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“I do apologize,” he repeated in all sincerity. “Might I play host and invite you to join my mother and I for dinner? As it is, your date for tea is well past fashionably late.”
“Oh!” Charity squeaked with the thought. “Amelia and Patience! They shall be frantic, wondering where I am,” Charity said.
“Oh they know,” Lord Wentwell said. “Or at least they know that you were in my company. Who do you think sent me to escort you?”
“Oh,” Charity said again a blush filling her face at the implications.
“I imagine they will make our excuses, separately of course,” Lord Wentwell said. “They are our friends.”
Charity blushed all the more. “But they will still be frantic,” Charity said softly, but for a different reason entirely, she thought. “I should send a note with my regrets.”
“Do you think that will help?” Lord Wentwell asked eyebrow raised.
“Not a bit.” She bit her lip. “Perhaps it would be best if you would take me home.”
Lord Wentwell nodded. “As you wish.”
As Charity gathered her reticule, she realized that she had vials of the mineral water as well as lavender water with her. She had decided on the day after her father’s near disastrous excursion that she would not be without some recourse again. She paused and dug through the contents to find the correct bottle, and hesitated but a moment. If she did this she would be tacitly agreeing that her father was not well. She turned to Lady Wentwell who had been chaperoning them with quiet competence.
“I know that this is a most unusual gift, a half filled bottle,” she said holding up the vial, “But the lavender water seems to calm my father, and help him to sleep. If it will help your son, and Lord Wentwell’s brother, I should like to gift it to you.”
Lady Wentwell raised an eyebrow. “I have misjudged you, Lady Charity, and I am sorry you are not staying for dinner so that we might become better acquainted. You are not the lady I thought you to be,” she said taking the vial from Charity’s hand. “I shall send my regards to The Lord and Lady Shalace,” she said loftily. “Perhaps dinner shall have to wait for another time. I hope that your parents will accompany you on your next trip.”
Lady Charity gave the woman a curtsey, all the while thinking how would she manage to get her mother to read Lady Wentwell’s missive much less accept an invitation to Lady Wentwell’s home.
~.~
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ten minutes later, Lady Charity was seated in the carriage with Lord Wentwell once more.
“Do you mind if we go the long way and take a drive past the garden? I always find the ride soothing,” he said. “I could use a moment of calm.”
Charity nodded her consent, and Lord Wentwell directed the driver the route to take. Her own head was reeling with today’s events. Still, she thought it could not matter much if she was any later, she was already quite beyond excuse, but having seen a much deeper side to man she had previously discounted, curiosity got the best of her.
“Might I ask a personal question, Lord Wentwell?”
He nodded sagely.
“You have painted yourself as a flirt and a rogue. I have seen with my own eyes how you have bounced from one maiden to another leaving rather horrible rumors in your wake…” she paused and stared into his deep green eyes, “and yet, you have never been ungentlemanly with me, and tonight… The depth of your commitment to your family… I admit I am puzzled.”
~.~
Neville said nothing for a few minutes, but he realized that he had already trusted Lady Charity with the biggest secret of his family.
“You will think me a fool, I fear.” he started, she frowned, but he continued. “I am not so flippant as the picture I present. I love my home. I care for the people of my estate. I thought someday I would marry to further the line, but I was in no rush. I see no reason to hurry fate.” He thought of the disastrous Miss Katherine Dubois, but Lady Charity was nothing like her. He could trust the lady with his heart.
“I see,” said Lady Charity, although the situation begged more explanation.
“So I decided to do whatever I could to push the young ladies away. If I could make myself disgusting enough in character, even my money, my title, my appearance should discourage matchmaking and the like. I assumed that the dowagers would warn their charges against me, and I would be free.”
Lady Charity burst out laughing, and then covered her mouth embarrassed by the unladylike loudness of it.
“What, pray tell, is so funny?”
“You thought the ladies would actually listen to their mothers and their chaperones?”
“Why yes. Of course, I thought so. It is in the nature of women to obey…their fathers….their mothers…their husbands.” His own grin quirked as he thought of the irascible Lady Charity. “I believe I may have misjudged women kind in general.”
