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“I will remind you,” the redhead cried, “that you invited me out!”

“Yes, yes.”

“And once you’re married, remember this, you won’t be able to go out like this anymore. I suspect Lady What’s-Her-Face will have you wrapped around her finger.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that.” The man chuckled. “I have my ways…”

“It’sfine,” Charlotte said with more emphasis, hoping to put an end to this farce. “I need to be going anyhow.”

“Alright, alright.” The man chuckled. “No need to get upset. Just trying to do the right thing.”

“And I was just trying to leave.”

“Who would have guessed I’d have my head bitten off trying to buy a man a drink?”

“And who would have guessed I’d be accosted and trying to deny one.” Head still down, she again tried to step past him, and again she found her way blocked.

“Well, that’s interesting…” His tone now. There was something curious about it. Almost mocking. “Although maybe not. A youngmansuch as yourself, turning down a drink like that. Perhaps it’s best that you do leave.”

She couldn’t help it. It was the way that he saidman. As if he knew who he was speaking with—as if he was mocking her! Before Charlotte could stop to think, she looked up, met the eyes of the redhead’s friend… and he met hers right back.

Her first thought, as much as she hated herself for it, was how dashing the man was. Tall and athletic. Muscular also. He carried himself with a sense of worth that made him stand out from the others at the bar. She guessed him to be a nobleman by his clothes, but it was his eyes that captured her most. Green like emeralds, intelligent, and just a little wicked, not to mention knowing. She looked into those eyes, and he looked right back, and at that moment, she knew that he saw through her disguise. What was more, he seemed amused by it.

“You’re certainly not from here, are you?” He grinned.

Her eyes widened. “I have to go.”

She stepped around him and hurried through the tavern, determined not to stop until she was well away from the two assailants.

But as she reached the door, she couldn’t help but dare a glance back into the tavern. She caught the mop of red hair first, a drunken buffoon as she had guessed. But the other one, the one who had seen her for what she was, was surrounded by women, laughing it up, both arms busy with two separate women while a third was throwing herself at him. He may have seemed like a gentleman, but it was clear he was anything but.

She glared daggers at him, angry for reasons she didn’t even understand. As she did, most shockingly, he glanced up suddenly and met her eyes across the tavern. A smile, followed by a cheeky grin and a wink. Charlotte’s eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed red, and she was quick to duck her head and flee the tavern before she might do anything else that would mortify her.

Even once she was free from that horrible place, despite herself, her mind went back to the man at the tavern. The way he looked at her, those eyes, and that smile. Despite herself, she knew she’d be thinking of them for some time.

ChapterTwo

Charlotte woke up to find her father in an uproar. When she first heard it, as she could from her bedroom, she went into panic mode, assuming that he’d found out what she had done. Her mind raced as she tried to come up with an excuse, deciding that she would have to tell him about her sister’s secret adventures and explain that all she was doing was trying to find her.

Then she forced herself to listen to what her father was saying, and she breathed a sigh of relief, for he wasn’t angry with her. His rancor, the fury that he shouted to the heavens, was reserved still for Beatrice, as she had not returned home the previous night as they had hoped.

“He’s going to be here any moment!” Charlotte heard her father exclaim as she crept down the stairwell, content to make herself invisible as she broke her fast and then spent the remainder of her day in her bedroom. “Any moment!”

“We knew she wasn’t going to come home,” her mother said, playing the voice of reason.

“We knew no such thing!”

“Dear, will you try and calm yourself? It won’t do for you to be so flushed in the face when His Grace arrives.”

“Calm! Calm!” Her father and mother were still in the dining room, a vexation, as it meant that Charlotte wouldn’t be able to avoid them. “How can I possibly be calm!”

She paused in the foyer, wondering if she should just go back to bed, but it was already midmorning, and if she didn’t make herself present, her parents would wonder where she was and why she’d slept in so late. With no choice, putting on an emotionless expression as she pushed memories of the previous night out of her mind, Charlotte swept across the foyer and made for the dining room.

“We will think of something,” her mother was saying as Charlotte entered the dining room. “Really, what concerns me is that you don’t seem one bit worried about the whereabouts of your daughter.”

“I’m right here,” Charlotte said without thinking.

“Not you!” her father barked.