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“What of this wager?”
“I...” Sir John hesitated. “That is difficult to say.”
“Difficult or embarrassing?” Charlotte questioned.
He did not answer at once.
“Forgive me if I do not care.” Charlotte said turning away again.
“Both,” Sir John admitted miserably, catching her hand. “Though it pains me to say.”
“Do not touch me,” she said in a low tone.
He released her immediately.
“I can assure you, sir,” she said extracting her fingers from his grip and lacing them together. “However difficult it is to say, it is infinitely more painful to hear.”
“I know. I know, I owe you an answer. At Almack’s when we met, I was not in good spirits. I realized that I had no choice but to marry an heiress, and quickly. Some of my friends noticed my melancholy and attempted to cheer me. They reminded me that everyone at Almack’s was… quality. Our conversation led to a discussion of which young lady at the ball might be suitable and…”
“My first ball this Season.” Charlotte murmured, half to herself. She wanted to cry at the realization that what had been a lovely, almost magical evening for her was now forever tarnished with her abject humiliation.
“Yes. The result of the conversation with my friends was a wager.”
“What exactly were the terms of this wager?” She asked. She did not want to know, but her curious nature betrayed her. She could not leave well enough alone. She had to pick at the wound like a scab. A part of her wanted to run away, but another part of her had to know every gruesome detail.
“It was terribly wrong, I know.” Sir John sighed deeply, but found he could no longer hold the lie. “It was argued that I could not select a future bride that very evening and...and have her… fall in love with me,” he finished with a whisper.
Charlotte stared at him for several long minutes before she answered in the same hushed tone, tears pricking at her eyes. She sniffed, holding them back with sheer force of will.
“I suppose you will win that wager, Sir John, for all the good it will do you. You have succeeded most admirably, but you will not have my hand nor my fortune. I hope your winnings will be enough to carry you through until you can dupe another poor heiress,” she said, her voice no longer full of venom, but only a deep hurt.
“I begged them to end it. This very night. Truly, I did. I have come to see how reprehensible and tasteless it was. I can only plead my own ignorance. I did not believe that romantic love existed at all, but I see now how I was so very terribly mistaken.”
“How very convenient for you.”
“It is far from convenient!” He cried. “I tell you. I love you, Lady Charlotte, quite desperately.”
Charlotte’s heart cracked and broke upon those words. She was sure the sound of it was audible, such was the depth of her pain. She dashed away her tears attempting to maintain the anger that numbed the ache which threatened to overtake her. “I doubt that very much. Was it the toss of a coin, the roll of dice that led you to select me for your bet? Or did I look particularly gullible to your eye?”
“Charlotte-” he began.
She glared at him.
“Lady Charlotte,” he stated anew, but she interrupted dismissing his words with a wave of her hand.
“It is clear that I am completely interchangeable with any other witless female of theTon. There are many. So, I am quite sure you will find another posthaste. Do not concern yourself.” Charlotte felt that he had already lost any concern he may have had for her, if he ever had any at all.
“There is no other like you!” John protested immediately and for a moment, Charlotte almost believed him. But she would not be fooled. He was nothing but a smooth-talking liar, just like Marley.How could she have been taken in again by pretty words? And a pretty face? She was witless.
“No one in the entire world could take your place in my heart, Lady Charlotte,” Sir John said. “No one.”
“It would be a most well-deserved punishment for you if that were true, but I can no longer place any value on your supposed sincerity.”
“Lady Charlotte, please-” he began, but she interrupted, quoting his first words to her with a hand over her aching heart.
“You once told me, you cherished the ideal of catching a glimpse of someone across a crowded room and feeling that time stopped, that all of the slightest and most trivial events of life had been leading inexorably to that one magical moment.” Charlotte shook her head with disgust, recalling how he had spoken at their first meeting, remembering the words that had first captured her heart. “It is a lovely sentiment, and you are able to deliver the words with such convincing candor. Pray, be sure to remember the line. I assure you, the next heiress who hears it will undoubtedly respond with just the same naïve gullibility as I. You need not even change the words.”
They had reached the door, and Charlotte stopped him from following her with a hand to his chest. “Pray enter through the other door,” she said. “I would not invite scandal, and if you have any care at all for your own reputation or mine, you will agree. After all, it will be hard to lure another heiress if it said that you are a rake as well as a liar.”
