“I merely wished to speak with you,” she said.
“How fortunate for me, then, that I wished to look at you,” he said.
Charlotte nearly stumbled on the gravel. “You are such a rake.”
“And yet you came searching for me regardless.” He tilted his head toward the winding path. “Walk with me.”
She ought to have refused. Instead, she found herself falling into step beside him as though her feet had ceased belonging to her entirely. The hedges towered around them, shielding the path from the manor windows, and Charlotte became painfully aware of how private the garden suddenly felt.
Victor glanced sideways at her. “Well then, Miss Brown, what grave matter brings you here?”
Charlotte folded her hands tightly together. “Lady Elizabeth wished me to inform you that she shall accompany me tomorrow.”
“To where?”
“To the tailors in Bond Street,” Charlotte replied. “My sisters require new gowns for the season, and Lady Elizabeth has decided she would also like a new dress for the opening ball.”
Victor stopped so abruptly that Charlotte nearly walked into him. “No.”
She blinked. “No?”
“She is not attending a ball,” he said.
Charlotte frowned at once. “You have not even heard the entirety of what I wished to say.”
“I heard enough.” His voice sharpened. “The opera was manageable because we sat privately in our box for most of the evening. A ball is entirely different.”
Charlotte crossed her arms. “You cannot keep her hidden away forever.”
“I am not hiding her away,” he replied.
“You are confining her; it is the same thing,” Charlotte said.
Victor’s jaw clenched. “I am protecting her.”
“From what?” Charlotte demanded. “Society? Conversation? Happiness?”
“Humiliation,” he answered flatly. “The last thing I shall allow is for my grandmother to become the object of cruel whispers.”
Charlotte softened slightly at the tension in his voice, but only slightly.
“She was happy at Hyde Park,” Charlotte argued. “She smiled the entire day.”
“She also announced our engagement to half of London, and before that she called a man her husband,” Victor said sternly.
“That is hardly a tragedy,” Charlotte said.
“It is for me. I value honor, Miss Brown, and I will have it for every member of my family,” he said.
Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “You are very dramatic for a man who pretends to feel nothing.”
Victor gave a low laugh. “And you are very bold for a woman who constantly tells herself she dislikes me.”
“I do dislike you.”
“Liar.”
Her cheeks warmed furiously. “You are insufferable.”
