Page 70 of A Lady's Wager
Charlotte smiled at him. How had he lived twenty-five years without that smile? How could he be expected to live even one more without seeing it?
Sir Duncan looked to the earl. “This soiree seems to have attracted people unworthy of your daughter’s company. I will happily call up my carriage to take us elsewhere.”
“Now you are implying that you have the right to dictate where I and my daughter spend our time.” The earl spoke very matter-of-fact, but there was no mistaking that he did not, at least in that moment, approve of Sir Duncan. Perhaps Julian had helped solidify that opinion. “I would suggest you leave off the suppositions for the remainder of the night.”
The discomfort in Sir Duncan’s posture promised a hasty departure, which he almost immediately undertook. That was one less person Charlotte’s father might attempt to match her with.
The earl indicated Julian should walk with him and his daughter. He didn’t object.
“Your father and grandfather were a lot of things, Lord Wesley, but they were not empty-headed. I suspect you are not as well.”
“I would like to think I’m not,” Julian answered.
“Then why act the part?”
The earl had realized Julian was playacting. Had he from the very beginning, at the musicale?
To be safe, Julian kept his explanation to that evening’s performance. “Sir Duncan was making your daughter unhappy.Dispatching him without having to resort to calling him out seemed my best option.”
“Would you have called him out?” Charlotte asked him.
“He would have deserved it,” Julian acknowledged. “But I am not in a position to so formally take up the cause of defending you in that way. Presuming to do so would only make the situation even worse than it was.”
Her gaze on him turned soft. “Are you always so mindful of the impact you have on others?”
“I try to be,” he said, “but I fall short more often than I wish I did.”
“I think we all do,” Lady Charlotte said.
Julian shook his head. “You are endlessly kind and patient. You show people consideration and—”
He stopped short, realizing the earl was watching him a bit too closely for comfort. The gentleman did not approve of him. Drawing undue notice would likely make that even more true.
“I suppose Iammaking a nuisance of myself now.” He offered a quick dip of his head. “I do know how to make myself scarce, and I can do so if you would prefer.”
“Please don’t,” Charlotte said. Her eyes darted to her father, and she kept her expression one of almost neutrality. “Sir Duncan will not pester me if you are nearby, and I would greatly appreciate an evening-long reprieve.”
His affection for her must have been written on every corner of his face. But what could he do? He’d lost his heart to her so utterly that hiding the state of his affections felt impossible.
“If your father will permit me to enjoy your company for a time longer, I would be honored to do so.”
The earl was studying him again, and it was not an overly comfortable examination. Julian had promised Charlotte awkwardness, but he hadn’t fully anticipated feeling ill at ease himself.
Mr. Travers arrived in that moment. He was received warmly and eagerly by Lord Tarrant. Charlotte watched the new arrival with misgiving. Not fear or distaste, neither with the actual misery she’d shown with Sir Duncan. But this suitor, one who’d seemed to gain her father’s favor, had certainly not won her good opinion.
Time for weaponized awkwardness.
“Tonight’s soiree involves pestering people,” Julian told Mr. Travers. “And word misusage. Isn’t that exciting?”
Mr. Travers’s brows drew in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”
“A bit of revelry,” Julian explained. “Of humor. Diversion.”
“Is not the soiree itself the diversion?” Mr. Travers asked quite somberly.
“Soirees can contain diversions as well,” Charlotte replied.
“That seems like a great deal of … merriment.” That Mr. Travers didn’t care for the idea couldn’t have been more obvious.
