on his face.
‘Do you laugh at me, my lord?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing with a blend of mischief and real offense. ‘My predicament, though distressful to me, may very well have been most amusing to you.’
‘Pon my soul, my lady, you are most ungenerous!’ the gentleman exclaimed. ‘How disagreeable you must think me, endowing me with such unkindness.’
‘You smiled, my lord, do not deny it,’ Charlotte said, though already she felt mollified by his outrage.
‘If I smiled, ‘twas only in admiration of your great beauty,’ he said.
Charlotte looked away coyly. ‘And now you seek to soothe me with flattery, my lord. Have you no shame?’
He passed her under his arched arm.
‘Indeed not, for I am powerless to hide my regard for you,’ Lieutenant Roberts said. ‘I am quite bewitched.’
‘Bewitched, now!’ Charlotte exclaimed with a laugh. ‘Am I to be accused of engaging in dark arts?’
‘How else can you explain how entranced I am? You have captivated me, Lady Charlotte.’
A sense of triumph filled Charlotte’s heart.
Oh, how I have fought and sacrificed, she thought. And to be rewarded with such victory! I am vindicated.
Impatience chased on the heels of her satisfaction, however. She could not bear to wait for everything to be settled.
The music concluded and they bowed and curtseyed. Charlotte grasped the lieutenant’s arm as if she experienced a loss of balance.
‘Oh,’ she gasped.
‘Lady Charlotte,’ Lt. Roberts said. ‘Are you unwell?’
Shaking her head, she said, ‘No, no, I am quite well, I assure you.’
But she leaned on his arm and raised a hand to her face, pressing gloved fingertips to her mouth.
‘I daresay the heat of this ballroom is affecting you, my lady. Please, allow me to escort you onto the terrace for a breath of air.’
That will do for now, Charlotte thought, but I shall endeavour to lead you to an ever more quiet spot. All the better to provoke assumptions and encourage him to protect her reputation. She would have an understanding with the lieutenant, if not an outright proposal, before the night was out, Charlotte vowed.
The gentleman guided her from the ballroom, through the great drawing room and out the French doors onto the still-damp terrace. It was very pleasant, having a breath of fresh night air after the stifling atmosphere of the house. A full moon shone above, and lamps hung at intervals all through the garden, a detail to which Charlotte had personally attended.
They were not alone on the terrace, however, for several guests had sought the air as well as they.
‘If you please, Lieutenant,’ Charlotte said. ‘The rain has made the air so fragrant, and I should like very much to have some quiet. Might we not move further into the garden?’
She gave him a wide-eyed look, pretending innocence.
Lieutenant Roberts returned her gaze with warmth in his eyes. ‘Of course, dear lady.’
Tucking her hand firmly in his arm, he led her down the terrace stairs and onto the garden’s wide main lane. Her silk slippers would not survive the outing, but it seemed a small price to pay.
‘Ah,’tis it not very pleasing to escape the noise and crowd for a time?’ the lady exclaimed.
‘Most pleasing,’ Roberts agreed. ‘And I must confess, I had hoped to find a moment of privacy, Lady Charlotte. Perhaps this will suffice.’
‘Oh?’ she said, raising her eyebrows at him even as her heart began to race.
‘Yes, quite,’ he said. But then they walked several paces without his adding a single word.
Charlotte bit the inside of her lip to keep from prompting him.
‘I have heard rumours, Lady Charlotte,’ he said at last.
He turned them abruptly down a side path which led them back in the direction of the house.
‘Rumours?’ she breathed. Between her anxious hopes for the conversation and the strange new direction it had taken, she was out of sorts.
‘Hints of scandal, Lady Charlotte,’ Lieutenant Roberts said.
Then he turned and looked her in the eyes.
‘I do hope you might dispel them.’
Chapter 32
Roberts was on the move. Max watched from just outside the archway as the lieutenant led Charlotte from the ballroom.
Good show, old chap. Now I must pray you will succeed in coaxing a confession—and do my part to see that the confession becomes public.
The source of the story was the key. Who would believe Max, accused of a crime, missing for three years, returning unexpectedly and without proper familial support? And no one would mind what Roberts had to say on the subject. He was just a half-pay lieutenant who had done little to distinguish himself, other than