Page 93 of Unforeseen Affairs
For the past several years of her life, Charlotte had been content to be alone. She’d felt safe hiding in dark attics, rummaging about musty cellars, and sneaking off to deserted wings of the old, dilapidated country houses of her family’s odd acquaintances, despite her stepmother’s persistent exhortations that she was a guest and was not to snoop around.
Never in any of those solitary explorations had she experienced an ounce of apprehension. But now, here in an environment in which she should feel at home, she hesitated as fear closed its long, chilly fingers around her heart.
A door shut somewhere behind her, but Charlotte did not turn—she was frozen in place. Footsteps approached. A familiar gait.
Colin.
“Charlotte? Charlotte?” he called, his voice laced with worry as he finally begged, “Darling?!”
She finally turned at the moment he reached her, causing him to visibly start at the suddenness of it.
“Charlotte, what is it?” he whispered, glancing about before placing a comforting, muscular arm around her shoulders.
She sighed, wanting to close her eyes and lean into his touch. But she couldn’t. The sensation she had felt was more real than any similar feeling she’d ever experienced before.
“Something is amiss… something is not right.”
“What do you mean?” His brows lowered. “Did someone… did you see someone you know? Someone who might be acquainted with your family?”
“No.” She wet her lips, waiting for her heart to slow. “Perhaps it’s just the theater, or…”
And then, out of nowhere, Mrs. Stone’s words from that fateful spirit circle at Mrs. Gearing’s house came to her:You ought to have learned by now, dear. Love and affection strengthen the circle’s bond, enhance the sympathetic vibrations.
“I…” she began, but she was so caught off her guard that no other words would follow.
Love and affection. Could her senses be heightened due to—
“Hush,” Colin said, placing a soft kiss upon her forehead. “We’re nearly there. And look!”
He lifted one hand, in which a champagne bottle glistened, chilled and enticing. In the other he held three plain coupes, one finger hooked around each stem.
“I got them!”
He was grinning from ear to ear, so proud of himself that Charlotte was helpless against the tidal wave of emotion that now overwhelmed her.
She smiled back.
She loved him. Utterly and without a doubt.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“We’regoodfriends,yousee. Sent word that we were coming up from London. He set aside tickets expressly for us,” Colin said, hoping the happy confidence in his voice lent a measure of credibility to his lie. “Asked us to meet with him as soon as he’s finished.”
The doorman leaned forward, eyeing Colin up and down. He was a hard-looking man; despite his presentable coat and neckcloth, the width of his shoulders and the size of his arms rivaled Colin’s. But he also carried the weariness of a man just trying to make it through to the end of his workday, when he could finally go home and collapse on his bed.
And that, Charlotte knew, was key to this part of the plan. The man’s eyes lingered on the bottle of champagne and the three glasses in Colin’s hands.
“Mr. Bass didn’t say anything about guests,” he growled skeptically.
“Oh, er—” Colin hesitated, dangerously close to slipping up.
“Of course he didn’t,” Charlotte said, cutting him off. She affected a bored tone. “Anyway, how did he seem to be gettingalong while preparing for the show? I know he’s parted with his assistant recently, which I imagine must be complicating matters for him.”
Despite what Mr. Bass had said to Mr. Trenwith at Mrs. Kitson’s séance, it was a gamble to assume that they had actually parted ways, especially after Charlotte had seen Mr. Trenwith hanging about on the street near the box office. But Charlotte trusted her instinct that while the pair remained in league with one another, in order to protect Mr. Bass’s reputation Mr. Trenwith would no longer be working as his assistant in an official capacity.
The doorman, acting as if he hadn’t even been aware of Charlotte’s presence prior to her speaking, now turned his scrutiny onto her.
“Nasty business, that,” she added, and lazily looped her hand through Colin’s arm.
