Page 58 of Always the Chaperone

Charlotte’s heart was thumping painfully in her chest, and she stopped walking. She would jump into matrimony with him. William was the one who could make marriage not frightening but exciting. After all these years of being convinced she would be alone for the rest of her life, the two of them together have found happiness.

Without thinking, Charlotte began to walk toward William, and they met, breathless and silent, in the middle of the Pump Room.

Charlotte drank in the sight of him. She desperately wanted to say something, but what? He was staring silently, and Charlotte desperately wanted him to speak.

As she opened her mouth, William said, “I have hated being apart from you.”

He looked nervous. It was not an emotion she had seen on his features before, but it became him. That arrogant, self-assured look was gone. Now there was a charming vulnerability.

“Have you?” she managed. “It has only been five minutes.”

He nodded. “I have something important to say to you. To ask you here in this public place. Where a refusal to my question would be very embarrassing for me.”

Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat. Was this it? Was this the moment when he finally proposed in the way she had described?

Seeing the fear and anticipation in his eyes, seeing he was unsure whether she would accept…. He was just as afraid as she was. She was apprehensive about marriage, the commitment it brought—and so was he. Opening yourself up to another person was terrifying and he felt it too.

She loved that about him. She loved so much about him, she was unsteadied on her feet by the thought of it. How had she mistaken this love, this devotion to him, for anything else?

“Lady Charlotte,” he said quietly and began to bend his knee.

“Ah, Your Grace!”

William straightened so quickly, he seemed to pull a muscle in his neck. Charlotte whirled around to see who had unwisely interrupted what was to be the most romantic occasion of her life, and saw two women hurrying towards them, evidently mother and daughter by the similarity in their noses.

“I thought it was you!” The mother said accusingly to William. “Mrs. Holmes. We were introduced at the Winter Ball in London.”

Could she not see she had interrupted a private conversation? The daughter certainly seemed to recognize her impropriety and tugged at her mother’s sleeve to pull her away.

“Now then, Mary, His Grace will not mind,” soothed her mother, who immediately turned to William before he could speak. “I did think it was you there, Your Grace, and I was surprised, for I did not think you would come to the Pump Room, and here you are. Mary, I said, we absolutely must find his Grace the Duke of Mercia, and here you are!”

Charlotte glanced at William, who evidently had no idea who the woman was and had no wish to speak with her. Charlotte almost laughed aloud at the ridiculousness of it all. Was this Mrs. Holmes to keep them from happiness with her inane chatter?

“Such a pleasure to speak with you,” Mrs. Holmes was saying. “Now I heard tell from Miss Theodosia Ashbrooke, a lovely lady, I must say, that you were in the marriage market! And this is a very fine thing, for there are simply not the same caliber of eligible men I enjoyed in my youth, and Mr. Holmes was the cream of the crop. But as I was saying, you are currently seeking a bride, which is all to the good, and I wished to introduce you to my daughter, Mary, who, as you can see, is quite beautiful and not at all proud for it. I said to her the other day…”

Charlotte scrunched her nose at the awkwardness of the situation. To think, Mrs. Holmes believed it appropriate to accost poor Will in the Pump Room and offer her daughter on a silver platter!

She cast an eye at Miss Holmes, expecting to see her equally as mortified by her mother’s rudeness in interrupting their conversation—and more, to be horrified that her mother was so blatantly attempting to secure Will as a son-in-law.

To her horror, the uncomfortable look had utterly disappeared from Miss Holmes, and she was smiling rather coquettishly at the handsome duke.

“—and so, I had to agree, for who am I to disagree with a viscount, especially one who considered my Mary so fine!” Mrs. Holmes drew breath, and William opened his mouth—but he missed his chance. “Although he was not the first to spot my Mary’s beauty, and I am certain he will not be the last, for when we had the Lady Romeril for dinner—you must know the Lady Romeril, everyone does. Why, even she said…”

Disgust overwhelmed Charlotte, and not at Mrs. Holmes, but the entire marriage market. It was worse than a cattle market, with the best beauties paraded to see how much men would bid for them. To think she had ever been a part of it, chaperoning women to ensure they hooked their gentleman. It was barbaric!

But her thoughts were interrupted as she was directly addressed by Mrs. Holmes.

“I am sure the Lady Charlotte will agree to be your chaperone, will you not, Lady Charlotte?” Mrs. Holmes beamed at her, and then turned to her daughter and spoke in a mock whisper, “I know the Lady Charlotte will oblige, my dear, for she is not one to begrudge the young and beautiful, though she has not enjoyed the fruits of matrimony herself.”

For the first time in her life, Charlotte felt the rage of her father erupt and did absolutely nothing to stop it.

“How dare you!” she exploded, her voice carrying. “How dare you speak to me in such a way—nay,aboutme in such a way! Your disrespectful attitude is disgraceful, and I am ashamed to hear it, let alone be its subject!”

Mrs. Holmes was staring, aghast, along with most of the Pump Room. Charlotte did not care. She was already stared at for being a spinster, laughed at for being a chaperone, but it was time to be gossiped about something she had actually done.

“For once in my life, I am not going to fade into the background of other people’s lives,” she stormed, advancing on the helpless Mrs. Holmes with a finger raised. Will took her hand and hastily held onto it, but Charlotte did not look at him. “I am tired of being the punchline to jokes! For once, you are going to look at me and see a woman, not just a handy chaperone who can act as part of the furniture to marry off your daughter!”

Charlotte’s heavy breathing was the only sound. Everyone stood transfixed, staring.