AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lionel would never!” Lattice huffed.
She was done entertaining this woman. “I think neither of us is in a position to say what Lionel would or would not do. He kept a great many secrets.” Charlotte gestured to the two workers to remove the inoperable rifle and pack it in a crate while she recorded the item and its destination in her notebook. “To the museum.”
“You leave me no other choice but to write to my solicitor. I am most concerned with the management of Lionel’s legacy.”
“I thank you for handling the estate while I was gone. By all accounts, you were an excellent mistress,” Charlotte said in a pseudo-friendly tone. “However, if you contact your solicitor over a matter that is, frankly, not your concern, I will be forced to reconsider your allowance. Your decision.” She smiled, well aware that she showed too many teeth.
Lattice’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came. Giving a frustrated little scream, she stormed out of the room.
“Maybe fortune will favor us and she’ll leave for Founding,” Charlotte said.
Solenne regarded Charlotte with a concerned expression. “You’re different,” she said.
“Nonsense. I am painfully unchanged.”
“Before, you would have gone out of your way to maintain civility. Now you couldn’t even be bothered to pretend.”
“I kept my mouth shut once and I’ve regretted it every day since,” she said with all honesty. “Besides, I’m too tired to pretend.”
Solenne took the notebook and pencil from Charlotte and set them aside. “We’ll finish this another day.”
“Have I changed so much?”
“You’re you. That hasn’t changed.”
“Draven said I was his soulmate,” Charlotte said, nearly choking. It was the first time she spoke his name. “And it didn’t matter. I loved him and he sent me away, and now I’m here and he’s gone. I can’t…I can’t pretend to be the same. I’m not. I love him.”
She finally spoke the words out loud, and it was to the wrong person.
Solenne opened her arms. Charlotte sank into her friend’s embrace. Sobs racked her body. When they finally died down, Solenne said, “I don’t understand, but I want to. When you’re ready to tell me what happened on that mountain, please do so. I need to know who to stab.”
“That’s very kind, but you’ll find it difficult to stab the dead.” Charlotte wiped her face with the back of her hands. Another change. Before she’d have dabbed daintily with a kerchief, the starchy white kind, trimmed with lace.
Much later, the household retired for the evening. Charlotte found herself in the study. The room had been the first to be purged. Now it held her notebooks, pencils, and the equipment she needed to manage the estate. The open window let in the cool night air, the fresh aroma of damp earth and growing plants, and the night song of birds and insects.
Charlotte picked up a quill, sharpened the tip, and dipped it in ink. She’d been recording her memories before they faded and jumbled together. So far, she wrote down the inconsequential details. The pineapple had three pages dedicated to it, complete with her poorly drawn diagram.
She hadn’t written a word about Draven. She couldn’t, no matter how often she sat in this chair with a blank page. In part because his secrets weren’t hers to share but mostly because she couldn’t face it. Not yet. He sent her away with Radcliffe’s journal. That wasn’t a sentimental gesture. He knew she’d share its contents eventually. The discovery would make her name as a historian.
A scratching sounded at the window.
Charlotte set down the quill. Her skin pricked with the uncanny sensation of being watched. Was it one of the estate’s cats? They sometimes came begging for scraps and a chance to sleep by the fire.
A figure stood in the window.
His pale hair was shorn and his clothing rags, but Charlotte knew her soulmate in an instant.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Charlotte
Boxon
Vervain Hall
Charlotte clutched the window frame, holding on for support. This wasn’t possible. He was gone, and she was bereft.
“Please be real. I can’t take it if this is a dream or hallucination,” she whispered. She’d had far too many dreams where they were together and there was such joy, only to have grief crash down on her all over again when she woke. It wasn’t fair.
