Page 46 of An Unwilling Earl
He hadn’t seen her. He was gazing in the other direction. She followed his gaze and realized with a sick feeling that he was watching a gaggle of female servants gathered together, clutching their baskets as they talked and laughed.
They had no idea who was watching or what danger they were in.
People jostled about her, knocked into her shoulder, muttered for her to get out of the way.
He turned his head, and she saw his full face.
Jacob thought she was running away from her aunt.
But she was really running from this man.
Her cousin.
Edmund, Lord Morris.
His gaze flickered past her, stopped, returned, considered, and moved on.
What was he doing here? Was her aunt here as well? Charlotte yanked her gaze from him long enough to search the area for a straight-backed, thin, black-clad woman with a perpetual scowl. But she wasn’t there. It was silly to even think of her aunt going to the market. That was for the servants and far beneath her.
So how had Edmund escaped the house without his mother?
He never went anywhere without her.Shewouldn’t let him.
Slowly Charlotte backed up a step, like someone trying to escape an angry bear.Don’t startle him. Don’t make him look this way.
If he knew she was here, if he saw her dressed like this, he would tell his mother because Edmund told his mother everything. She’d put the fear of the devil in her boy from the moment he’d been born, and what a horrible ordeal that had been, bringing the ungrateful lad into this world. Charlotte had heard the story an endless amount of times.
She supposed that Edmund had heard it even more.
He was a strange-looking man. Even in the shadows people sensed it and steered clear of him. He’d inherited his mother’s height and her slim build. His arms were abnormally long, his head larger than average. His eyes were close set, and his ears stuck out from his head like pitcher handles.
His mother often remarked on his strange looks, berating him as if it were his fault. So many times Charlotte had wanted to defend him.
At first, she’d felt sorry for her cousin and had tried to befriend him, but he had only folded in on himself and slunk away.
Eventually Charlotte had stopped trying. Edmund hadn’t seemed to want to be her friend, and Charlotte’s actions had only enraged her aunt.
Edmund’s attention seemed to come back to her, and he took a step out of the shadows. Panicked that she’d been discovered, Charlotte acted on instinct and ran. She bumped into a finely dressed gentleman who tried to keep her from falling.
“Whoa there. Is something wrong?”
“No. Thank you,” she said, breathless with fear. She shrugged out of his grasp and ran across the street, forgetting to look for traffic, dodging a horse that suddenly appeared. It made her think of Jacob and how she just wanted to be back at his home.
She should have never left the safety of his townhouse.
She wanted Jacob.
She glanced over her shoulder. There were many strange looks, but no tall, peculiar-looking man running after her. She slowed her pace, out of breath, heart hammering more from fear than from running. A few more checks over her shoulder and she was convinced that Edmund had not recognized her. It had been a coincidence that he’d even looked her way.
By the time she made it back to Jacob’s street her heart was beating at a more normal pace and her hands had stopped shaking, but the fear remained, not as sharp but there nonetheless.
Jacob was sitting on his front step, reading the newspaper. He looked up and smiled at her, and she smiled back, relieved that he was there. Relieved that she had trusted her instincts about him. The sight of him washed away the residual fear like a spring rain, and suddenly her world righted itself. In the back of her mind, she knew that wasn’t a good thing, but right now she didn’t care. She just wanted to be near Jacob.
He folded the newspaper and stood. “Mrs. Smith said you had gone for a walk but that you had left a while ago. I searched the park but couldn’t find you.” His worried eyes combed her face. Could he see that she’d had a fright?
“I walked farther than I planned and ended up at the market.” She was relieved that her voice didn’t tremble.
“You didn’t go see Cotton?”
