Page 81 of An Unwilling Earl
Apparently, this was not a good thing. Jacob would admit that Lady Armbruster was a force to be reckoned with and sometimes you just had to go with whatever she wanted done. He did feel a bit bad that Charlotte had to endure her first meeting with Lady Armbruster alone.
“A lovely lady,” Charlotte was saying. “If a bit strong-willed.”
Yes. That would be a good word to describe Lady Armbruster.
“She wanted to meet me.”
Jacob hesitated. Was he required to speak here? He had to admit that he was a bit lost in all of this and didn’t know what his reaction should be. Charlotte appeared outraged. Was he supposed to be outraged as well?
“Before the ball.”
He closed his eyes while his insides seemed to shrivel up. “Charlotte—”
“Apparently there is to be a ball in our honornext week.”
“I’m sorry—”
“You and Armbruster were supposed to tell me when Armbruster was here for our wedding.”
“That day was very much a whirlwind—”
“She said it was supposed to be like a coming-out dinner for you, so she could introduce the new Earl of Ashland to Society.Apparently, you were to be the newest marriage opportunity for several young women.”
His mouth dried up, and his tongue stuck to the roof.
“But I ruined that. Oh, she didn’t say so in so many words. In fact, she’s pleased that you wed so high. To the niece of a marquess. How she knew all of that I don’t know.”
“That would be my fault.”
But Charlotte didn’t seem to want to hear an explanation. She was in fine form, her color high, her back straight, and chin up. “So this dinner is now a ball to introduce the Earl and Countess of Ashland.”
“It’s just one night. And weshouldbe properly introduced to Society.”
“Jacob, I served tea off your desk. I had no idea what to do with callers. I’d never had a caller in my life. I’m wearing your dead wife’s clothes! I have nothing to wear to a ball. I don’t want togoto a ball. I don’t know what tosay, what todo. How toeatcorrectly. I don’t know how to be a countess!” By now tears were slowly dripping down her face, and Jacob realized she wasn’t so much angry as she was overwhelmed.
He slowly walked up to her, still a bit wary of this mood she was in, and gathered her in his arms, pressing her head against his chest.
“I don’t know how to be an earl, so I think we are well matched in that.”
“I didn’t realize any of this,” she said between gulps of air. “I didn’t realize that people would want to see me just because I am a countess or that they would want to meet me. I’m not ready for this.”
He smoothed the back of her hair. “I’m not ready, either. But it is what it is, love. We’ll simply soldier on together and learn these people’s ways together, and when it becomes too much we’ll retreat and regroup.”
She pushed away from him and sniffed. “Don’t you see?”
Well, he thought he was seeing, but apparently he wasn’t?
“I wanted to go to America and teach American women how to be English so they could find husbands like…like you. I thought it would be about teaching them to be reserved and about the way we spoke and about the hierarchy of our system. Today I realized that I don’t know the first thing about any of this. I wouldneverhave been successful in America.”
She sniffed and fresh tears flowed, and Jacob wondered what this was really about. Was it about stumbling through her first set of callers, unprepared and unexpected? Or was it about the death of a dream? Or maybe the death of her future plans?
“I can’t go to America,” she said softly.
He was suddenly cold inside, fearful that she thought she was stuck with him because her other plans had fallen through.
“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.
She looked away and bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
