Page 46 of Under the Seductive Ladys Charm
The woman’s gaze went to Charlotte and Charlotte wondered if it was just her imagination or did she see deviousness in her face. She looked away and found an empty table. A few minutes later, Lord Easterly came down the stairs. He looked around and raised his hand in greeting when he saw her.
“Good morning, Miss Browne,” he said as he came to sit down with that easy grace that drew Charlotte’s eyes. “Did you rest well?”
Charlotte took his lead and pretended everything was just fine. “Not as well as I would have liked.”
“I am sorry to hear that, but you did have a rough day,” Lord Easterly said, his voice kind and soft.
Charlotte gave the man a small, polite smile. “I am sure once I am home things will right themselves.”
“Are you still intent on leaving London?” He looked honestly interested and Charlotte could not fault him.
Charlotte shrugged. “I just feel as if I need to. I want to visit my family’s graves and just collect my thoughts. I feel somewhere along the way I have gone astray and I cannot seem to get back to who I am.”
“I thought you fit rather well into society,” Lord Easterly commented.
The innkeeper’s wife popped by and brought them breakfast. “I hope you slept well, Lordship,” the woman said in a crisp tone that would sound at home in any profession.
“I did,” Lord Easterly replied. “Thank you,” he said as he poured himself some of the coffee off of the breakfast tray. “Would you like me to pour your coffee or tea, Miss Browne?”
At being addressed, Charlotte’s eyes snapped up to the man. “Oh, tea please.”
The innkeeper’s wife, who was still lingering nearby, said conversationally to Charlotte, “I am not much on coffee either.”
Charlotte offered the woman a polite smile, but Lord Easterly ignored her entirely. When he held out the teacup, Charlotte took it with a soft “Thank you”.
Finally, the innkeeper’s wife seemed to run out of reasons to loiter, and she scurried off to check on some other travellers. “I do think you are right to worry about that one,” Lord Easterly said in a low voice as he picked up his coffee. “She looks hungry for gossip.”
“I suppose we do seem odd,” Charlotte acknowledged. “I have no chaperone and I am with a man of stature. It would look out of place to me as well.”
Lord Easterly took a sip of his coffee. “If you are worried about my reputation, do not. I am worried about you. Ladies tend to suffer more in such situations.”
“Because we are supposed to know better than to get ourselves into them,” Charlotte said with a sigh. “The more time passes, the more I cannot fathom my own actions.”
Lord Easterly gave her a kind smile. “We all do things in a rash manner sometimes. I have done things like that myself. I went off to war in such a manner.”
“Did you really?” Charlotte paused with the teacup halfway to her lips.
Lord Easterly nodded slowly as if he were thinking and remembering. “I was hurting. You may well be familiar with the sting of grief, but I felt not only that but guilt. I put everything on my shoulders just as my father had taught me.” He set down his coffee cup and folded his hands on the table. “At the moment I enlisted it seemed right and proper, but I should not have left Amanda. I should not have gone off like that, being the heir. It was irresponsible. Something my father would never have condoned.”
Charlotte whispered, “Did it at least help?”
“With the grief?” Lord Easterly looked at Charlotte, who simply nodded. He lifted a hand to rub his chin, and Charlotte could see the agitation in him. “No. My grief stayed with me and followed me home.”
Her heart broke at the look in his eyes when he finally lifted his gaze to hers. She knew that look. She wanted to reach across the table and clasp his hands, yet she dared not. “I wish there was something I could do.”
“You do plenty,” Lord Easterly assured her, but he did not explain the remark as the innkeeper’s wife bustled by yet again.
They fell silent and ate. It would be better if they could leave the inn as swiftly as possible. As soon as they finished breakfast, Lord Easterly announced he was going outside to make arrangements.
“Arrangements?” Charlotte wondered what he meant.
“If you are not going back to London, I need to make arrangements for you to travel home with an escort.”
Charlotte stared at him for a moment. She wanted to hug him for his kind understanding, but she knew the dreadful woman from the inn was probably watching. “That is kind of you, Lord Easterly.”
“Let me see if they have a carriage waiting. I will need to start back to London shortly so I can escort my sister back to Berwick Manor.” Lord Easterly went out of the door of the inn but Charlotte followed him.
Charlotte asked, “Amanda is leaving London? Is the season over?”
