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Charlotte stepped down a step, and her father recoiled. “He has done nothing that was not of my asking, Your Grace. I swear it.”
“What good is your promise if you would debase yourself in such a way?” It was her father speaking. He seemed far more grounded than the other times Benjamin had met him. A pity. “Here of all places?”
“She speaks true, Your Grace. I have come to have great affection for your daughter and—“
“Affection?” Gamston scoffed. “It is laughable. Truly, you make a mockery of me, sir, and in my home, no less.” A shock of laughter came from the hall, and it seemed to spook the Duke out of his kin. A lady, and then another, followed them into the atrium. “Not here,” he growled. “We will speak in my study.”
Like cadets off to war, Benjamin and Charlotte trailed behind the Duke. He reached for her hand as they walked, wanting to say wordlessly,Everything will be fine. I will not let them torture you overlong. Only, she pulled her fingers back.
Gamston closed the door behind them.
The study was large, dark, smelling of old paper and beeswax. A large, roaring hearth sat at the back of the room, bookended by shelves. They were decorated with all manner of trophies, souvenirs, and the odd book, too. Benjamin scanned them, anything to avoid having to look the Duke of Gamston in the eye and submit to his scolding. Until something caught his attention.
On the very top shelf to the right, nestled into its corner, was a locket. It had been affixed to a velvet display of emerald green, glinting in the light from the fire. It was familiar, so similar to the one worn by his mother for much of his childhood. Surely, Gamston could not be in possession of it. Surely, it was a trick of the eye or a common model. If it was not, did that make of it some trophy kept to commemorate, no,tocelebratehis mother’s ruin?
If circumstances had been different, he would have leaped over the desk and throttled the man. He could not because the silver-haired peers began to speak.
“I will only ask you this once, Lady Charlotte, for your father’s sake—what does this man intend, if anything?”
Benjamin could not tear his eyes from the Duke, hoping his ire might distract him long enough to leave Charlotte well alone. It did not.
“We intended nothing beyond what you saw, I believe, Your Grace.”
Despite knowing the moment would come, despite having planned for it inwardly since the founding of their ruse, Benjamin could never have prepared himself for how humiliating it all would feel. He was no stranger to demeaning himself—his reputation was tarnished beyond repair in most circles—but to hear Charlotte speak of him as though he had treated her a rake… it was harder than most things he had done.
“I gave you your month of freedom, and this is what you choose?” Her father said from where he sat at the desk. He was looking off, absently. “Why?”
“Must there be awhyabout it, Father?” She must have crossed her arms, for her jewelry chimed.
“If we are to overcome this,yes,”Gamston retorted. “What of you, then? Might you say a word in defense of the lady you have sought to,” he paused to swallow, “taint with your passing?”
Benjamin snarled.You are Huxley and only Huxley, he reminded himself before he said, “Will you allow me to speak, now?” failing marvelously to contain his anger. “If I wished to taint the lady, I would have done so upon our first meeting, have no doubt. Lady Charlotte is…” He hesitated, blurring the line between Huxley and Benjamin until only the truth remained. “Lady Charlotte is the most surprising, beautiful, clever woman I have ever known. I have tried, albeit not hard enough, to resist the natural urge that comes with witnessing a woman of her quality—until I could not.”
Her father got to his feet. “How dare you—“
“Howdareyou, sir! If you hadn’t spent your life blinding yourself to the preciousness of your daughter, none of this would have happened.”
“You would put the blame on her father, then?” Gamston grizzled. “Does that seem quite fair to you?”
“Oh, I assure you,” Benjamin laughed, “there is nothing fair about this.” He took a step forward. “I put the blame on you both for not harkening to her desires and on myself for harkening too much.”
Her father let his head hang in his hands. “I do not want to hear this, I do not want…” he rambled incessantly, slipping from them.
“I am sorry, really I am, for any distress I have caused either of you,” Charlotte protested. She took a step forward to touch the desk, “But Mr. Huxley speaks in truth. I am willing to accept any and all punishment for my errant behavior. I do not expect either of you to forgive me, nor to understand… however, this mistake has been the first thing of my choosing, and it has feltgood.”
“We do not live for feelings of pleasure, Charlotte,” Gamston said, almost tenderly. “Not when they are fleeting. Not when your purity and your reputation are ever-lasting.”
“Be that as it may, I cannot find it in myself to give them any merit.”
Finally, achingly slow, Benjamin looked at her. Her dark hair had tumbled down her back from their engagement, and her eyes had misted over—a paragon of beauty, of courage, never to be his again.
“Then there is naught we can do for you,” her father whispered.
Charlotte nodded.
“You will leave this place,” Gamston said to Benjamin. “You will leave never to return. If we are so unfortunate as to cross paths again, you will hold your tongue on this and more.”
Benjamin sought to speak, but a dark glance from Charlotte pleaded with him to keep quiet.
