“An excellent idea,” Mr. Agerson said. “Now if you will please give me an address where you may be reached.”
Charlotte promptly gave her address which he wrote down. “Thank you for your time, sir. I am extremely glad you agreed to meet with me.”
“Of course, Miss Russell.” His features eased a fraction as he stood to say farewell. “I will be in touch with you soon.”
“Well,” Charlotte said once she and Blayne were back in the carriage with Daisy. “That didn’t exactly go as well as I’d hoped, but I suppose it could have gone a lot worse.”
“Ye handled yerself perfectly in there,” Blayne said. “I’m proud of ye, Miss Russell. Most women in yer position would have had a fit of hysterics.”
Heat filled Charlotte’s cheeks. “Thank you, Mr. MacNeil. Staying calm wasn’t easy, but Mr. Agerson had a fair point. He doesn’t have any reason to trust us over the man who gave himself out to be me.”
“True. But we have no reason to trust Mr. Agerson either.”
“Perhaps not, but we’ve little other choice.”
Blayne didn’t look pleased. “Doesnae mean I have to like it.”
Charlotte chuckled. There was something so charming about him when he was eager to help but didn’t know how. She loved him all the more for it – for caring even though he insisted he didn’t. They were heading toward the intersection on Oxford Street where he would be dropped off before she continued onward to her home. While their outing had gone well, it wasn’t enough. She wanted more – more time with him – another chance to find a way toward a shared future.
Recalling how adamant he’d been about cutting ties with her when they’d spoken last night, she opened the window and called out, “Driver, we’d like to change course, please. Take us to Parker’s Lane instead.”
“Aye, miss,” the driver noted.
“What are ye doing?” Blayne asked when she leaned back inside the carriage and shut the window. He shot a slightly panicked look at Daisy before meeting Charlotte’s gaze. “Ye cannae be meaning to come back to The Black Swan with me.”
“That is precisely what I mean to do,” Charlotte told him firmly. “You and I need to talk.”
“I thought we did enough of that last night,” he grumbled.
“You certainly made every effort to push me away.”
“For good reason. Charlotte…” He glanced at Daisy once more and cleared his throat. Exasperation puckered his brow as he blew out a breath. “Miss Russell. I hold ye in the highest regard, but ye and I are from two different worlds and—”
“You said I didn’t know all there was to know about you. You told me you were worse than I could possibly imagine – that you’ve done something so terrible it would prevent me from loving you if I knew.” She stared at him, her heart pounding for the man she wanted and the possibilities he threatened to throw away for reasons she didn’t understand. “So tell me. Tell me what it is and let me choose for myself.”
He crossed his arms and averted his gaze. A muscle ticked at the edge of his jaw. “Have ye no respect for my privacy?”
“Not when it concerns my future and the one chance I have of being truly happy.”
Closing his eyes, he expelled a breath through his nose. When he spoke again, his voice was soft and even. “Before ye met me, ye believed happiness hinged on a cottage somewhere in the countryside, in a place where ye could build a retreat for like-minded women. If I recall, ye said this had been yer dream for years. It’s why ye saved every penny ye earned on yer books, and yet now, within the span of a few weeks, ye wish to abandon yer plans in order to what? Marry me and live happily ever after somewhere? Well it’s nae going to happen. I willnae marry, ye, Miss Russell.”
“So you’ve said,” she snapped and crossed her arms.
“And yet ye’ve gotten it into yer head that ye’re able to change my mind. Is that it?”
“I just don’t see why you won’t consider a more permanent attachment to me.”
“Because,” he said, leaning forward with flint in his eyes, “I dinnae love ye.”
Daisy gasped and Charlotte instinctively placed a steadying hand on her arm for fear she might interfere. The words cut deep, of course they did, though not nearly as much as his decision to make her believe she was nothing more to him than a bit of fun he could simply move on from.
Straightening her spine, she narrowed her gaze. “You’re lying to me again.”
Anger and something else – something wrought with pain and fear – flashed in his eyes. “Nae,” he said, his voice a harsh murmur, “I’d never do that.”
“Tell me what you’re hiding,” Charlotte insisted. “Tell me what it is you don’t want me to know.”
The carriage drew to a halt. They’d arrived and she hadn’t learned one additional thing.
