“They think we are lying,” Charlotte said.
“They think we are flirting,” Victor replied.
Charlotte made a distressed sound beneath her breath. “This is a disaster.”
Victor glanced sideways at her. “You are taking this surprisingly seriously for a woman who accidentally became engaged in Hyde Park.”
She frowned sharply. “You are enjoying this far too much for a man supposedly desperate to avoid matrimony.”
I'll ignore that. Mostly because she is not entirely wrong.
Over the next quarter hour, Victor attempted repeatedly to clarify matters. Unfortunately, every explanation only seemed to convince society further that the engagement existed. His grandmother spent her time mingling nearby, but not with Victor and Charlotte, which only made them look more like a couple.
“Miss Brown serves as my grandmother’s companion,” Victor said to yet another aristocrat.
“How… delightful,” the man said hesitantly.
“There is no engagement,” Victor said sternly. “My grandmother is confused.”
“Ah yes, naturally,” the aristocrat said.
Charlotte’s expression grew more pained with each interaction. Victor, meanwhile, found himself drifting steadily from annoyance toward reluctant amusement. The ton clearly believed the pair of them played some elaborate romantic game. Nobody looked suspicious or scandalized. If anything, society seemed charmed by the entire situation.
Which is frankly absurd.
Victor turned just in time to spot Elizabeth conversing happily with Lady Whitmore and two elderly gentlemen near the staircase.
“And naturally,” Elizabeth announced proudly, “Victor finally proposed.”
Victor stopped walking immediately. Charlotte froze beside him.
Lady Whitmore gasped delightedly. “At last!”
One of the gentlemen laughed. “About time, Mulford.”
Charlotte covered her eyes briefly with one gloved hand. Victor exhaled slowly through clenched teeth.
“This is impossible,” he muttered.
Charlotte lowered her hand miserably. “I am so sorry. It seems in denying it we are only giving them something else to talk about.”
“It is hardly your fault, no need to apologize. I allowed this charade to go on for the sake of my grandmother, and now I must suffer the consequences,” he said.
He watched as Charlotte's smile fell from his face.
Suffer the consequences… Why did I word it in such a cruel way?
Though some bitter part of him wondered if they would ever untangle this disaster now. Everywhere he looked, people smiled approvingly at Charlotte. Gentlemen bowed too low. Older ladies examined her with growing approval. Young debutantes whispered jealousy behind fans.
And increasingly, Victor noticed the men. That became another problem entirely. A blond viscount lingered too long during introductions. A younger lord stared openly at Charlotte while pretending to listen to Victor speak. One particularly irritating baron smiled at her with enough admiration to make Victor irrationally annoyed.
Ridiculous. She is merely an employee, and they admire her as though she is an heiress.
Victor frowned faintly at the sudden unpleasant feeling twisting low in his stomach.
Jealousy? No, absurd.
He did not want Charlotte. Certainly not in any permanent or meaningful sense. She merely intrigued him because she argued with him constantly and remained strangely unimpressed by his title.
