Page 3 of A Touch of Charm (Miracles on Harley Street #3)

M ary was still fast asleep on Thea’s lap.

“So, how did they find you?” Stan asked. The clatter of hooves echoed against the dirt path as the landau carriage rocked gently, the wheels churning up small dust clouds in the dim moonlight Thea could see from the window.

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Thea said. “But I know List and his people are dangerous.”

“He has associates everywhere,” Stan mumbled. “His political nets are cast wider than I can ascertain.”

Still, Thea couldn’t decide what was more surprising, the well-educated doctor with irritatingly dark eyes that she tried not to stare at in the dimly lit carriage or the fact that Stan spoke near him about the existential threat List posed for their family as if Andre were a long-time confidant.

Andre smiled crookedly and narrowed his eyes to indicate he was up for the challenge. Thea swallowed hard when she realized it was impossible not to stare at his dashing features.

“Who’s the girl?” Stan pressed on.

“Miss Mary-Elizabeth White.” Thea nodded primly.

Stan pursed his lips and made a roll with his hand in the air, waiting for Thea to continue.

She sighed. “She’s my ward. I’m her governess.”

Stan coughed. “You are serious?”

Andre sucked his lips in as if he were suppressing a laugh, and Thea shot him a that’s-not-funny look.

“Well, I had little with me and met them on the way. They needed a tutor for Latin, French, and mathematics. When I said I could teach it all plus geography—”

“They hired you because you could give their daughter the education due to a princess?” Stan’s voice was slow, and he didn’t even try to hide his anger from Andre. At this moment, however, Thea wished Stan didn’t speak to her in such a patronizing manner. So, what if he was her older brother? He was only one year older than her.

“Indeed.” Thea feigned nonchalance and straightened her back.

“Because you are a princess, Thea.” Stan’s tone grew stern, and Thea’s skin tingled with an unsettling warmth. Knowing that the handsome doctor in the cabin overheard their conversation, heat crept up her neck as she shifted uneasily in her seat. She fidgeted, her hands finding no rest, fingers nervously tracing the embroidered pattern on her gown.

“And I had the best education.”

“For a specific purpose, yes,” Stan nearly growled. It was most unbecoming for a prince.

“And what is that? Being the breeding stock for the Habsburg runt of the litter or merely a trading chip in a political charade?”

Andre watched her intently and ran a hand through his tousled hair, casually drawing attention to the effortless grace surrounding him. Heat crept up Thea’s neck, her cheeks again betraying her as she struggled to hold steady under the heat of his smoldering stare.

Perhaps it was better to have this conversation in the dark carriage after all.

“Thea, I’ve been working on the gold deal. Why didn’t you stay at home and wait your turn to fix—”

“Wait? My turn? To do what exactly? Watch the hand of the clock until one day, the Habsburg prince finally decides that his mistresses and adventures bored him enough to claim me as a consolation prize. Or worse…” She held her eyes wide open and leaned toward her brother. “Should I wait for you to solve the problem and make my marriage to him superfluous?”

“What do you mean?” Stan asked.

Thea cradled Mary gently, her gaze drifting through the carriage window to the pinpricks of light twinkling in the distance—a small town, a promise of something other than what she fled. The memories of Bran Castle’s imposing walls clung to her like a shadow, a reminder of the life she had left but not its burdens. As the carriage rolled on, she pondered the path ahead, wondering if perhaps she had to reshape her fate rather than run from it.

“Think about it! I won’t be a bargaining chip if you solve the political crisis. I’ll go from the coveted princess to a shelved spare part.”

“Well, if I do solve it—which I haven’t—perhaps. But it’s not as easy as I thought. And you’re not safe.”

“I wouldn’t know; you didn’t address any letters to me, and Alex, nor any of our brothers, ever shared your news with me.”

“Because you’re a girl!”

“But I’m not stupid, you know! And I missed you. I worried about what you were doing in England.”

“So, you came to find me?”

Not exactly.

“It was stupid to run away!” Stan raised his voice, and Thea gave him a stern high-chinned look.

“How dare you?”

“Thea.” Stan rubbed his forehead and gave Andre a cursory glance before he addressed her again. As the family’s representative in England, her older brother had the demeanor he typically assumed before formulating some verdict that would decide her future. And even though Thea bristled against the thought, she’d have to obey lest he send her back to Bran Castle, where her betrothed might await her. Thea shuddered at the thought. “Have you considered what might happen if I don’t defeat the Prussian baron?”

“No.” There was no doubt that her older brother would succeed until this moment. There had always been one of her brothers ready to come to her rescue, whether she’d climbed a cherry tree and didn’t know how to get down, rescued a puppy that turned out to be a wolf cub, or accidentally locked herself in the western turret at Bran Castle where a nest of bees had been lodged. “So this Prussian is really that dangerous?”

Andre let out a groan and buried his face in his hands. “Baron Wolfgang von List,” he said in a perfect German accent.

“How does he know the baron?” Thea asked Stan, who only gave her a faint nod.

“I can hear you.” Andre raised his brows and then dropped them when he dropped his hands loosely over his knees.

“You know our enemy. You speak Italian, English, French, and German?” Thea asked. “Wait, and Latin because you’re a doctor?”

“And a little Hindi. I picked it up when I was in India,” Andre said. He had a lovely deep voice, resonant and youthful with a typical Italian smoothness, Thea thought.

“As a soldier? Or missionary?” How was that possible, a man that young, having lived so much?

“As an apprentice. After I graduated from Vienna.”

“Goodness,” Thea managed. His curriculum vitae was impressive indeed. And there was that cocky smirk that made her chest flutter most uncomfortably.

“I came to find you.” Thea wrung her hands now and turned back to Stan.

“You came all the way to England and didn’t tell our parents? And we are on the way to London and the only reason you’re here is because you’ve been abducted,” Stan said sternly.

She cringed. “Yes.”

“Where the seat of the English monarch is, the one with a dozen Habsburg cousins, being one of the most influential royal houses in Europe.”

“I hadn’t considered that.” I just wanted to get away and find you .

“So have you any plans for how I am supposed to protect you from a nest of bees this time?” The bees being the Habsburgs, Thea didn’t want to get stung.

Stan started again. “If I don’t stop List in time, and mind you, he’s behind all this, perhaps even the highwaymen, then what will become of you? You’d be safer at one of the Habsburg seats than ours. They are connected to the Prussians.”

“That doesn’t mean they’ll protect me. What if they want to use me as a sacrificial lamb?” Thea laid back in the seat. Mary was still nestled with her upper body on her lap, and she smacked her lips in her sleep.

Stan deflated and groaned her name. Yes, embarrass me further by showing your annoyance with your little sister.

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been there tonight? And Andre? Can you imagine what those men could have done to you and the little girl? You are responsible for her.”

Thea grimaced and her hands went cold. He was right. She’d been so proud of making her way to London she hadn’t truly considered the dangers.

If she were compromised, or worse, she couldn’t even return as a bride for Prince Ralph. She’d be ruined. On second thought… Thea’s eyes shot to Andre again.

Mary suddenly turned and flapped her arms in the air. She must have been dreaming. With another swing, she moved her right leg and swung it over Andre, seated across from Thea.

He caught her leg and steadied it, letting the child rest half-sprawled over his already tight space in his seat. Thea tried to lift the girl, but she was so heavy in her relaxed state that she couldn’t find the right angle to pull her up. Andre gave a reassuring “Shh” and nodded, indicating that she shouldn’t wake the child on his account.

The doctor was surprisingly at ease with the child and didn’t seem to mind being discomforted by her.

Shadows danced across Andre’s face, cast by the flickering lantern swinging on the hook outside the carriage cabin, highlighting the intensity of his gaze and the tension that crackled between them.

“So what now?” Stan asked Andre as if he had a say in Thea’s future.

“I’m staying in London with you,” she declared, unwilling to let the men decide for her.

And to her surprise, Andre gave her a pleased look—controlled, as if he didn’t want Stan to see, but Thea had noticed it.

“I’ll tell Alex you’re here. He’s in Cornwall and will escort you home,” Stan declared with a sense of finality. “I’ll call him back sooner. He can help me before he meets Miss Lyndon. He’s supposed to meet—”

“It doesn’t sound like Alex is very keen on meeting his politically arranged betrothed or else he wouldn’t be hiding in Cornwall.”

But Stan didn’t pay Thea any heed. “I’ll send him a note from London.”

“I’m not going with him.”

“So you want to miss your brother’s engagement? He’s come to England to meet his betrothed. These alliances could save us.”

“Or ruin our lives.” Thea deflated. “I’m not going back to meet mine.”

Thea’s gaze held steady as it met Stan’s, her curiosity piqued by the silent clash of wills reflected in his eyes—a familiar scene reminiscent of the stubborn exchanges she often navigated with her kin. A wistful ache whispered through her, yearning for the comforting chaos of familial debates and shared laughter—but this was about her future.

As the carriage journeyed on, the rhythmic creaks formed a haunting symphony, echoing the relentless beat of her heart. Her lashes fluttered subtly, each glance towards Andre a silent entreaty for recognition. With every surreptitious look at the doctor, the air thickened with an unspoken tension, a tantalizing curiosity enveloping her. Thea felt an irresistible pull, a desire to delve deeper into the enigma that was Andre, if only she dared to uncover more.