“By all means,” she said, with a nod.
She was rewarded with a dazzling smile.“Oh, thank heavens you don’t stand on ceremony, though I suspected that Wroth’s wife would not,” she said, her eyes sparkling.“I know we are going to be great friends, so I would have you call me Charlotte.My husband is the Earl of Wycliffe.”
Lady Wycliffe.
Kate couldn’t help her swift reaction of dismay.The woman was beautiful—tall and voluptuous, with a mass of golden hair that fell in tiny ringlets about her face.In short, she was everything Kate was not, and Kate felt her lack sharply.
“You are Lady Wroth, aren’t you?”the woman asked, her smile fading under Kate’s tight-lipped scrutiny.Her clear green gaze faltered, and Kate immediately felt guilty, for she saw nothing of the calculating glint she had witnessed so often since her arrival in London.
“Yes, but please call me Kate,” she murmured.
The words brightened Charlotte’s face like sunshine, and she leaned close.“It’s a love match, isn’t it?”she asked in a conspiratorial whisper.
The question so startled Kate that she didn’t even think to prevaricate.“Hardly!”
Charlotte’s eyes clouded in confusion, and she turned slightly to look across the room.When Kate followed her gaze, it led to Grayson.
He was standing, casually elegant, among several men, taller than all the others and more handsome, more self-assured, moreeverything.Kate couldn’t help the little catch in her heartbeat at the sight of him.Drawing in a fortifying breath, she glanced away, trying to shore up her defenses with a cool demeanor.
“I understand that you preceded me in my husband’s affections,” she said softly.
It was Charlotte’s turn to gape.She gave Kate a startled glance and then laughed aloud—a delightful, infectious sound.“Hardly!”she echoed.“Wroth is much too fierce for me.He was very kind, but I doubted whether he had any feelings at all.I am happy to see that they are firmly engaged now.”
It took Kate a moment to understand what the woman was saying, but before she could deny that any such thing was true, Charlotte went on.
“I vow I never thought to see the great Wroth so taken, especially after he teased my husband unmercifully for falling in love with me.I am glad to see him get his comeuppance.”
Kate wanted to protest.Grayson no more loved her than he did Cyclops.But Charlotte was whispering like a giddy girl.
“See how his eyes follow you around the room,” she said, nodding toward where Grayson stood among the men.“He has not given anyone else the full force of his attention since you walked in.I marked it myself and knew then that he had met his downfall.”
Kate glanced over at her husband, but she could not tell whether Grayson was watching her or Charlotte.And the stubborn set of his lips as he did so could hardly be construed as a sign of devotion.
“La, it is all of a piece!”Charlotte exclaimed with a happy smile.“I had heard that you were his equal, but some people are so cruel that I was not sure whether that was a compliment or a detraction.Now I see that you are perfectly matched.How wonderful!Wait until I tell Max,” she said, lifting her hand to wave at a man engaged in conversation with a turbaned dowager.
Watching Charlotte, Kate had to admit that she could not imagine the hard-hearted Grayson with such a lively creature, and any lingering suspicions about the woman’s motives disappeared when Lord Wycliffe arrived at his wife’s side.
Max, as she so carelessly called the earl, was nearly as tall and handsome and elegant as Grayson, but he did not share the marquess’ coldness or arrogance.And he bestowed an affectionate grin upon his wife that made Kate envious.
Theirs definitely was a love match.
“Max, this is Kate, Wroth’s wife.Isn’t she lovely?”
“A veritable goddess, as Raleigh would say,” Wycliffe said, bending low over her hand and winking conspiratorially at her.
“And it is a love match,” Charlotte whispered breathlessly.
Kate’s disclaimer died on her lips under the force of Wycliffe’s sudden, intense gaze.
“Really?”he said a bit archly.“I believe I will have to go congratulate Wroth at once on this happy turn of events.”He leaned close to his wife.“We are to be at your aunt’s in exactly one hour.”
“Yes, Max,” Charlotte said.
“No dawdling.”
“No, Max,” Charlotte said, her eyes twinkling.They looked at each other with such affection that Kate felt heartsick.Her alternately cold and hot relationship with Grayson seemed a sad mockery of what this couple shared, and all her hopeless efforts would never win her its equal.She glanced away, unable to watch what she could never have.
“He likes to be punctual,” Charlotte explained with an indulgent smile as her husband left her side.“I am afraid we are not in London for long, for I hate to leave my son, but say you will join us at our house in Sussex before the summer is over.”
