Page 38 of The Winter Rogue
Charlene'sheartached.
She'd told Drew she had feelings for him, and it hadn’t mattered.He'd still rejected her.
Anger flared in her chest.She was exhausted of men meddling in her life: first her father, then her onetime fiancé, now the man she loved.Oh God!She loved him.She loved him, but he didn't love her.Even if he felt something for her, it was not enough to do anything about it, to tell her father to go hang, he was marrying her anyway.
Charlene slipped from the library and was headed to the ladies' retiring room to refresh herself, maybe splash a bit of water on her face, but as she moved around the edges of the gathering, raised voices in the foyer caught her attention.She moved to the hall and saw Drew—Drew, speaking to…Lord Fenwick?
The lout had appeared on their doorstep that morning unannounced and uninvited.There had been nothing for it but to give him shelter and invite him to the party.Though her father assured her the engagement was off.
“What did you say?”Lord Fenwick's voice rang out in the open space.He stood flanked by two other men she recognized from the neighborhood.They had both been bullies as children, so she was not surprised to see they had gravitated to a man such as Lord Fenwick.
“I said, if you speak such foulness about Lady Charlene again in my presence, I shall trounce you.”Drew's words were said through clenched teeth and Charlene’s heart leapt.
“What, has the little hussy spread her thighs for you, too?”Lord Fenwick sneered at Drew.
Without hesitation, Drew slammed a fist into the man's face.“I warned you, you fucking blighter.”
Lord Fenwick wailed like a child as he grabbed at his now bleeding face.“What the hell?Since she won't marry me, I assumed it's because she got herself with child by someone else.”The man straightened up, cheeks red, and glared at Drew.“Maybe it was you?”
Before Charlene could gasp the brute had swung at Drew, who handily dodged the wild lunge only to slam another fist into Lord Fenwick's face, sending him crashing into a cabinet that lined the entry.
That was when her father rushed into the hall.“What is the meaning of this?”
One idiot with Lord Fenwick helped the bastard up while Drew turned to face her father.“Lord Brookhaven, my apologies for the disruption.I walked in on Lord Fenwick speaking ill of your daughter and felt compelled to straighten out his falsehoods.”
Still hidden just around the corner, Charlene watched her father's eyes narrow as he looked at the man who would have been his son-in-law.“And what precisely did you say to provoke this man?”
“Nothing that isn't true.”Lord Fenwick looked defiant.
Charlene gasped softly at his utter tripe.Well, she couldn’t allow this to continue.She stepped out of the shadows and faced her father.“That cretin suggested I had begged off from the engagement because I was with child by another man.”
Her father's face turned red.“He saidwhat?”
“You heard me, Father.I am sorry to say he called me a hussy.This—thismanyou wanted me to marry.This paragon of gentlemanly behavior called me a whore without a shred of evidence.”Fury made Charlene’s voice shake as she stood there.
Lord Fenwick stepped forward between where she and Drew each stood.“And yet aren't you?”
Her father growled and threw his own punch to Lord Fenwick's face before spitting, “Get out of my house.Leave this instant—and if I hear one more slanderous comment about my daughter, I shall see you blackballed from not only White's but from polite Society.”The man’s voice was low and gravely as he pointed to the door.
Charlene swallowed as two footmen picked up Lord Fenwick who had once more found himself knocked to the ground, and bodily threw him from their home.
Lord Fenwick groaned loudly as he landed awkwardly on the gravel driveway then he said something Charlie could not hear.
One footman looked at her father.“And his luggage?”
Her father looked annoyed but answered, “Yes, yes, we're not robbing the man, just throwing him out.”
The footman bowed and the pair of servants left, presumably to gather Lord Fenwick's things.
Drew took that moment to bow to her father.“Again, my apologies for the disturbance.”He turned to leave.
“Wentworth.”
Charlene’s heart stopped, her mind unable to take in what was happening.Her father had reached out and taken Drew’s arm to stop him.
Her father cleared his throat.“Thank you.For protecting my daughter's good name.”
Drew looked from her father to her.Their gazes met and locked for a long, very intense moment, before he said quietly, “Always, my lord.”
