Page 44 of How to Seduce a Duke this Autumn
Ashley had paused mid-movement, her brow furrowing as her friend sat silent, shoulders hunched.
“Charlene.” Ashley’s voice dropped, the warm companionable tone shifting to one of concern. “Surely it doesn’t hurt that badly. By all that’s certain, I’ve seen you give yourself worse cuts in my mother’s greenhouse with those pruning shears.”
It was meant to soothe, to draw out the ghost of humor between Ashley’s words, but Charlene just swallowed hard, her chest tightening as tears unexpectedly slipped over her lower lashes. She turned instinctively toward the window, ashamed of the weakness surging forward so unbidden.
Maddie placed the papers in her hand atop the others, leaning back in her chair to give her full attention. “Char?” Her tone, lighter moments before, softened with the tender prodding of a sister’s patience. “What is the matter?”
Ashley set her wax seal down with a small tap on the wooden table and turned fully in her chair toward Charlene. “It’s him, isn’t it?” Maddie’s sharp gaze flicked to Ashley. “It’s the duke.”
At this, Charlene stiffened, her throat closing further under the weight of their attention. She shook her head, though her hands had grown as cold and bloodless as the paper they rested on. “It’s nothing,” she murmured. “Nothing at all.” Her gaze dropped to her hand. No blood. That, at least, was lucky.
“That doesn’t seem like nothing.” Maddie’s expertise in wheedling wore patience like a well-tailored sash. She folded her hands in her lap and tucked one slipper under her chair, an image of innocence gilded by determination. “Whatever it is you’re holding in, it won’t give you rest to sit in it.”
“And if it’s about him…” Ashley’s voice braced, rich with the tone of a loyal knight unsheathing her sword. “If something has happened, say the word and I’ll see to it.”
The warmth of their support, though well-meaning, only threatened to shatter her already fragile resolve. Charlene straightened her shoulders, seeking composure as her trembling fingers brushed back an unruly curl behind her ear. “He hasn’t sent word,” she admitted quietly. “Not once.”
Maddie tilted her head as Ashley’s eyebrows rose indignantly. “Why,” Maddie asked pointedly, “should he send word? Have you done anything?”
A faint blush rose up Charlene’s neck. Before she could respond, Maddie’s eyebrows shot upward in realization. “You did, didn’t you?” Her tone carried an elegance laced with jest, tempered only slightly by her affection. “Did something, I mean.”
“Oh, Char,” Ashley said, placing her seal aside to focus entirely on Charlene. “What have you done now?” She frowned, then added in a softer voice, “You know we are your friends, dear. If you must unburden yourself…”
“Or,” Maddie cut in with a teasing grin, “who?”
“Maddie!” Ashley swatted her arm, shooting her an almost real glare behind the red creeping along her cheeks. “Honestly.”
“It’s not funny,” Ashley said sharply. “The city thrives on gossip worse than dogs to a bone. TheM-Pressalready threatens fire for the Cross brothers alone. Adding you to that would fuel an inferno.”
“What gossip?” Charlene interjected, gripping the arms of her seat as her pulse quickened.
Ashley hesitated, her lips pursed under Charlene’s urgent stare. “Rumors,” she admitted cautiously. “A Cross brother in Green Park. Masquerade dances are more scandalous than secretive. Pall Mall carriages sweeping blinding beauties…”
“Stop,” Charlene whispered, her voice low but heavy. Her chest tightened to bursting under the weight of a question begged first softly, then roaring angrily within her rib cage.Something about those rumors set her shoulders tight and her palms cold.
Ashley’s next words came faintly to Charlene, muffled as though through a fog. She caught fragments of her friend’s voice, scattered and broken. “Some unknown woman… Said to be quite beautiful… That hat of hers, it’s become infamous now, if whispers are to be believed.”
The warmth of the room seemed to recede abruptly, her senses clouded by the icy grip of fear clutching at her chest. Maddie laughed lightly, a sound meant to tease, but it cut sharper than Charlene expected. Each note seemed like a soft chisel against her composure.
“Charlene…” Maddie’s voice was less distinct now, though her persistence prickled like a persistent drop of rain sliding down the back of her neck.
Charlene’s hands trembled as she pushed the curling edge of a ribbon aimlessly across the table. Her knuckles brushed against waxy drips hardened like tiny monuments of productivity, but her mind was far from the present. The possibilities surged in her thoughts, all unwelcome and none clear.
Her throat tightened as she lowered her gaze to the ribbon, willing herself not to break. Could it be true? Her pulse quickened at the thought, her worry blooming into an ache more cutting than any paper’s edge.
Had Adam replaced her so easily? Had all those years of longing, of quiet patience, meant nothing to him after all? It couldn’t be and yet, why had he vanished after that morning at the park?
Chapter Ten
Finally. Back home.
Adam sighed with relief.
The soles on his boots were still smeared with mud from the estate roads, despite the valet’s earlier efforts to clean them. How he loathed when the smell of damp leather clung to him as he paced the length of the library, a stack of correspondence balanced in one hand, untouched. Although the fire crackled cheerily in the hearth, its heat did little to ease the bone-deep weariness that clung to him after nearly two weeks of relentless travel.
He’d thought he’d get it all done sooner.
That hadn’t happened.
