“Far as I could tell, she continued on the Great North Road, but there’s nothing strange in that if she were going to Hexham Place.”
So, Constance had continued north. Charlotte knew there were several inferences that could be drawn from this, but the most likely was that Aaron was correct: Constance had gone to Gretna Green. If this was two weeks ago, she was most likely married by now.
“Thank you for your time,” Aaron said, flicking a couple of guineas at the innkeeper. “I trust I may rely on your discretion?”
“You have naught to worry from me,” the innkeeper reassured him, and Aaron left the small, smoky room with the same impatience with which he’d entered.
Charlotte correctly interpreted this as anger, and she waited until they were in their carriage before venturing to say, “I rather think it may be a little too late to prevent any ills from occurring.”
“If she has married someone that doesn’t deserve her—” Aaron broke off and glared out of the window, breathing heavily. “I shall do all I can to put a stop to it.”
“You can’t put a stop to something that has already happened,” Charlotte said reasonably. “The best approach would be to invite the gentleman into your home and your confidences and pretend this marriage was not an elopement.”
Aaron switched his glare to her. “I would thank you to not give me advice on how to treat my sister, Charlotte.”
“If that’s the case, why did you invite me here?”
“You offered yourself!”
“I offered myhelp.” She met Aaron’s glare with one of her own. “You have done nothing that suggests you are willing to accept my help, and so if that is to be the case, I see no reason for me to be here.”
For a moment, she thought he would argue further, but his shoulders sagged, and he held out a hand. “Forgive me? I am in a rotten temper, but it should not be taken out on you.”
“I offer my advice in good heart,” she said, taking his hand in both of hers. “I beg you would take it as such.”
“I know you have every good intention.” He gave her a wry smile. “Sometimes I wonder how I have managed to find myself a fiancée whose motives are so different from my own.”
“Are your motives so selfish?”
“Not always,” he said, his gaze on hers, “but often. If you were plain, for example, or not of good family, I should not have made you the offer I did.”
“I suppose I ought to be flattered?”
“You ought to be ashamed of me,” he said, “as I am.”
Charlotte thought back to the way he had treated Mrs. Brooke and later the innkeeper. “I do not agree you are any more selfish than any other Duke given his title at any early age,” she said. “You can be kind, and you are devoted to your sister, however misguided I think your actions. These are qualities deserving of respect.”
A queer smile crossed his face. “And do you respect me, Charlotte?”
“More than I ever thought I could.”
Her hands were both in his, so he raised them to his lips and kissed the back of each with a tenderness she could not have expected in all her three-and-twenty years. “Then I hope I shall continue to surprise you,” he said, an odd sincerity in his voice. “And I hope you shall never be disappointed.”
Her color was raised, but this was verging into territory she couldn’t be comfortable in, so she merely shook her head and lightly said, “An impossible task. You are a Duke, but you are not infallible.”
“And I hope, in turn, you shall always put me in my place,” he said equally lightly, and the conversation continued in that vein until they returned home.
ChapterTwelve
Anastasia and Aaron’s aunt Octavia were both up by the time Charlotte and Aaron returned home, and when Aaron expressed his intention of making inquiries into where his sister could have gone, Anastasia lost no time in taking Charlotte aside.
“It seems you and the Duke have become exceedingly close,” she said with an appraising look. “It is more than I could have hoped for.”
“And yet I have the distinct impression you brought me into the parlor to scold me,” Charlotte said.
“Your instincts do you credit.” Anastasia sank into a chair and folded her arms. “You know I want nothing more than your happiness, my love, but I cannot countenance you gallivanting about the country with the Duke and no chaperone.”
Charlotte folded her arms. “You were the one who sequestered the Duke and me in a carriage together.”
