“A book?” Lady Louise chuckled. “You are teasing me, Lord Wilton.”
He met her gaze, unflinching. He liked to be prepared. Research was important. Being unprepared…well, it led to mistakes and errors and loss. He had lived his life with caution for all his years.
“You are not,” Charity’s aunt observed, flushing. “Now it is I who must beg your forgiveness, my lord. I did not mean insult. I thought it a jest.”
He was an odd man, and he knew it.
“Think nothing of it, Lady Louise,” he hastened to reassure her. “All I hope from you is your approval, and perhaps some advice.”
“Advice?”
“For persuading Lady Charity of the wisdom of accepting my proposal,” he elaborated.
Lady Louise sent him a reassuring smile that was so remarkably similar to Charity’s that he had to blink.
“Be yourself, my lord,” she advised. “And tell her you love her. That ought to be an excellent start.”
Sage counsel.
“I have your approval then, my lady?” he asked.
“Any man who loves my Charity and makes her happy has my approval,” Lady Louise said.
And while her words brought him comfort and reassurance, they also raised more questions.
He tucked those queries into his heart, saving them for later examination.
* * *
“Charity!”
Raina’s voice permeated the fog inhabiting Charity’s mind as a shuttlecock landed neatly in the lawn at her side.
Too late.
“Oh dear,” Charity murmured. “Forgive me.”
“Ye missed it again,” Raina groused.
Charity excelled at the game, her inner competitive streak pleased to take the reins. But today, her heart was not in it. Because today, she was filled with knowledge. Carnal knowledge. At last. And also because she was tingling between her thighs and, well,everywhere. And because she could not seem to cease thinking about Neville.
“Perhaps we should concede defeat,” she suggested.
“We are trouncing you!” Clementine called gleefully from the other side of the court.
“Utterly annihilating you,” Melanie, who was her partner, added.
“Clementine and Melanie willnae let us hear the end of it if they win,” Raina grumbled.
“I know.” Charity sighed. “Forgive me, dear friend. I am…distracted.”
Raina bent to retrieve the shuttlecock and then frowned at Charity. “Distracted? I’d say ye arenae even here at all. We’ve scored nary a point, and every time the shuttlecock nears ye, ye stare into the air and let it fall.”
She winced. “I am a terrible badminton partner.”
“Aye, but ye are a good friend. Is there something weighing on yer heart and mind?”
“What are you two chattering about?” Clementine demanded. “We shall be here all afternoon if you keep tarrying.”
