Her maid glared at him.
Wolfgang was beginning to feel like a bit of a clod, and he didn’t like it.
He could read a battlefield at a glance and tackle John’s long columns of numbers with ease, and yet any conversation with Charlotte made him feel as if he were attempting to get through Sir Isaac Newton’sPrincipiawith a head packed full of wool.
He frowned harder, but no matter how he tormented his face, it was no use.
“Lady Charlotte, please tell me what’s wrong.”
Charlotte put down her embroidery and closed her eyes to summon her patience, which clearly took a great deal of effort given how long it was before she spoke. “If you must know, it’syou. I’m upset that I’m off on a private errand andyou’redogging my steps, ready to pick everything apart.”
Wolfgang sucked in his breath. “Devil a bit, I’m not going to—”
“Won’t you?” She lifted her chin and her eyes bored into him. “Your Grace, you’ve made it perfectly clear that you consider me pointless. What did you call me the night of the masquerade—damned frivolous? So don’t look shocked that I might be dismayed to expose things I truly care about toyourinspection.”
Wolfgang gave a guilty start. Was that what Charlotte thought—that he found her frivolous?
Well, you did at the start of the summer. You saw her nonsense and refused to see anything else. But in the last weeks at Clare, it was impossible not to notice her kindess, or to dismiss her obvious talent, and of course he’d never once doubted her strength. He opened his mouth to tell her—
Charlotte slashed her hand through the air. “No, don’t say a word! Why would I waste my time on a man who doesn’t evenremember—” She stopped abruptly. “Stay on your side of the carriage and I’ll stay on mine. Do you understand?”
“But—”
“Do you understand?”
Wolfgang’s head began to spin. He didn’t understand a damn thing and would have said so, except that Charlotte’s eyes looked strangely liquid.
What thehellwould he do if she cried?
“Of course,” he said gently.
She gave a jerky nod and returned to her embroidery, as if she hadn’t just blasted a hole through his chest.
How was it possible thathewas the one who’d made her mouth quiver? That his words had caused the awful wobble in her voice? He was shocked she even remembered his hastily thrown insult from all those weeks ago at Lady Hervey’s masquerade. Besides,Charlotte didn’t give a fig for his opinion. While she might look as if she were made of sugar and whipped cream, her skin was as tough as rhinoceros hide.
Wasn’t it?
“Lady Charlotte, it won’t do. I may not understand you, and I certainly don’t understand—damn it! Believe what you will, but I don’t think you pointless. I think youlethal.”
The two sides of the landau’s top were closed, and they trapped his words and left them hanging in the air between them, growing larger by the moment. Charlotte stared at him, her mouth agape, and for once she wasn’t wearing her usualNo, my lord Magistrate, I’d never dream of stealing the crown jewelsexpression.
Her maid stared, too, her mouth a little O of fascination.
A crease appeared between Charlotte’s eyebrows. “I don’t understand, Your Grace. One moment you’re… the next you’re…” She shook her head, her face oddly solemn, and Wolfgang suddenly felt the weight of the strain she’d been under all summer.
“Christ, Charlotte, I—The point I was trying to make is—” He growled in frustration and gave up. “I don’t have a point. I’m an idiot.”
And there it was. The smallest laugh burbled up from inside her.
The passengers lapsed into a silence that felt like an uneasy truce, and Wolfgang turned to look out the window and watch the oaks, horse chestnuts, and beeches drift by. Only after several miles did he look over to see what Charlotte was stitching.
His severed head.
Wolfgang smothered a laugh and something settled inside his chest.
Everything was back to normal.
CHAPTER 31
