She glanced to the side and gave a halfhearted chuckle. “You are correct. Christopher has never attended frequently, and neither have I. When I have, it has always felt like the preacher was lecturing, not actually connecting with God. I do admit that the sermons of your friend Mr. Laurence are better than most, and I get to see Rebekah when there. But still.” She blew an errant bit of stray hair from her eyes, “If God exists, He doesn’t care about me.”
“Oh, Charlotte. I know how it feels to seem forgotten or alone, but I can tell you that while God doesn’t take every stumbling block out of our paths, He often provides a way we don’t see that will bring happiness. But we must first trust Him.” Alex’s eyes filled with light as he stared at her.
His words were beautiful, and the warmth of his hand in hers made Charlotte want to believe him. But as Penny shook her mane, Charlotte found she still questioned the truth of them. “How can you be so sure?” she asked.
“I was saved in the mines. I almost died there. I was with Moxham and his brother, and I couldn’t save them both. My failure tore at me for years. Then I found a way to be an overseer, then the head of acquisitions, and now, as you know, I manage the Alnwick Mine. Every good thing proves to me there is a God. I had fallen so low on account of my family’s circumstance that there’s no way I could be where I am today without God’s help.”
This insight into who Alex was made her care about him even more. Helped herlovehim even more. She did love him. She sighed. He was sharing his past, his beliefs, little bits of his soul, and she felt honored to be a part of it.
“I... like that,” she managed. Could she say the same of her trials and successes? “I’ve never looked at all the good in my life that way. I am truly blessed, I realize. I have so much to be grateful for, even if I feel like Christopher and my parents don’t really value or care about me.”
Pain creased Alex’s brow. “It makes my blood boil to think how poorly your brother treats you, how much he stifles you.” His free hand balled into a fist. “He doesn’t realize the good you do, how intelligent you are, what you are capable of.” His face pulled into a scowl. Charlotte pulled her hand away from his and raised her fingers to smooth the wrinkles from his brow. At her touch, he stilled and smiled. She brushed her fingers against his smooth-shaven jaw, trying to memorize its contours.
“Charlotte, there is something you must know.” He heaved a breath. “I intend to spend every moment we have together from here forward helping you realize how wonderful you are, how much God loves you, and...” He turned his head toward her and whispered, “how much I love you.” He took her hand and kissed it.
Heat soared from her hand to her neck. She touched her warm throat with her free hand. “Oh my. I didn’t expect our ride to be so eventful.” She laughed through her shy smile. She hadn’t expected him to say helovedher. She swallowed. “I... love you too.”
Silence crackled between them, and the look in his eyes almost overcame her.
He caressed her hand with this thumb, and she sighed. “Now that we understand each other, we just need a way to convince my family.”
“Exactly,” he said, squeezing her hand once more before he took up his reins. “We ought to begin soon. I can speak with your brother when he returns. Somehow I will convince him to allow me to court you. I’m nothing if not persistent. When he sees I won’t go away, when I prove my worth...”
Then he leaned next to her, so close that they touched again, and she could smell his minty scent and feel his breath on her cheek. With one gentle movement, he tucked a tendril of her hair behind her ear and whispered, “I want you to know I won’t ever give up.”
Charlotte had never felt so full of hope. She wanted to alight from her horse and run and scream, declaring to every silent tree in that forest that Alexander Jenkins wanted her, and she wanted him back. But the feeling of his lips on her skin was so new, so unexpected, and yet so right that she froze in her spot and tried to soak it in. He pulled back a fraction, enough to catch her eye, and she glanced up at him from under her lashes.
He reached over and brushed another stray lock under her bonnet, and his hand lingered on her cheek. “It is a mighty good thing you established rules,” he teased, “for I dearly long for both of us to dismount our horses so I might kiss you properly.”
Charlotte laughed and shook her head. “I am a woman of principle.”
Alex nodded. “That’s why I like you.”
Charlotte smiled at him, and then her eyes caught hold of something over his shoulder. The hill crested a little, and she noticed a solitary rider galloping into view on the main road.
Charlotte reined in Penny instinctively. They’d strayed far from the road but not far enough to be completely hidden if the rider was aware of the landscape at all. The black stallion with a white spot above its front left hoof could only mean one thing. Christopher was back.
Alex seemed to sense danger and guided his horse farther into the woods. “Your brother,” he breathed.
“Perhaps he didn’t see you. You must leave now. If he were to find us here, it might ruin any chances of reconciliation.”
Alex nodded and pulled his reins tight just as Charlotte heard hoofbeats pounding toward them.
“Charlotte?” Christopher’s voice bellowed over the trees. His dark horse shot into the small alcove. “Charlotte!” He pulled back the reins and stopped his horse in the woods, craning his neck to find her. “Did I just see you alone with a gentleman?”
Every part of her body tensed, her teeth clenching hard enough to send a frisson of pain up the sides of her temples.
“Answer me, Charlotte,” he yelled.
“I am here,” she responded. She urged Penny forward enough that he could see her horse. “And yes, I was with someone. We had but a brief conversation, and I am returning home.”
He squared his mount and looked directly at her. “If my eyes haven’t deceived me, he looked suspiciously like Jenkins.”
She swallowed. So he had seen them. Alex emerged from the dark shadows of the wood. He hadn’t left? Charlotte had been so preoccupied with listening to her brother draw nearer that she must have missed that Alex had remained. Why hadn’t he fled?
“You are right,” Alex said, sitting tall. “Your sister is an intelligent, capable, respectable woman, and we were merely having a conversation. I was just about to be on my way.”
“Is that right?” Christopher’s eyes glinted like onyx.
