Page 30 of Charlotte's Story
We grabbed the suitcases we’d packed for our honeymoon and loaded them into William’s car. Another glance around proved we were alone. I watched the road behind us for a few minutes, but no one followed us as we headed into town. Maybe I really had been imagining that feeling of being watched before. In the car’s enclosed space, his cinnamon scent was even stronger, swirling around me comfortingly.
As we drove through town, I tried to call ChiyoObasan, but it went straight to voicemail. Hopefully she was home.
“No luck?” William asked.
“No, but let’s keep going,” I said. “Sometimes she’s bad about answering her phone.” I stared out the window, trying to work up the nerve to tell William the truth about our marriage. It shouldn’t be that hard. I just needed to spit it out. Get it over with. But for some reason, I couldn’t make myself say it.
We passed a few enchanted snowmen in a field across the road that were locked in a snowball fight while one stood off to the side, juggling pinecones with its twiggy arms. As strange as Austen Heights could be, it was the small, quiet differences between Japan and America that often caught me off guard—like how snowmen here were built with three snowballs instead oftwo or how they sometimes came alive and had snowball fights with each other.
I glanced at William from the corner of my eye. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, absentmindedly pulling on one of his short curls.
“You seem distracted. Are you okay?” I asked.
“What?” He glanced at me, his expression clearing. “I was replaying something Lady Catherine said at dinner.”
“What was it?” A clue, perhaps?
“It is probably not relevant to our current situation.”
The necklace warmed, letting me know there was more he wanted to say. “Even if it is, I want to know what’s bothering you.”
“She mentioned that the cases of Moonrot seem to be spreading more quickly.”
“Oh.” I blinked and stared out the window. That wasn’t the direction I’d been expecting. “That’s terrible.” Since my family was all Unmarked, I hadn’t lost anyone to the sickness that only seemed to affect those marked by magic, but my thoughts jumped to Lizzy’s dad, Mr. Bennet. I hadn’t talked to him much growing up since he spent so much time in his library or his study, but he’d always welcomed me to the house with a smile and a quip—he was so much like Lizzy, and I knew how close they were. It was going to be so hard on her if—when—they lost him.
“Yeah, I’m worried about it. Based on the progression curve, we’re probably already at the exponential growth point. While Moonrot isn’t contagious, I did notice a spike in clusters near ley lines.”
I blinked. “You made a graph?”
“A few, actually. There’s a spreadsheet on my laptop.” William was silent for a long moment, although his fingers drummed on the steering wheel, then again in the same pattern. “My momdied when I was really young, so my dad raised me until sickness took him.”
He didn’t clarify which sickness, and I didn’t press, but it had to have been something magical considering fae didn’t succumb to normal human ailments.
“It’s hard seeing everyone suffer with Moonrot,” he continued. “Logically, I know it isn’t the same disease, but the helplessness is the same.”
I’d known that William tended to avoid the sick people in his congregation, which was something he was sometimes criticized for as a pastor, but I’d never known the reason.
“I’m grateful you’re with me, Charlotte.” He gave me a soft look before focusing his attention on the snow-dusted roads again. “It makes things a little easier to bear somehow.”
My heart picked up speed, those little niggles of guilt springing to life again. “I need to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
I swallowed past the tightness in my throat. Why was this so hard to admit? Marrying him had been an easy enough decision when we’d both gone into it knowing exactly what to expect. But now that he’d lost his memory, I couldn’t help but feel like I was somehow taking advantage of him or just masquerading as his wife. “It’s something you need to know before we make it to my aunt’s house.”
“Okay.” His gaze flicked to me before returning to the road, like he was checking for permission, then he slowly reached over and rested his hand over mine, which I’d curled into a fist in my lap. William paused, then gently unfolded my fingers one at a time. He traced a single finger along my palm, then returned his hand to the wheel without a word.
“Thanks for what you did at Lady Catherine’s, with my dessert I mean.” It wasn’t what I needed to say, but it was a start.
“It was nothing. There was a problem, and I fixed it.”
“It was really nice of you, but you don’t have to do that.”
“I didn’t do it out of obligation. I simply wanted to… so I did.”
We were only a minute away from my aunt’s house, so I blew out a breath, then forced my confession out on the tail end of it. “We didn’t get married because we were in love, so you don’t need to do those thoughtful gestures for me.”
My confession hung in the air like our breaths misting in front of us. I turned up the heat in the car, not looking at him.
