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“Of course I do,” he assured her. “What do you think the kiss was all about?”
“Well, I thought it was to stop Meldrew from approaching us,” she replied quietly.
Charlie leaned toward her. “Well, if that’s the reason why I kissed you, why didn’t I just release you once they had gone?”
Hetty swallowed and looked at him, but was prevented from having to answer him by Wally, who had a dark frown on his face as he studied first Charlie, then Hetty just a little too intently.
“Everything alright?” He asked casually as he drew to a stop beside them.
Sensing that a confrontation was brewing, Hetty rushed to explain. “Meldrew was here a moment ago. He was at the Carpenter’s again.”
Wally looked at her. “Did he say anything to you?”
Hetty shook her head. “Charlie intervened,” she replied quietly.
“Yes, I saw that.” Wally’s pointed look warned Charlie that they were going to have words as soon as Hetty was gone. Meantime, he gave his sister a pointed look.
“I think that you had better come back to the tavern with me where I can keep an eye on you,” he drawled a little arrogantly. He kept his gaze locked on Charlie while he spoke.
Charlie nodded his acknowledgement of the unspoken warning.
“There is more going on than you realise,” Charlie warned. He winced at his rather poor choice of words when Wally’s brows shot up, and he turned an accusing glare on Hetty.
“What?” her brother demanded querulously.
“Not with Hetty,” Charlie snapped. “God, man; what do you take me for? I mean, with me.” He sighed and shook his head. “Where is Simon?”
“Getting the ales in,” Wally groused. “I came to see what was taking you so long.”
Fed up of the men sizing each other up like a pair of fighting cocks, Hetty glanced down the road at her friend’s house.
“When you two are finished, I am going.” She threw a dark look at Wally. “Try not to get too drunk.”
“You go and get the ales in. I will take Hetty to her friend’s house,” Wally suggested as he sidled past Charlie, and nodded down the street. “Come on, Hetty.”
Hetty opened her mouth to object to Wally’s high-handedness, but caught the wink Charlie gave her before he turned and dutifully sauntered away. She stared after him a little nonplussed, and would have thought that she had imagined the last several moments; if it wasn’t for the fact that her lips still tingled from the force of his kisses.
“There is more to him than meets the eye,” Wally warned as he ambled beside her.
“I know,” Hetty replied somewhat dreamily. She jumped when Wally gasped and glared at her.
“Now, I am not going to stand for any of that wantonness from you, Hetty Jones. You have not been brought up to be that kind of woman.”
“How dare you cast aspersions on my character?” Hetty burst out. The glare she threw at her brother could have blistered stone and, even in the darkness, she watched the tips of his ears turn pink as a somewhat abashed look swept over his face. “I know I am not that kind of lady. How dare you suggest otherwise?”
“Charlie is a handsome man, that’s all I am saying. All the tavern wenches think so,” Wally replied somewhat awkwardly.
A surge of jealousy swept through Hetty, and she scowled darkly at the tavern door as it closed behind the man in question.
“I am sure they do, and they can have him with bells on, I am sure,” she snapped in disgust.
“Just don’t let him dally with you, that’s all I am saying.”
“I shall do no such thing Walter Jones,” Hetty snapped in her sternest voice. “How dare you even suggest that I would?”
“I am just saying that he isn’t going to be in the area for long,” Wally sighed. “Just don’t let him use you for amusement while he is here.”
“Amusement? Oh, right, so that’s the only reason why anyone like him would look at me right?” Hetty snorted in disgust as her temper flared at his mention of the one niggling doubt of her own that refused to be ignored.
