“I see,” he said carefully.
Charlotte swallowed. “She seemed so happy speaking of great-grandchildren.”
Victor looked away first. “Grandmother enjoys fantasies.”
Pain flickered through her chest. “Is that all they are?”
His jaw tightened visibly.
“Charlotte,” he began quietly, “we discussed this before.”
“No,” she said softly. “You declared it before.”
His gaze snapped back to hers.
Victor stood abruptly and moved away from the bed, tension radiating from him now. “I have no intention of having children.”
The bluntness of it struck her like a slap.
Charlotte stared at him in silence while he poured himself a drink with slightly unsteady hands.
“We can prevent it,” he continued tightly. “As long as we are careful, there is no reason for it to happen.”
No reason?
The words hollowed something inside her.
Charlotte lowered her gaze to her lap because suddenly she feared he might see the heartbreak written plainly across her face. She had entered his room tonight hopeful and yearning and foolishly happy merely to be near him again. Now it felt as though the future she secretly longed for had been quietly snatched away.
“You make it sound like children are some terrible affliction,” she whispered.
Victor closed his eyes briefly. “You do not understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
He did not answer.
The silence that followed hurt more than any harsh words could have.
Finally Victor turned back toward her, his expression softer now but no less firm. “Can it not simply be enough,” he asked quietly, “for it to be the two of us?”
Charlotte’s throat tightened painfully.
Because part of her wanted desperately to say yes.
Part of her believed she cared for him enough to accept anything he offered.
But another part, the frightened girl who had always dreamed of a family of her own, was grieving.
“I do not know,” she admitted honestly.
Victor went still.
Charlotte rose slowly from the bed, wrapping her robe tighter around herself as though it might somehow hold her together. “I think…” Her voice faltered slightly. “I think I need time to sort through my thoughts.”
His eyes darkened immediately. “Charlotte, ”
“I should like to stay with my family for a little while.”
