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Seth turned toward her. He was smiling, but it was one of his small, half-smiles. The sort of smile he wore when he was diverted but not ready to show it.
“Only one of us could ever be at ease in such a room.” He pushed a book back onto the shelf and strode over toward her. He sat in the chair near her, putting them shoulder to shoulder.
“You do further realize,” Charlotte said, “you would have called out any man who ever tried such a thing with your daughters.”
“Without a doubt,” Seth said, but she could hear the small laugh hiding just behind his words. “But we are not so young as they.”
“And I am a well-respected widow. Society forgives me far more now than it ever would have when I was a debutante.”
“If only that extended to the committee’s willingness to listen.”
A harsh and quite unladylike scoff broke free from Charlotte before she could stop it. Seth raised an eyebrow at the sound, causing Charlotte to laugh at herself.
“That is far too true,” she said. “We could cause the greatest scandal London had ever seen, you and I, and they’d still be willing to take my money. But take myadvice?” She tutted and shook her head. “For that, one must be beyond reproach, even as a widow.”
“It’s a shame age has not granted any on the committee a better brain.”
Charlotte laughed out loud that time. “Yes, a great shame.”
“Still,” Seth continued, “age comes with benefits, does it not?”
Charlotte rested back but stayed angled toward him a bit. “So many benefits. And not just in how society views one, but I find myself far more confident now than I was then.”
“Far clearer regarding my priorities.”
“Far more comfortable with who I am.”
He reached out and took her hand. It was nothing at all like how Lord Linfield had taken her hand. His touch had been overt, more for show than anything. Seth took her hand as though they were simply two friends, agreeing on a truth they’d both experienced and could relate to. Lord Linfield, if she wasn’t mistaken, had hoped to touch her heart when he’d reached for her. Seth, she was certain, had no such designs.
And yet it was he who had.
“I remember,” Seth said without letting go, though his tone turned light, “when I was a young man, wishing for youth to stretch on for as long as possible. What is it about being young that makes being old seem so awful?”
“I don’t know, but I thought the same thing. I never wanted to grow old, yet now I’m here, I would never go back.”
“Certainly not.”
They spoke for several minutes on all the ways life had shaped them. The lessons they’d learned. The joys they’d found in friendships deepened by time and by children who only became more of a joy as they grew.
After a time, an easy silence settled between them.
Charlotte gave his hand a small squeeze. “And this is what you could not say to me in the ballroom?”
“Anything is easier to sayoutsidea room bursting with popinjays.”
Charlotte laughed again—he had a point—and settled into her seat more fully. “I’m glad we have this moment to ourselves.” Ballrooms were grand, but being here with Seth was a far more satisfying kind of happy.
Seth’s half-smile returned. “Forgive me for pulling you away from your friends and for boring you for so long.” He pulled his hand away, and she felt the loss immediately. He angled toward her fully, placing an elbow against his knee and leaning in toward her. “Actually, I wanted to apologize.”
She couldn’t imagine what for.
“Both Eliza and Dinah felt our performance the other night severely lacking.”
“You mean—”
He nodded. “The fish. I’m hoping our disagreement earlier tonight over balls and dresses will prove more successful. Apparently arguing over fish and pheasant isn’t the way to show we are only friends.”
Charlotte laughed lightly. “I had no idea you were so partial to fish.”
