“Being allied with that family?” Octavia raised her eyebrows and nodded to Lord Lowood, who glowered at Charlotte’s progress down the ballroom. “The Earl is not a man you want intimate dealings with.”
“Convenient, then, that I am merely marrying his cousin and not him.”
Octavia snapped her fan shut. “You are remarkably flippant considering you consistently refuse your own sister the comfort she deserves.”
“My dear aunt, are we to argue about this now?”
“Look at her, Aaron.”
Aaron glanced across at Constance, who sat with Edward, laughing over a glass of punch in her hand. She looked radiant, and there could be no denying she was extremely happy. Still, she had made her choice of husband in the full understanding of what that would entail. “You cannot have it both ways,” he said. “Either you accept Constance was an adult capable of making her own decisions, mindful of the consequences, or you protest her innocence in which case she ought not to be married at all.”
“Do the consequences have to involve you cutting them off?”
“I’m not cutting them off,” Aaron said impatiently, his earlier mood dimming. “I’m merely not enabling Edward to hang on my apron strings all their lives.”
“He would make something of himself if you merely gave him the opportunity.”
“You have strong feelings on the matter.” Aaron glanced down at his aunt, taking in the pinch on her forehead and the bitten skin on her lips. She hadn’t been this worked up for quite some time, and Aaron could hardly fathom why she should be concerning herself with this quite as utterly as she was doing. “I’m not turning them out onto the streets, but Constance cannot have the life she has grown up knowing.”
“I hardly see why you must cast her from society in this way!”
Aaron sighed. “Considering I threw a ball to celebrate their marriage, I would say I’m doing the opposite of casting her from society.”
“But without the means to participate in the events of the Seas—”
“She chose to marry a man who could not provide those things for her and did not consider the deprivation a cruel one at the time, I’m certain.” Of course, Aaron privately thought she might reconsider when she found her life wanting and restrictive, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it. “You are worrying more than she is, Aunt.”
“She is too young to consider such things.Wemust consider them for her.”
Aaron folded his arms as he watched another gentleman ask Charlotte to dance. “I have done plenty of consideration on the subject,” he said, a warning note to his voice, “as I said the last time you approached the subject.”
Octavia sniffed and whisked herself away, no doubt to find Lady Lowood and pour out her woes in that good lady’s ears, and Aaron reluctantly concluded he ought to dance with someone else.
* * *
The next morning, Charlotte descended to the drawing room in a dazed state of happiness. She’d barely been able to sleep for excitement—both in terms of what was to come and what she had already experienced with him. Her body ached pleasantly, reminding her of his every touch and the way she had given herself to him yesterday.
After everything they had both been through, and everything they had been pretending, to be together like this nothing short of bliss. She hugged herself. She was to marry the Duke of Hexham, andhe loved her!
“You’re looking well, my dear,” her mother said, sweeping into the room with a book. “I’m glad to see you so happy and with the Duke!”
Charlotte privately felt the same, but she didn’t feel she could comment on it with the same irreverence as her mother. “I do consider myself exceedingly lucky,” she said.
“Ah, it wasn’t luck that got you the Duke,” her mother said as she sat. “Do you think it was luck that sent the announcement to the newspaper and encouraged you to pronounce yourselves engaged?”
Charlotte stared at her mother, tracing every familiar feature with a dawning sense of horror. “That was you?”
* * *
Aaron clasped the small red box in his pocket. Previously, buying gifts for Charlotte had been par for the course; something he was obligated to do as her betrothed. Now, it was a pleasure. He’d spent quite some time searching for a shade of blue that he believed precisely matched her eyes, and now he considered himself to have found the perfect gift.
As always, the butler greeted him at the door and led him through to the drawing room where he could hear Charlotte and her mother speaking.
“Thank you,” he said to the butler. “I can introduce myself.”
“As you wish, Your Grace.”
As the butler left, Aaron heard Lady Lowood say, “And just think, it worked. The announcement worked, and now you are to marry the Duke. What do you think of that, my dear? My plan to frame the Duke worked, and you will reap the benefits. Our entire family will reap the benefits.”
