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“Well, I suppose it is the least I could do.”

“Thank you.” Charlotte rose again, lightness returning to her movements. “What shall I wear, do you think?”

“It matters not,” James answered, his eyes tracking her silhouette. “You will outshine them all.”

Charlotte lowered her eyes. The air in the room grew close. William cleared his throat.

“Ahem. If you will both be there, I think I might be brave enough to face Miss Lockhart and try to make amends.”

“Oh, and Lawrence will be there too!” Charlotte recalled. “I had invited him here for the end of April to celebrate your coming of age. He would not want to miss a dance at the Macraes’, since he will be here already. They always throw such cheerful parties.”

William was about to say that he had quite forgot about his twenty-first birthday, and that Lawrence really needn’t bother to come at all, when Charlotte added, “ And the ball will be graced by the company of Lord Howell and his new viscountess. You remember James’s cousin, don’t you, William?

You flirted with her something terrible.

We were fortunate that she did not take umbrage at your forward manner.

Though I do suggest that, as a married woman, she would take exception now. ”

William grew solemn at the mention of Ellena. That had been a job badly done indeed. That friendship could never be salvaged. If he so much as looked at her, let alone approached her to try to make amends, her husband would likely have him by the throat.

A strange new sensation accompanied these thoughts.

It took William a minute to identify it.

It wasn’t quite peace. Nor was it the absence of regret.

It was… He had it on the tip of his tongue…

His heart lurched as the word came to him.

Acceptance! How curious. For the first time, William did not bewail the loss of Ellena.

Nor did he feel rage against the man she had chosen instead.

Did this mean he could finally leave it all in the past?

He must, if he were to move forward. He could not open his heart to another while it was still filled with ghosts.

“So, will you be staying for dinner?” Charlotte asked. “We have so much catching up to do.”

“If you will have me, prodigal brother that I am,” William replied.

“Even better, why do you not stay with us a while?” James suggested. “It seems a waste to pay for officer’s quarters when you could have rooms here with family. I’ll wager the food is better, too. Although we offer no carousing, such as you’re used to.”

“Perhaps less of that would do me good,” William pondered aloud.

“Why, William.” Charlotte winked. “Don’t tell me you are growing up.”

William waggled a finger at her, though his smile was broad. “How can you suggest such a thing? I have a reputation to uphold, you know.”

Charlotte’s smile remained, but her voice grew soft and serious.

“You might benefit from an altered reputation, William dearest. Not that we would change one whit about you. It’s just, well, you don’t seem to let anyone see the real you.

The William they think they know doesn’t really exist, does he?

Not in the true sense of the word. He is something of a phantom, a guise, if you will.

It is such a pity. It attracts all the wrong sorts of women, you know. ”

“Oh, leave the poor boy be, woman,” cried James. “You will drive him away with your sermon when I would persuade him to linger here a month or two at least.”

“Ah, fear not,” William answered. “It would be a privilege to make my home with you while I can. Especially since we will no doubt be called to Europe before you have had a chance to tire of me. Our field marshal, His Grace the Duke of Wellington, has already left for Brussels. I expect the remaining officers and troops will be called to follow shortly. In fact, I would count myself lucky if I were still in Munro for the Macraes’ ball.

If I am, it will certainly be a high point before my departure to more somber activities. ”

The room grew quiet.

How odd , thought William. I have wished for nothing but a life in the military. The seductiveness of the uniform. The glamor of the sword. The camaraderie of my peers. Yet a time is coming for blood to be upon it all.

He shivered slightly.

“No, no, no,” Charlotte scolded, grabbing William by the hand and patting it with some vigor.

“We shall not think of such things while you are in Munro. There is time enough for worry when you are abroad.” She wrapped William’s hand in hers and sat down beside him.

“Tea will be served shortly. And you will stay for dinner. I insist. And tomorrow, you will bring your things from your lodgings and settle here with us. In no time at all, our threshold will be quite worn out with young ladies and their chaperones calling on us.”

The shadow receded from William’s thoughts. “Good,” he said. “Then I shall have opportunities aplenty to practice being less charming and more solemn.”

A peal of laughter escaped Charlotte’s throat. “I should like to see you try. You cannot help but be a gentleman of great allure.”

“Thank you. But I must, in all earnestness, strive to be more than that.”

“And so you shall. I have every faith in you.”

“Ah,” said James as a maid entered the room with a tray.

She placed it neatly upon the small, square table before quickly tucking an errant strand of hair back under her cap.

“Our tea has come. And not a moment too soon. William was in grave danger of becoming quite dull. And we can’t have that.

I rely on you, dear boy, to lift me from my own doldrums. Perhaps we shall go riding later this week? ”

William nodded. “I look forward to it.”

Indeed, it occurred to William as he lifted the cup of sweet tea to his lips, that he now had a great many things to look forward to.

But the time to enjoy them was growing sparse.

With his coming-of-age mere weeks away, he should make earnest work of becoming a worthy man.

Maybe then, at last, he would be able to find—and keep—a worthy woman.