“Yes, it’s on the desk,” Frazier replied with a nod.
“Excellent.”
Frazier turned toward him with a smirk on his face. “Rumor through downstairs has Lady Daphne inviting you to tea with her and her friend, Lady Cathryn.”
“Yes, I thought it would be rude to decline,” Charles replied. He turned to walk to the desk.
“You would have been correct.”
“I need to make sure this order is correct so I can get back to work on my book.”
Frazier grunted as Charles walked out of the dressing room.
Charles quickly cut the string holding the paper around his order. Gently, he lifted the stack of paper out. The pens and notebooks had been on top of the paper. He put them aside to make sure the paper was the correct type he wanted. Seeing it was, he opened the right-hand desk drawer and placed it on top of the remaining few sheets he had left.
The notebooks were nothing fancy. Two were of the size that they could fit in his pocket and the other two were larger. He preferred these for making notes or writing his daily activities if there were something worth writing about. His introduction toLady Cathryn and his odd feelings made it perfect to put this to paper.
Frazier walked in the room. “I understand you had a hard time at lunch.”
“Who told you?”
“One of the footmen who travels with the duke.”
“Then you know I walked out of the dining room and kept going.”
“Yes, though why you did it, they did not convey.”
“A rather loud and obnoxious gentleman stopped by the table and began going on about Arthur and me being twins. I couldn’t take it.”
“You’re going to have to learn to accept and live with the fact that there are all sorts of people. Some are nice, some are not. His Grace doesn’t know you that well yet. I’m sure it made him frantic until he realized that leaving was a coping mechanism for you.”
“I’ll make my apologies to Arthur when he arrives home.”
“I know he’ll appreciate that. You are trying, I will say that much. You’re taking walks and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. I call that trying, and you certainly have done a lot of that.”
“Your encouragement has helped me.”
Frazier ignored the compliment for a moment. “Dinner is at seven-thirty with drinks in the drawing room at seven.”
“That leaves me with some time to relax. Make sure I have plenty of time to change.”
Chapter Five
Two evenings later,Arthur, Daphne, and Charles were quietly sitting inside the carriage, waiting for it to move away from the front of the house and into the London evening traffic, people going to the theater, soirees, and musicales like the one they were on their way to. This evening’s event was being held at the house of the popular MP, the Marquess of Bath and his wife.
Charles had tried for two days to prepare himself for what would come. Strangers, but a lot of them friends or acquaintances from Parliament. He and Arthur had had a few discussions on how to act, which meant not to react. They were there to listen to the music, not socialize like one would at a ball.
He had to keep his focus on that, especially on Lady Cathryn. She had been almost all he thought of for the past two days. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
His sister-in-law seemed to be aware of this and tried to gently reassure him. “You’ll be fine, Charles. Everyone is there to listen to the music. We don’t have to stay afterwards, do we, Arthur?”
Arthur shook his head. “Of course not. If you wish, we can stay for a short time. If not, we can immediately leave after the performance.”
“Since Lady Cathryn was kind enough to secure me an invitation, I will need to thank her and commend her on an extraordinary performance.”
“She would enjoy that,” Daphne replied. She smiled knowingly at Charles.
The coach stayed quiet for what seemed like an eternity before anyone spoke again.
