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“I…I am not upset with you for wanting to ensure your sister’s safety or for seeking revenge against someone who has wronged her so. I know that you are likely upset with Rose that sherevealed the truth, so I will ask of you what she asked of me. Give her grace. She is a loving sister who only wished to alleviate some of the burdens you have been carrying.”

The countenance Frederick wore softened, his stare shifting to the side as he considered his sister and her motives. Charlotte could see the affection he had for her there, the closeness they indeed shared. It was a bit like looking at Magnus in the beginning, before their relationship was strained by the situation with Cordelia and Kitty.

“I shall take it under strong advisement,” Frederick teased. “In truth, I am a bit glad that Rose approached you. I am not sure if I would have had the strength to do the same.”

Charlotte smirked, chuckling lightly. “I might agree with you. And…I have a question. I have learned quite a bit today and I do not wish to overwhelm you with more inquiries and revelations you are not ready to make. Still…”

Silence hung as Charlotte gathered the courage to ask the burning question that had been plaguing her for some time, for as long as she knew him, in fact. As she looked to the floor and then around the room in every direction where Frederick wasn’t, Charlotte’s heart pattered against her ribs, each pulse getting quicker and quicker.

“Why…why have you embraced the depiction of yourself as a rake? It hardly seems like something that you’d wish to be associated with, and Rose has already confessed that there is not much truth to it.”

Frederick eked out a rough laugh, clearing his throat as he shook his head. It was as if she’d wounded him physically, and it took him several moments before he returned her gaze once more.

“My, you do cut to the heart of the matter, don’t you?”

Charlotte grinned. “I should see no value in mincing words, Frederick. There has been too much of it between us already.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Frederick bobbed his head and rolled his lips between his teeth. He turned toward the fireplace then, walking over to the low burning hearth and leaning against the mantle with one hand. He peered into the flames as Charlotte watched him, the light flicking against his shirtless torso.

“It was easier.”

As far as responses went, that was not what Charlotte had been expecting. “Easier? What do you mean?”

When Frederick turned to her, Charlotte was greeted with such a strange concoction of expressions on his face. He looked amused, perhaps even glad, but there was so much raw vulnerability there as well. He looked so thoroughly…donewith it all.

“I was not one for marriage, Charlotte. I never had been. It didn’t appeal to me, and being a man, I thought that it would be easy to remain a bachelor. My father had other expectations of me.”

Sighing, Frederick faced away from the fireplace and folded his arms over his chest. The light behind him glowed, creating a dark silhouette of his form.

“I’d been a bit…wild during my time in university, yes. So, when the opportunity presented itself to use that preconceived notion of my rakishness to my advantage, I didn’t hesitate. It served me to just let the city believe what it wished. I had thought that it would last me the remainder of my days, keeping me from ever being lured into a marriage I didn’t want.”

Charlotte swallowed hard, the rhythm of her heartbeat erratic and intense against her ribs. “Hadthought?”

Frederick nodded slowly, looking up at her with a crooked smile, lifting a single side of his mouth.

“Yes. Ihadthought that. But during the previous months, something had begun to change my mind about marriage.”

She shook her head, choked by anticipation. “What?”

Charlotte could hardly hear around her pulse in her ears, thrumming against her eardrums like repeated blasts of a pistol. Time stretched thin as Frederick stepped closer to her, his arms falling to his side as he reached her. They stood just a few inches from each other, and then her husband lifted a hand to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. He smiled, soft and so breathtakingly real.

“You.”

Chapter Nineteen

It appeared that all of Frederick’s truths were being revealed this day, even those that had never been his to begin with. The situation with Rose was not his story to tell, only his sister to protect. He’d promised her that he would say nothing whenever asked about it, for she feared the ton’s repercussions more than anything.

And just half an hour ago, she had revealed it all to Charlotte.

Still, there was something about his wife, something that even Rose had apparently seen. She was charming, to say the least, this bright star of blazing honesty and integrity in a world that preferred to see neither. He admired her for that.

Frederick admired her for so much in truth.

“I don’t understand.” Charlotte shook her head as he stood before her, her chest fluttering like a bird’s. “What do you mean me?”

He sighed, chuckling lightly. The air from it wafted through Charlotte’s dark curls, and he couldn’t look away from that dazzling chocolate stare if he wanted—not that he did. No, if he were honest with himself, which was always quite the task with Frederick, he never wished to look anywhere else.

And my, what a problem that could be.