Once out of earshot of her grandmother, however, Charles dropped Wellesley’s arm and launched her offense. He would answer for his actions. She would demand an explanation.
“Why are you truly here, Wells? How did you know where to find me?”
“You know why I am here, Fox,” he answered. “I wish to make you my wife.”
“Nonsense.” His self-assurance was infuriating.
“It is not nonsense.” He looked aggrieved. “I am sincere. If I were not sincere I should have simply flung you over my shoulder and hauled you back to Cumberland with me.”
“You did fling me over your shoulder last night and hauled me here, to the last place on earth I wish to be!”
“So you’d rather be atLeBrecht’sinstead, hawking your wares?”
This gave her pause—for but a moment.
“How did you end up in that . . . that house last night?” she demanded.
“As already mentioned, Charles, Miss Li and I are of longstanding acquaintance. When I arrived in London, without a clue to your whereabouts, I realized finding you would be a needle-in-haystack feat, so I met withMadameand asked her to place an ad I hoped might lure you to apply.”
“Youplaced the ad for shop girl?” She remained as incredulous as he remained insufferable.
“No, Charles, I asked Miss Li to place an ad in hopes that she might ferret you out. It is nigh impossible to find decent employment without a reference in this city, and as I had written you none before you left, I presumed you’d have great difficulty finding another position as housekeeper here in London.”
His subterfuge, his scheming . . . Who the hell did he think he was?
“Unfortunately, you were not the only young woman with a head of red-gold hair to respond to the ad, making Miss Li fill the position before you appeared, though she had the wherewithalto at least offer you a different job in her shop, one I’d have preferred shenotgive you, but needs must.”
He’d muttered that last bit under his breath, looking almost sheepish.
Sheepish was not good enough.
“When she informed me a woman of your name and description was in her employ and being solicited by gentlemen, I had to take matters into my own hands and offer for you myself, as Miss Li remains, above all, a keen businesswoman.”
He’d flinched to say the term, but flinching also was not good enough.
“I could not be certain, either, that her ‘Charlotte’ was my Charles, which is why I needed to take a peek at you first.”
“You took your damn time peeking,” she shot back.
“Your identity was not the only thing I needed to verify, Charles.” Wells’s gaze pierced her a moment before he swallowed, seeming nervous. “I also needed to be sure you didn’t actuallywantto become some other man’s mistress. For all I knew you were enjoying your new position atLeBrecht’s, encouraging clients in hopes one might offer to keep you in finery and set you up comfortably here in London.”
Charles was dumbstruck. “You mean you actually thought me capable of?—?”
“How else could I be certain?” He sounded pained. “You took off in a huff after I proposed marriage, when I expected you’d be pleased by the offer, happy even, as I was happy to imagine us together at last, no longer having to skulk about the Abbey like a pair of furtive?—”
“Because that’s all I ever was to you, Your Grace.” Charles felt bitter to her core, every explanation he had given ringing false. “A fine fuck, do call it what it was, sir. I’ve had enough of your false gallantry.”
***
Wells was appalled. He took her hands in his and dropped to his knee. “Charles, you are infinitely more to me. I’ll admit it was at first perhaps only that—perhaps only that for you, too—but you cannot deny there isn’t more, Fox. I know you feel it too, for if you didn’t, why run like you did? If you truly felt nothing for me, why not accept my suit, if only to enjoy my wealth, like every other grasping debutante?”
“Because I don’t want your wealth!” she cried. “And you never would have deigned to marry me had your mother not found us as she did or known my bloodline. You would have married Miss Mowry and kept mefor sport, when I cannot abide the thought of you in some other woman’s arms, fathering children with her while I . . .”
“Fox.” He pulled her to him, crushing her skirts to his body, gazing up at her from the floor. “I could not abide it either, love. I would never have gone through with it. I’d have let you go, or let her go. I could never have kept you both.”
“Only youwould.” She sniffed, angrily brushing tears from her eyes. “You’d have wanted the best of both. I know you, Roland Wellesley. You are a beast and I am a fool. I am the greatest fool there is for allowing myself ever to fall in love with you.”
And out it had slipped: proof, at last! His heart swelled with joy.
