“And then when I return,” Charlotte continued for her. “You think I should present my gift and ask him once more to allow for a future?”
Her mother nodded. “Yes. He is a good man, and a good match for you. You’re of a similar temperament, he makes you smile, you seem to lighten him. That is what a mother wants for her daughter. Plus, he’s rich as Croesus and has a fine title to boot.”
Charlotte tilted her head back and laughed at her mother’s mercenary finish to her heartfelt sentiment. “Well, he is that, I suppose. It’s good to know you are still sharp as a sword when it comes to finding good matches for your children.”
Her mother smiled, but Charlotte thought she sensed trouble in her stare. “I want what is best for you,” she said. “That is all I’ve ever wanted. If you can be happy while you have what is best, then all the better.”
Charlotte wiped at her eyes and drew a long breath. “Very well, I will try your plan, Mama. Should we go to town then?”
“Yes,” her mother said. “I’ll fetch my wrap and then off we’ll go.”
Charlotte squeezed her mother’s hand before the duchess departed the room to get her things. Once she was alone, Charlotte moved to the window and stared out at the sea once more. As volatile as it was, there was beauty to it. Allure that could not be denied. The same felt true when it came to Ewan and the risk she would take later today when she asked him once more for the heart he so carefully guarded.
She only hoped she would not end up dashed on the rocks.
Chapter Eighteen
Ewan had been left alone with his thoughts for slightly more than an hour when his study door opened and Matthew and Baldwin joined him. He was sitting in front of the fire when they came in, and looked up with a slight shake of his head as he reached for the notepad on the table beside him.
“You waited longer than I thought you would,” he wrote.
Matthew read the note out loud as Baldwin got the two of them drinks. He laughed. “Well, that would be my mother’s doing. She thought you needed some time to think before we invaded your office.”
Ewan nodded slowly, taking the notebook back. He wrote, “And she didn’t join you for that invasion?”
“No,” Baldwin said as he flopped himself across from Ewan with a sigh. “I think she assumed we might want to call you an ass, or worse, and she didn’t wish for us to have to watch our language in front of her.”
Ewan turned his face and stared once more into the flames as he waited for the berating to begin. Instead, Baldwin leaned forward, elbows draped over his knees. He touched Ewan’s arm and force him to look at him.
“You love her,” he said softly.
Ewan nodded. There was no denying it. He didn’t even want to anymore.
Matthew’s eyebrows lifted. “I’m happy you admit it. But do you intend to push her away?”
Ewan scribbled, “No! That is the thing about it. I actually have no intention of turning her away. Not this time.”
Sheffield sagged a little in his chair, relief over his features. “Thank God. I really wasn’t looking forward to calling you out at dawn for breaking my sister’s heart. Then why the argument in the foyer? Why hole up here in your study for an hour, sulking?”
Ewan glared at him, though he could hardly deny the charge. “Seeing my brothers and my mother brought back strong memories,” he admitted. “It’s hard not to carry that on my back.”
Both his friends softened considerably and Ewan was pleased that it was Baldwin who spoke first. “I cannot imagine. To be honest, I’d almost forgotten how awful that lot can be. Seeing it today, I wanted to put my fist through someone’s face.”
“What Charlotte asked me when we were arguing in the foyer was why her love wasn’t more powerful than my father’s hate.” Ewan hesitated and wrote a bit more. “That hurt me. But it hurt because I recognized it’s true. I’ve spent my life allowing his words and his actions to dictate all my own. I’ve spent the last hour here thinking about what I’ve avoided or thrown away because of him. And what I intend to do about it now.”
“And what do you intend to do?” Matthew asked.
He sighed. “I intend to…”He hesitated again as he tried to find the right phrasing. “…to live. Out in the open. I’ve hidden a long time.”
Matthew nodded. “I know a bit about hiding.”
Ewan reached out and squeezed his cousin’s arm. No one knew loss and grief more than Matthew. Ewan had seen him through many a dark night after the loss of his fiancée. Death was so very permanent in what it stole.
But what Ewan faced didn’t have to be. He’d lost Charlotte once, but fate had brought her back. To throw away his chance a second time was…well, it made him the very fool his father had accused him of being.
“I meant to ask Charlotte to marry me when we returned from our visit with the tenants today, thinking that I would bring her into my world. That we could live here where we’d be protected. But now I realize that what I must do is allow her to draw me to her life. To the world I’ve avoided so long.” Ewan wrote slowly, keeping an eye on Baldwin as he did so. “And if you will consent, Baldwin, I still intend to do so.”
Matthew read the note out loud and Baldwin began to smile. “I long ago learned that my sister is capable of making her own decisions without even thinking of me. But if it is my consent you need, you know you have it. From the bottom of my heart. Marry my sister.”
