the window, and he could see that her thoughts were far away. Perhaps she would be feeling better by the time he returned.

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