To Love a Tormented Earl - Bridget Barton Page 0,41
does not answer to one’s daughter in matters of business.’
Charlotte pressed her lips together as though to stop the words, but they burst from her despite it: ‘Was it about Maximilian?’
The look of shock on her father’s face confirmed her guess.
‘You sent that man—Jones?—to chase him away?’ she pressed.
‘Really, Charlotte, this is all most irregular.’
‘Oh Papa, what is the use in denying it? I only wish to know the truth of matters which will have a great deal of import on my life,’ she said.
‘I have everything in hand,’ he said weakly, and then began patting his pockets again, until his eyes alighted on his pipe, lying on the desk, and he crossed to fetch it. ‘You must trust me to manage everything, as I always have.’
Frustrated, Charlotte gave a huff of ill temper and stormed out of the room.
Of course he won’t tell me anything.
And trust him to manage everything? He said himself he fears Maximilian will be too stubborn to be chased off.
Charlotte pursed her lips and began walking towards the stairs and up to the second floor. Then she stopped, staring down in the direction of the servants’ stairs.
It might not be too late to catch this man of Papa’s. Jones?
The servants will gossip, if they see me.
It couldn’t be helped. She could not sit idly by and wait to find out how her future would unfold.
Charlotte hurried down the narrow corridor and took the tight passage down. It gratified her to see the imposing figure of the man standing and waiting out behind the kitchen, likely for someone to bring his horse.
‘Excuse me, sir,’ Charlotte said, and the man turned to face her.
He had a fearsome countenance, with deep lines on his face that made him look rough-hewn and forbidding. ‘Oo’s ‘at? Why,’tis the Lady Charlotte, innit?’ he said, giving her an unsettling smile. Crooked teeth, punctuated by more than one dark gap, put her in mind of a rat’s mouth.
Charlotte tossed her head and smoothed her hands over the green silk of her evening dress, then nervously plucked at the finely embroidered shawl that hung over her forearms, finding it unnerving to meet the man’s shining eyes. Mustering her courage, she faced him.
‘You have been working for my father, the earl,’ she stated.
He gave her a nod. ‘That I ‘ave, my lady.’
‘I want you to work for me,’ she said.
‘That so, my lady?’
Charlotte regarded him, lifting her chin.
‘Yes. I have a task for you.’
Chapter 13
As Alice had informed Lord Ceastre, Emilia’s nervous complaint was not new. After an hour abed she had recovered, and although she was greatly fatigued by the episode, she was none the worse for it.
Sitting at her piano, Emilia attempted to ignore the distress of the incident and finish the Iliad-inspired opera she owed Dassel. Although she had written most of Acts I and III, Act II refused to be tamed by her quill, and she must find a way to complete the most poignant scene with an aria for Cassandra, the lead soprano.
Her thoughts did little to help in the endeavour, unfortunately. Over and over her mind returned to Ceastre’s questions about her father’s health and her choice to remain in London for the season.
He simply could not be expected to understand her situation, but it aggrieved her so to think of how low his opinion of her must be.
There’s nothing to be done about it, she told herself. Lord Ceastre must think me a terrible, deceitful, mercenary girl, and I can do nothing to disabuse him of such a notion. My circumstances are such that I am, in fact, forced to prove him right.
Abandoning the opera, she spent a night of fitful sleep and felt poorly rested in the morning, but that was nothing new, and by the time she had finished breakfast, her spirits were bolstered.
I have a task to complete, she told herself. And complete it I shall. And even if he does not approve of me as a lady, I hope Lord Ceastre will at least be glad of my assistance as his agent.
So, dressed in her second-best walking dress, a white muslin trimmed in slate-blue ribbon, Emilia and Alice took the carriage back out of town to visit, once again, the Ceastre estate.
Lady Ceastre greeted them warmly as they alighted, inviting them in. The countess wore a dress of lavender with embroidered leafy vines in green silk thread, her grey hair tucked up under a ruffled cap.