“You are becoming dangerous to me, Charlotte,” he murmured quietly.
She pulled back just enough to look at him in confusion. Victor only kissed her again before she could ask what he meant, because he was not yet ready to speak the truth aloud.
Every hour spent beside her loosens another brick from the walls I have built around myself for years.
CHAPTER 23
The carriage rolled steadily while Victor sat rigid upon the velvet seat across from Charlotte. Every jolt of the wheels echoed unpleasantly through his body, tightening the muscles in his shoulders until they ached.
Sunlight flickered through the carriage windows, yet Victor scarcely noticed any of it. His attention remained fixed upon keeping his breathing steady and ignoring the old memories clawing at the edges of his mind.
Charlotte sat beside him, dressed in a pale sage gown trimmed with cream lace, her gloved hands folded neatly in her lap. She kept glancing toward him with quiet concern, she was attempting, and failing, to hide. Victor appreciated the effort even as it irritated him slightly. He did not wish for her pity.
“You are clenching your jaw again,” Charlotte said softly.
Victor exhaled slowly through his nose. “Am I?”
“Yes.” Her lips twitched faintly. “You appear as though you are preparing to fight the carriage itself.”
He snorted despite himself. “If the carriage attempts anything treacherous, I shall certainly win.”
Charlotte laughed quietly, and the sound eased something taut inside him.
“You are doing very well,” she said gently.
“Do not speak to me as though I am a frightened child.”
“I would never dare,” she replied with suspicious innocence. “You are far too terrifying for that.”
Victor shot her a narrow look that only made her smile widen.
Good God, when had I begun enjoying these conversations so much?
There had once been a time when silence suited him perfectly well. Now he found himself waiting for Charlotte’s voice merely to distract himself from his own thoughts.
Victor’s gloved hand tightened briefly against his knee when the carriage rounded a sharper turn. Instantly, Charlotte’s fingers brushed lightly against his wrist.
“It is all right,” she murmured.
Victor glanced toward her. Her expression was soft, not pitying but understanding, and somehow that made enduring this easier. Years ago, he would have rather walked ten miles through rain than willingly sit inside a carriage again. Yet here he was, enduring every miserable second because Charlotte had asked him to.
He found that profoundly unsettling.
Charlotte seemed to sense his spiralling thoughts because she immediately began speaking again as though to distract him.
“Elizabeth was terribly pleased this morning.”
Victor leaned back slightly against the squabs. “Indeed?”
“Mm. Hannah told her that we would be going out together alone in society, and she looked as delighted.”
Victor huffed quietly. “Grandmother has become entirely too invested in our marriage.”
Charlotte’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “She simply enjoys seeing you happy.”
“I was not aware I looked particularly happy.”
Charlotte tilted her head thoughtfully. “You glare less now.”
