Page 59 of The Duke's Hidden Scandal
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Charlotte was sitting in the drawing room when a footman announced that Lady Elizabeth Ludlow had come to see her.With trepidation, she asked him to allow her to enter, and in a moment, Elizabeth came into the room, her expression grim.
Charlotte placed her mother’s journal beside her and approached Elizabeth, attempting a weak smile.
“You have been crying,” Elizabeth said with concern as she pulled her to a chair.
“I am quite well, I assure you,” Charlotte said softly.
“Is it true that you areengagedto Lord Kilby?” Elizabeth asked, her voice disbelieving.
Charlotte sucked in a long breath. It was one thing to accept Kilby in private but quite another to know that the rumors had already spread so far and wide. Fresh tears splashed over her cheeks, and Elizabeth held her hand as Charlotte wiped them away.
“It is true,” she said softly, and Elizabeth’s eyes hardened.
“Was it your choice?” she whispered.
“No. My father was eager for me to make the match, and it is done. There are reasons I had to accept. I cannot go into them here.”
A maid entered with a tray of tea as she spoke, and the two women waited for her to depart until they spoke again. Elizabeth poured them both a cup and handed one to Charlotte, her eyes never leaving her face for a moment.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Elizabeth asked. “I had rather thought… that is, I had felt that your heart might lie elsewhere.”
Charlotte stared into the bottom of her teacup.
Can I tell Elizabeth the truth? She is the duke’s cousin…yet what do I have left to lose? I will be all alone soon enough.
Charlotte took a deep breath and speared Elizabeth with a determined stare. “I had hoped that my path might lie in a different direction, yes,” she said slowly. “But it was not to be.”
Elizabeth sipped her tea, biding her time before speaking again. She had been so certain of Colin’s feelings, not to mention those of Lady Wentworth, that when she had been told of her engagement to Kilby she had dismissed it as ridiculous. Hearing it from Charlotte’s lips was another matter entirely.
Elizabeth lowered her cup and sighed. “I had hoped for another outcome also,” Elizabeth confessed. “It is not my place to say, Lady Wentworth, and we both know it will do no good, but my cousin has never been happier than he was with you this summer.”
Charlotte gave her a sad smile, tears drying on her cheeks as she nodded.
“I have never met a man like him or enjoyed anyone’s company so much. But my father would never approve of the match. He believes Lord Kilby to be far superior in every respect, and now that there has been such a scandal around the duke’s name, it is quite impossible.” Charlotte turned to her, taking Elizabeth’s hand in hers. “I am so sorry that your family name has been dragged through the scandal sheets. I could not imagine how terrible that must have been for you and your mother.”
Elizabeth set down her tea. “We have every hope that the duke will get to the bottom of things. He has been working day and night to discover the truth. I am only sorry that it was too late for him to be able to speak with you.”
Charlotte looked up at her, her gaze momentarily open and unguarded. Elizabeth’s heart broke at the hope in her eyes.She looks just as Colin did.
“He wanted to speak to me?”
“Oh yes,” Elizabeth said, squeezing her hand. “Never doubt that for a moment, Lady Wentworth. But he still does not know the origins of the scandal, and hehadto discover the truth before he could ever have approached you. How could he ask youto trust him with the rest of your life if he did not know what life it might be?”
Charlotte closed her eyes, the sadness within her growing, and Elizabeth gripped her hand more tightly. “I am so sorry for it all,” she said earnestly, “but nothing is yet certain.”
Charlotte looked out the window at the gray day looming before them.
“I am engaged to a man I cannot love.Thatmuch is certain.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
As dawn broke over the horizon, the sun’s weak rays fell upon Colin’s back as he finalized the work he had done through the night.
Finally, after all these weeks, the sea of paper was making sense to him. He rubbed at his eyes which were stinging painfully from a lack of sleep, but it would all be worth it if he could clear his name.
For the last time, he sifted through the piles of papers. Many were now tied in bundles that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his father had been manipulated and bribed for the last two years of his life. Colin knew his father had chosen to invest and, therefore, was not without fault, but it was Kilby who had orchestrated the road to ruin.
