Page 65 of An Unwilling Earl
“Jacob loves his dead wife. He still pines for her. I can’t replace her in his eyes, nor do I want to.”
“I think with time—”
“I don’thavetime. Lady Morris wants to keep me controlled. I need to escape England as soon as possible.”
“If you don’t want to marry Ashland, then move in with us. I can help you.”
She nodded briskly. “And that is exactly why I am here. I need your help.”
“We have plenty of room. Donna, that is, my wife and your aunt, would be ever so pleased to have you.”
Charlotte was becoming frustrated. She didn’t want to be the poor relation, taken in by her mother’s family out of kindness and pity. She wanted her own life. She wanted to forge her own path.
“Your offer is gracious and appreciated. I’m sure my mother would be pleased if she were looking down on us right now. But I don’t want to live here. I want to go to America and begin a new life, and I was wondering if you could write me a letter of recommendation. And possibly loan me the funds to travel to America. I will pay you back,” she added hastily, her face burning in humiliation again. “As soon as I find employment I will send you a monthly payment. You can even tell me how much to send.”
Her uncle’s face closed up, and she could feel her last chance slipping away. If she didn’t get the traveling funds from him she didn’t know what she was going to do. Asking Jacob was out of the question since she’d turned down his proposal. He’d already done far too much for her to ever repay.
“I think you’re making a terrible mistake,” her uncle said.
Charlotte’s heart dropped. “I think this is for the best.”
“You’re running away from your problems.”
“I like to think I’m escaping to a better life. My aunt won’t be happy until I am back in her clutches, and I won’t go back there.I won’t.” She was mortified to hear her throat close up with tears, and she swallowed them away. She wouldn’t resort to tears to get her way, no matter how much she wanted to cry.
But she felt her last chances slipping through her fingers, and she was becoming desperate.
“I would never allow her to take you,” he said. “But you can’t run from this. You are the only one who knows what your cousin is doing. You need to go to the police.”
“Jacob knows, and you know. I’m sure they will believe a marquess and an earl over me, anyway.”
“Charlotte. Please reconsider. Take some time. A week. Take a week and think about this and help us convince the police that they need to investigate Lord Morris. After a week, if you still want to go, I will help you.”
Charlotte didn’t want to wait a week. She wanted to go now. A ship was leaving in three days, and she wanted to be on it, but it looked like her uncle wouldn’t help her unless she agreed to his terms.
“Very well,” she said in defeat. “A week.”
He smiled, and she knew he thought he’d won the war, but he’d only won the battle. She was still waging the war.
“Would you like to meet my wife? I’m sure she’s outside the door pacing and wringing her hands. She was never happy with my father for what he did to your mother.”
Again, Charlotte felt she had no choice. All of her choices were being taken away from her. That would all change when she got to America. In Americashewould decide her future.
…
When Charlotte returned to Jacob’s home she found him in his study, pacing, his hair askew as if he’d run his fingers through it numerous times. When he saw her walk through the door his look of relief would have been comical if the situation weren’t so frightening.
“There you are.”
“Did you think I had run off?”
“I didn’t know what happened to you. I thought your aunt…” He swallowed the last of what he was going to say and looked at her with such desperation and despair that her heart turned over for him.He may not love me, but he does have feelings for me.
“I called on Lord Chadley,” she said. “I asked him for the funds to sail to America and for a letter of reference.”
“I see.” He was very still, as if he were afraid to move.
“He told me to wait a week.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. It had taken so much courage to approach her uncle after she had insisted over and over that she didn’t want anything to do with him.
