Page 25 of To Tame the Wild Rake
Wakefield didn’t rise to the bait. “Of course. And I’ll keep you both informed as I find out more.”
When they arrived at the mansion, the butler agreed they were expected, and showed them straight up to the guest room where Tony was sitting up in bed using one hand to slide parts on a wooden puzzle box. Charlotte sat at the window, her pen busy over a lap desk, which she put aside on their entry.
“Lord Aldridge, Mr Wakefield.”
Aldridge bowed. “I hope you do not mind me bringing my brother with me, Lady Charlotte. I wanted Tony to meet his other uncle.” His letter might take a month to reach his brother, perhaps longer, given the winter where Jonathan’s Grand Duchess ruled in north-eastern Europe. Aldridge had heard enough from Tony, though, to have no doubt that his precocious brother was the boy’s progenitor.
Lady Charlotte directed them to the chairs by the bed with a wave. “Not at all. You are welcome, Mr Wakefield.” She resumed her perch on the window seat.
“How come he’s a lord and you’re a mister?” Tony asked, with an edge of belligerence.
Wakefield took a seat as he answered. “I am half-brother to Aldridge and your father, but our father was married to his mother and not to mine. We also have three half-sisters. There are other brothers and sisters who prefer not to be acknowledged by the family.”
“Don’t know as I want to be acknowledged.” Tony drew the unfamiliar word out into a sneer. “Don’t sound like it’s a family what takes care of its own.”
Aldridge’s eyebrows twitched but Wakefield showed no reaction. “The duke our father is an evil man,” he said calmly, “but Her Grace your grandmother believes that family should look after family, and I daresay will have a word or two to say to Lord Jonathan about failing to give her direction to your mother in case of emergency.”
Aldridge leaned forward in the chair he’d chosen. “Her Grace would like to visit you, Tony, if you have no objection, and if that is acceptable to Lady Charlotte.” He’d spoken with his mother yesterday, and Wakefield was right. Her Grace had been cross that Gren left Tony’s poor mother without a way to reach Gren’s family if anything happened to him.
“Aunt Eleanor is always welcome,” Lady Charlotte agreed, pulling Aldridge’s mind back to the present.
“I don’t mind,” Tony allowed. He was frowning, though, and he added, “But she’s a duchess, right? I’m a slum rat. Why would she want to meet me?”
“Your Uncle David is right,” Aldridge told him. “Mama doesn’t care about such things. You are Gren’s son, and that makes you her grandson. She is very much looking forward to getting to know you.”
Tony shook his head in bewilderment, but made no further objection.
Wakefield began telling Tony some stories about Gren in France, which led to explaining about Gren and Wakefield’s wife Prue being kidnapped. Wakefield didn’t say, and Aldridge wasn’t going to, either, that the man behind those abductions was also responsible for Tony’s. It wouldn’t help Tony to know that Wharton had been obsessed with Gren since his Eton days.
In mentioning his own mad flight into Napoleonic France to retrieve his wife and their brother, Wakefield commented he was an enquiry agent, which set Tony to questioning him eagerly about his work. “I could do that,” the boy kept insisting.
Aldridge left them talking and crossed to a chair near Lady Charlotte’s window seat. “Will your family object to my mama coming to visit Tony? I would suggest taking him back to my place, but I don’t think he should be moved until the bones have started to knit.”
“He is welcome here, and well protected if that madman Wharton tries anything. Aunt Eleanor may visit at any time. I’d be glad of it, actually. It is nearly a year since your father dropped out of Society. With him gone, there is no reason for a continued rift between our families.”
“True.” Trust Charlotte to get right to the heart of the matter. Two and a half years ago the Duke of Haverford had decreed that the Winshires did not exist. His dependents had honoured the command to ignore an entire ducal family and all their connections more in the breach than the observance even while they were under the man’s eye. In the nine months since his incarceration, only Her Grace continued to even pretend that she was obeying the duke’s strictures. Aldridge wondered if Charlotte was aware that her uncle and his mother had been meeting in secret this whole time.
“The gossipmongers will make a meal of the Duchess of Haverford visiting the Winshires, but this is a good time to get it over with. Thetonare already beginning to leave London. When we return next year, it will be old news.”
“Are you going to Haverford Castle this year?” Charlotte asked. “For Christmas?” She was examining her hands as intently as if she wished to memorise them.
“We are spending Christmas with Matilda and Charles, but I have to go to Haverford Castle first. Just a quick trip, and I’ll be back in time to escort Mama and my sisters to Gloucestershire. I’ll probably leave tomorrow.”
She glanced up and a sound escaped her before she changed her ‘Oh’ into a polite tip of the head. “Tomorrow,” she repeated.
Senses alert, Aldridge fished for whatever it was that bothered her. He kept his voice casual. “Or the next day.”
Charlotte nodded, her eyes returning to her hands. “I imagine you will not be going to the Bowkers before travelling the next day.”
“If I can redeem the promised supper with you, Cherry, I will be at the Bowkers. I can leave late in the morning or even the day after. I have time.” He struggled to keep his voice friendly, light. Don’t rush your fences, he reminded himself, and was rewarded when she met his eyes again and smiled.
“I would like that,” she said, hastily adding, “as a friend. You have been a good friend to me, Aldridge, even when I have been sharp with you.”
A friend, was it? He reassured her that he always had been, and always would be, her friend, keeping to himself the pain of yet another rejection. Pathetic fool that he was, he would take whatever she would allow.
Charlotte would not have come to the ball tonight had it not been for her promise to Aldridge. Now that she was in his arms being swept around the floor, she couldn’t settle to enjoying it. That had been the plan, but plans had changed. Everything had changed.
In part, it was her physical reaction. Her chest clenched when she saw him; butterflies took up residence in her digestive system when he smiled at her; her most intimate parts softened and ached when he touched her. How could anyone enjoy that?
