Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,15
“Marvelous. Now you both have learned the value of reserve?”
That earned him a rueful smile. “It’s a wonder, is it not? Marriage has matured both of us.”
“I doubt marriage is the reason for it,” Michael muttered. He took a quick sip of his beverage. “Has Elinor told you what Charlotte has decided?”
“Oh, that?” Hugh’s smile remained, and he nodded once. “Yes. Took me by surprise, but Charlotte usually does.”
Michael snorted in derision, opting to keep further remarks to himself.
“It must have been quite a shock for you.”
Michael’s nod was slow, and it was also a blessed relief. “Yes. She’d never said anything about actively pursuing marriage, though it was always possible, and after all this time…”
Hugh grunted softly. “Is she in earnest? She loves a laugh, you know.”
“Oh, she’s in earnest,” Michael assured him, “and when Charlotte sets her mind to something, she’ll make it come to pass. I have no doubt she’ll be wed by Michaelmas.”
Saying the words aloud made the whole fearful scenario real, and Michael swallowed with some difficulty.
Charlotte being wed.
He’d had nightmares about this, but he’d always been able to comfort himself that the dreams had not been real. There was no comfort now.
“And this is a problem for you.” Hugh offered a sympathetic look. “I take it you have feelings for her.”
Michael laughed limply. “Feelings would describe it well. I was the first to propose to Charlotte Wright, Sterling.”
Hugh’s expression did not change. “I knew that.”
“You knew that?” Michael blinked, his mind struggling to process a single thought. “How did you know that?”
The sympathetic smile turned almost pitying. “Everybody knows that, Sandford. It’s the most well-known secret about you that exists.”
Responding to such a revelation was almost impossible.
Almost.
“Do people know that I meant it?” Michael countered in disbelief.
Hugh’s eyes widened, and, while his lips remained pressed together, his jaw clearly went slack.
Michael nodded once. “I’ll take that as a no. Good.”
“I don’t know that we are close enough friends to have this discussion,” Hugh managed, scratching at the back of his head, averting his eyes.
“I haven’t had any quality male friends in ages.” Michael sat up and folded his hands across the tabletop. “None that come to mind, as it happens.”
Hugh fully gaped at Michael now. “What the devil have you been doing when you aren’t with Charlotte?”
Michael’s hands parted just enough to feign a shrug. “That would be the question I wrestle with now. Had I the answer to that, I would be much better off.” He sighed and barely avoided dropping his head to the table. “I haven’t had friends. I haven’t had interests. I haven’t done anything of note. I don’t even know what I enjoy anymore. I’ve just gone and done things because Charlotte was going and doing them.”
“You lost yourself chasing her?”
“So it seems.” Michael shook his head, frowning at the thought. “I haven’t even been chasing her, Sterling. I’ve been revolving around her in a near-constant pattern because I didn’t want to do anything else. Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Tragic, I think,” came the low reply.
Michael only shook his head again. “I’ve wasted so much time. Time I mean to get back now.”
Hugh’s brow furrowed. “How’s that?”
“You.”
A bark of incredulous laughter erupted from his companion, but a plan began to form in Michael’s mind that made the situation anything but comical.
His lack of reaction stifled Hugh’s laughter creditably.
“You’re not serious,” Hugh protested, remnants of amusement lingering in his features.
“And yet…” Michael grinned easily, which surprised him to no end.
Hugh sat forward, creases forming in his brow. “I am quite possibly the most unlikely candidate for your efforts, Sandford.”
Michael held up a finger, his grin turning crooked. “You were the most unlikely candidate. Previously, not presently. You are a changed man, are you not?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“And you do feel that the change is permanent, yes?” Michael went on.
“Of course I do, however…”
“Then I see no reason why you should not be my new friend of the male persuasion while I try to distance myself from Charlotte.” He cocked a brow and folded his arms, daring Hugh to find a reason to protest further.
Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “I am not saying I will do whatever it is you are thinking about, but I would like to know… What, exactly, are you thinking about?”
Michael parted his hands again. “Think of me as… as a lad fresh out of his education. Imagine that I know absolutely nothing about moving in Society. That I am in need of a mentor to guide me through its navigation so