“The break was an accident?”
“Do not spread that around. I have a reputation at the Club.” He gave me a sideways glance, but I didn’t think it was very funny. Why would Charlie let Society go on thinking he’d broken a man’s arm? There were too many holes in his story. And I needed to fill them.
“Then why did your father cut you off?” I winced.Too forward, Rosalind.
But Charlie seemed unaffected by my prodding. “Well, for one, I did not tellhimit was an accident.”
“Charlie,” I reprimanded, shifting in my seat. “Whatdidyou tell your father?”
“That I liked fighting. It makes me feel successful and fulfilled.”
“And he said?”
“That if I gave our estate as much notice as I did the Club, I could feel just as successful and fulfilled there.”
I watched him carefully. Did he hear the wisdom in his father’s words? “That is interesting advice.”
He pursed his lips. “He does not understand.”
“Understand what?”
Charlie only shook his head. We sat in silence for a time, save for the gentle hum of our family’s voices and Liza’s melodies in the air. I waited. Waited for him to decide to tell me whatever he was keeping locked inside. I wanted him to share his fears and secrets as openly as I had.
He cleared his throat and forced a smile. “What is next on your list?”
I rounded on him, unsatisfied. “I thought we were supposed to be friends.” I gave him a face that said,If you think you can hide from me, you are mistaken.
He drew in a breath. “My life is complicated.”
“And mine is not?” I almost snorted.
He swallowed and looked down, and I felt instantly contrite for pushing him to confide in me. “Forgive me.”
His eyes met mine, and he held them, willing me to hear his words. “I am not a perfect man.”
“I know.”
He nodded, then fiddled with his sleeve. “They all expect me to fail. And they are not wrong. I’ll never be as good for the estate as Henry would have been. I shall make a mess of everything.”
“A mess that you shall fix with practice.”
He looked at me for a long moment, then frowned. “I have already disappointed them. The pain I have caused by abandoning them, and so soon after Henry’s death, is unforgivable. I neglected my family and wasted too much time. My mother, my sisters, even my father deserve better.”
“Thenbe better.”
He looked heavenward with obvious disbelief and perhaps a little annoyance. “It is not that simple.”
“Itisthat simple.”
“Perhaps for someone like you.” He stared out the window. Frustration seemed to overpower him, but the fear in his eyes remained. He feared failure. The strong man in the grove who never lost a mill feared disappointing his family most of all. “All you must do to please your family is marry the man they present to you.”
I reared back at the bite in his tone. “You think that such an easy feat?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Your family is in raptures over the match.Youspeak only of how wonderful the duke is, as though the man was without flaw. I daresay the entire town envies how perfect andeasythis must be for you, but if anyone stopped and looked closely enough, they’d see the truth.”
My heart fell to my toes. “What truth?”
Charlie’s posture changed from forlorn to tense and angry. “That you aremiserable. You do not want to marry the duke. Perhaps you are aiding your family, but you are failing yourself. And you’re a fool to not forecast what that might mean for you in years to come.”
