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“Gladly.”
“I remember Penn quite well—”
“Wait, who is William Markham? The name rings a bell.”
“Tsk, Charlotte. Don’t know your Pennsylvania history?”
“I’m a Carolinian—”
“Fair enough.”
They stopped talking as the senator and his wife moved past them, greeting Charlotte with a nod.
“When Charles—”
“I take it you called the king of England Charles?”
“Precisely.” Torr shifted so he was facing her. “When he gave Penn the charter, which wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart, mind you, but recompense for a debt he owed, Penn turned the governance over to his cousin, Captain William Markham. Contrary to all accounts, Penn himself didn’t see the new world for at least five years after it was signed.”
“Fascinating.”
And although she no longer had an accent, mostly, the word came out with a slight drawl. Torr’s tongue surfaced, and then—
Dammit. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“You know very well when you lick your—”
“Miss Charlotte, what a lovely dress!”
The compliment, delivered in a barbed voice, was doled out by the lieutenant governor’s wife. Luckily, her husband, notorious for his roving eyes, was nowhere to be seen.
“Thank you, Mrs. Bitner. I’d like to introduce you to my guest, Torr Derrickson.”
“Derrickson, hmmm. Is that—”
“Scottish, ma’am.”
“Fascinating,” she said, looking Torr slowly up and down as she said so. Not that Charlotte could blame her for that; the woman had eyes. “I’ve got a bit of Scottish in me as well. How many generations back did your ancestors come to America?”
“Three,” he said, the lie told so quickly that Charlotte knew he must have given it before. “And you, ma’am?”
“The same. My great-great-grandfather lived here in Stone Haven, in fact. Where you live now, isn’t that correct?” she addressed Charlotte, who nodded.
“I didn’t realize you had family in the area.”
“Oh, we don’t anymore. They cleared out after some business with that Walsh family—”
Business? An argument?
“You know the Walshes?”
Charlotte and Torr exchanged a glance.
“Of course. They were royalty in this state once.”
“Royalty?” Torr asked as Charlotte took a casual sip of her wine. “How so?”
