“Well, there is only one way to find out.” Charlotte began to walk towards the path. “Besides, there are two other horses here, so we need to catch up to the others. Especially as I cannot see any sign of them in the gardens. How slowly did you ride here?”
Dominic shrugged. “Not too slowly, but more cautiously than I usually would. After all, I was carrying rather precious cargo.”
He winked at her, and Charlotte rolled her eyes even as she felt her treacherous heart flutter in her chest.He is being cavalier and charming; it is just what rakes do.
A gentle breeze rustled through the leaves as they walked, and as it did, the smell of juniper and pine caught on the wind. Charlotte took a deep breath, feeling her shoulders relax as she did so.
She glanced at Dominic, who was wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. The gesture reminded her of how she had found him earlier, and she studied him curiously.
“What?” he asked, catching sight of her looking at him. “Am I so enthralling you can no longer keep your eyes from me?”
Charlotte snorted. “Hardly. Besides, this is only a business arrangement.”
An odd, thin-lipped expression flashed across Dominic’s face only to be replaced by a nonchalant shrug and a smile. “Of course, this is all just a means to an end.”
“Exactly.” She agreed feeling a stab of pain in her chest.
“Why were you looking at me?” Dominic asked.
“This morning… what happened?” Charlotte noticed Dominic’s shoulders tense, his hands clench into fists.
“Oh, that… It was nothing. Nothing you need worry about. It will not change you getting what you are owed.” He turned away from her.
“It did not look like nothing.”
“Well, it was.” Charlotte noticed the tension in Dominic’s body.
She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should just let this go. But something about his brittle stance, the fragility, made her want to press on.I know how lonely it can be.
She looked at him and took a deep breath before she said, “You know, after my mother died, I used to wake in the night.”
“Grief can do strange things to us.” Dominic was still not quite looking at her, but Charlotte could tell the edge of his anxiety was softening.
“I thought I would not survive it,” she said honestly, casting her mind back to that dark time. “I would feel as though my very heart were going to explode, like the air in the room had somehow turned solid. No matter what I did, I could not draw in enough breath. I would weep with fear and frustration.”
The Duke stiffened, and Charlotte guessed that her words were describing his own turn.
“My father sent for doctor after doctor. And though each of them gave me tonics and tinctures, nothing seemed to help.” She felt the familiar panic stir within her, the despair of all those years before. “I was beginning to lose hope.”
“What changed?” Dominic asked softly, as though he barely dared ask.
“I met a midwife, a little outside of the village when I was out walking. And she suggested I take several sprigs of lavender and keep them by my bed,” Charlotte explained. “She said that when I woke, I was to crush them and breathe deeply. That I should count while I breathed and match my breath to my counting.”
“And did it work?”
“Yes.” Charlotte glanced around them and gently bent down, plucking several sprigs of lavender from a nearby bush.I hope his grandmother will not mind.
She handed them to Dominic. “Take these, and keep them with you. Perhaps, if it happens again, they might help you.”
Dominic said nothing for a while, looking at the sprigs in his hand. Carefully, he tucked them into a pocket of his cloak, and then his hazel eyes found hers.
“I do not think anyone has ever given me flowers before,” he said simply, his lips quirking upwards. “I think I could grow to like it.”
“It is barely a bouquet,” Charlotte pointed out.
“Perhaps it is about the quality rather than the quantity.” Dominic grinned at her. “Though if you wish to get me a bouquet, you may do so.”
“It is tempting, if only to see how your cousins will tease you if I give you a dozen roses,” Charlotte laughed, but an odd, unreadable look crossed Dominic’s face at her words.
