Page 7 of To Claim the Long-Lost Lover
In that golden summer when he and Sarah had become friends and then more, Charlotte had been ill with some embarrassing childhood illness; mumps, he thought. Sarah—at a loose end without her twin—had wandered the estate and come across the vicar’s son in the woods, rescuing a rabbit from a trap.
Nate had met Charlotte once. She insisted on a meeting before she agreed to cover for her sister while Nate and Sarah eloped. He must have passed muster, but he had few memories of the encounter. At the time, thoughts of Sarah had filled his every waking moment and fuelled his dreams. When he was with her, he was blind to everything else.
He knew Charlotte the girl through Sarah’s descriptions. Loving, loyal, the best friend a sister could have. Those would still be true after seven years, surely? If she would talk to him, he could, perhaps, find out what he most needed to know.
“Lord Bentham. Have we met, sir?”
Nate spun round to face the lady who had just entered the room. A maid crept in behind her and took station in the corner, but Nate’s full attention was for Lady Charlotte. She was similar in size and build to Sarah, but on the surface, little else was the same. Except that, as she tilted her head to the side to study him as he was examining her, the gesture and her thoughtful expression brought powerful memories rushing back.
“She used to look at me like that when she was irritated with me,” he blurted.
Some of the tension went out of Lady Charlotte’s shoulders, and one corner of her mouth twitched as if she suppressed a smile. “She, so our old governess used to say, is the cat’s mother.”
Nate felt his cheeks heat. “Lady Sarah, I mean. I beg your pardon. And yes, we have met, though it was many years ago.”
Lady Charlotte considered him a moment longer, then waved to a group of chairs set around a low table. “Sit down, Lord Bentham. Tell me what brings you here.”
The answer was the same two words. “Lady Sarah.” Nate had so many questions he wanted to ask that he couldn’t think what to say first.
Lady Charlotte spoke before he could. “My sister is in the country. She is seeking a husband this Season, and hopes to narrow her shortlist.”
A shortlist of potential husbands? The room spun for a moment and Nate spoke before his brain connected with his tongue. “Me! She doesn’t need another husband.” Lady Charlotte raised her brows at him, and he realised he was shouting. He lowered his voice, but he couldn’t retract anything he had said. “Just me.”
“You.” Lady Charlotte’s scorn dripped from the word in edged icicles. “You left, seven years ago, without goodbyes.”
“Not of my own volition,” Nate protested.
Lady Charlotte’s nostrils flared, but she commented only, “For seven years? And not a single word, then or later?”
Sarah did not receive any of my letters!Nate forced his fists to relax. “I wrote.”
“Not a word,” Lady Charlotte repeated, raising an eyebrow.
The lady has a right to her doubts. And Sarah, too, if she in truth heard nothing from me.
“I oweLady Sarahan explanation, my lady,” he said, hoping his voice sounded much calmer than he felt. “I hope to have the opportunity to give it to her.”
Lady Charlotte surprised him with a wry smile. “You do not owe me an explanation, you mean.”
That was exactly what he meant. He couldn’t resist a smile of his own. “Your sister said you were smart.”
She folded her hands in her lap, composing herself back into the model of an ice maiden she had appeared at the outset. “Very well, my lord. I am to join my sister in a couple of days. We shall be back in town in two weeks. She will decide whether or not to give you a hearing once we return, but I will tell her everything you have said.”
“But what if…?” Nate had been about to ask whether Lady Sarah was going to choose a husband before he could see her again.Narrowthe shortlist, she said. I still have time.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, for Lady Charlotte said, “I do not expect my sister to be betrothed when she returns to London, if that is what bothers you.”
Nate couldn’t deny her point but didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she had him to rights. He bowed instead. “Thank you for seeing me today, my lady.”
It was a polite nothing masking his irritation that she had told him very little, and by the twinkle in her eye, she knew it.Sarah is choosing a husband.That thought dominated all others, and he had been escorted to the door by a footman and was out on the street again before he was fully aware of being dismissed.
His childhood sweetheart, his first love, was planning to choose a husband. His reaction—the sheer revulsion at the thought of her with anyone else—had been unexpected. Yes, he had wanted to meet her again, let her know what had happened to him, make peace between them.
He had planned to do whatever was needed to resolve any difficulties their past actions might make for her future. He had even hoped to find out whether the grown Sarah and the grown Nate might be able to find some sparks of the fire that once burned when they touched.
Nearly a third of my life has passed, and I have changed. She must have, too.Perhaps they would meet and dislike one another, or meet and agree to part as friends. But his immediate reaction when Lady Charlotte mentioned that damnable list was to claim his long-lost love as his own.
Nate had walked seven blocks and had passed the street he was meant to turn down. He backtracked to the missed corner.Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. He still could not move on with his own life until he knew whether the unbroken connection between him and Sarah Winderfield was all on his side, or whether she felt it too.But the clock is ticking. She means to take a husband!
