“I’ve always thought it massively unfair, actually,” Ainsley replied. “Why should the men have all the fun?”
Melissa let out a squeak of dismay.
“But you must see how dismaying it is that people are gossiping about Charlotte,” Mamma protested.
Ainsley took a sip of tea before replying. “I find it’s usually best to ignore gossip. People rarely mean well, and they would do better to keep their opinions to themselves.”
“Yes, but it’swhatpeople are saying about Charlotte that’s so distressing,” Melissa said, sounding genuinely upset.
Charlie mentally sighed. As much as she loathed being pestered by her mother and sister, she did love them and knew they loved her. If Melissa was that disturbed, the gossip must be truly unpleasant.
“It’s quite all right, Mel,” she said. “You can tell me. I promise I won’t get upset.”
Her sister grimaced. “Well, people are saying that you’re becoming . . . odd.”
Of course she was odd, at least compared to the other young women in the district. “What, exactly, do they mean by odd?”
Melissa hesitated, and then tapped her head with one finger.
Charlie practically fell off the sofa. “Are you saying the locals think I’m dicked in the nob?”
“That’s utterly ridiculous,” Ainsley said, clearly annoyed. “Whoever is making such claims should be hauled out to the nearest field and shot.”
Mamma eyed Ainsley with a degree of consternation that might signal she was beginning to wonder if she was the right woman to educate her daughter in the feminine social graces.
“As distressing as the situation is,” Mamma finally said, “there is no need to exaggerate. Besides, no child of mine could possibly be dicked, er, weak in the head. That is not what Melissa meant.”
“Sorry, Mamma, but it is,” Melissa replied. “At least that’s what Sarah and Rebecca Fielding told me. There was no mistaking their intent, I’m afraid.”
Mamma scoffed. “The Fielding girls are dreadful gossips, as well as being excessively silly.”
“But people are also saying that you’re dwindling into an old maid, Charlotte,” Melissa said. “And that no one wants to marry you because you’re . . .”
“Dicked in the nob,” Charlie dryly finished for her. “Yet Richard’s presence would seem to suggest otherwise. Besides, I’m the one who doesn’t want to get married, not the other way around.”
Melissa’s bluebell eyes went wide with shock. “But dwindling into an old maid would be awful, dearest. How could you bear it?”
“I will not allow you to dwindle into anything, Charlotte,” their mother rapped out. “Much less an old maid.”
Charlie couldn’t hold back a sigh. “All right, butnotRichard Campbell.”
“Richard is a very nice man,” said Mamma, “and he seems more than willing to disregard your eccentric behavior.”
Ainsley let out a delicate snort. “That’s generous of him. Personally, I think she’d be throwing herself away on Campbell. Charlotte deserves better.”
Charlie smiled at her. “That’s very kind of you.”
“I tell only the truth, dear girl. You deserve someone who truly loves you.”
Unfortunately, however much Charlie might wish for a certain man to be that someone, the chances of that occurring were stupidly remote.
The door opened and the men came into the room, interrupting their conversation. Richard joined them and perched on one of the wingback chairs, giving Charlie a hopeful look. She knew she should try to muster up an off-putting remark, but her heart just wasn’t in it.
Ainsley glanced at her and then rose from her seat. “Kade, why don’t you sit next to Charlotte? I need to speak to Royal for a minute.”
“It would be my pleasure,” Kade replied, sounding as if he meant it.
Charlie mustered up a smile as Kade sat beside her. For a moment, she stared at him, taking in the amusement in his wonderful cobalt gaze. She could get lost in that gaze, and that would be entirely too risky for her heart.
