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William chuckled softly—probably because of his mother’s use of such a word as ‘blast.’
Charlotte pulled her hand away from her eyes. “Get upstairs now, young man, before I set your ears burning with what Itrulythink.”
William’s grin returned. “My mother, the sailor.”
“Oh, go on.”
William hurried up the stairs, his soft laughter trailing after him. She shook her head, watching him go. But all humor instantly left as he disappeared up the stairs.
It had taken Charlotte no small amount of time to gain the committee’s confidence. Yet it seemed to be disappearing in a fraction of the time.
The front door creaked open, and Seth stuck his head through. “So...I may have heard all of that.”
“William always did struggle to keep his voice down.”
Seth slipped the rest of the way back into the house. “You do know he only told you because he doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”
Charlotte nodded. “I know. But that still doesn’t solve anything.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Seth leaned a shoulder against the wall beside the door and rested heavily against it. “I don’t think our disagreeing in public is proving enough.”
Charlotte felt those words heavily. “I’m afraid you’re right.” All they’d seemed to accomplish was convincing half of London that Seth was overly fond of fish. Which was ironic, seeing as he sincerely disliked it.
Their disagreement over dresses seemed not to have been talked about by others at all.
“Suppose,” Seth said slowly, “we aren’t seen together out in society for a time?”
“What?” Charlotte said, the word bursting from her without permission.
What would she do without her closest friend? If she were deprived of the one man who meant so much to her?
Seth held up his hand. “I’m not saying we have to say goodbye forever. If we are, say, invited to either Dinah’s or Eliza’s house at the same time,” he shrugged, “that would be expected and not at all remarkable.”
That seemed like a large restriction—to only be allowed to see one another when one of his daughters felt up to hosting them both.
Charlotte folded her arms. “I don’t like it when you get all serious about protecting me from society.”
He stood up and laid a hand on each of her arms. “This won’t be forever. We aren’t going to stop being friends. We’ll take a step back is all, let this blow over, and then go from there.”
“Exactly, protective, such as that. I hate it.” But she couldn’t deny it was a good plan. Arguing hadn’t exactly worked. Perhaps if they simply stopped giving society anything to talk about, society would stop talking.
He watched her closely, patiently waiting for her opinion.
“Very well,” she said with a sigh. “Only promise me we won’t drift so far apart that we can’t even call one another friends after a time.”
“Never.” He paused then. “Actually...” His gaze flitted across her face. He seemed to be contemplating what he’d intended to say.
Which only made her want to hear it all the more.
“You were saying?” she said after a moment.
Seth dropped his hands, but just when she thought he was going to leave without telling her what he’d been about to say, he finally spoke.
“To prove to you I never plan to stop being your friend, I would like to ask if I might have permission to call you Charlotte,” his hand came up, “only when among family, of course.”
Charlotte couldn’t stop the grin that spread over her face.Finally.
“Of course.” She fought with everything inside her to keep her tone even. She thought she’d been successful, but only just.
