Chapter Twenty
Rage overshadowed any defeat Adam warred with when he stepped into their family drawing room to the sight of his brother and his mother arguing.
“Life abroad was ever so difficult,” David complained.
“Then why did you leave? If it was so difficult, why didn’t you return?”
“There were circumstances…”
Circumstances?
Adam wanted to laugh.
His mother had always been blind to David’s sins. Did she really think David would just leave because he wanted to leave?
Miss Martin, who Adam just noticed, scooted closer to his brother. “You are much handsomer than I remember, David.”
Adam rolled his eyes. Hard.
“Thank you, Miss Martin.”
“How accomplished you are, traveling abroad and seeing to your own needs.”
Adam crossed his arms. “Oh, and what exactly did you pay for?” That didn’t come from the family coffers you stole? But he would never voice that out loud in front of his mother, no matter how much he wanted to.
David arched his brow. “Why, for the whole house, of course.”
“What house?” Adam pressed.
“I purchased a small chateau in Provence. It’s an investment for the family, of course. Mother ought to come and visit to see how much I’ve put into it.”
For the family? Oh please! So that was why he was swindling money from them. Again. He might have bought a house in Provence, but it would not have been for this family. David was much too selfish, much too greedy for that.
“How accomplished!” Miss Martin exclaimed, and his mother nodded along.
“Accomplished? There are hundreds of people depending on me. Over three hundred families directly connected to my estate and countless more in the region whose livelihoods depend on how I manage their affairs.” His eyes bored into his brother. And you are stealing from them.
“How overly dramatic, Adam,” David said. “As always.”
“Is stealing money from the family dramatic?” Adam demanded before he could rein in his tongue.
“What are you talking about?” his mother said with a frown marring her brows.
“I’m saying I would never steal money for the family to build an immoral love nest in France of all places! Why not send money to Napoleon directly? David is the worst kind of traitor for the family name, and I am ashamed to look like him.”
“Adam!” his mother exclaimed, leaping to her feet. “I forbid you to speak about your brother that way!”
Forbid? Such an interesting little word.
But Adam couldn’t help himself. David had returned to London, ruined all the trust he had rebuilt with Charlene, and now he was worming his way back into his life, his house, like nothing ever happened.
Charlene’s red-rimmed eyes flashed in his mind.
The pompous Henry Grafton.
The words David had spewed to him before the hotel.
He would never forgive his brother.
Never.
“Why? Why would I want to resemble a man who tried to force his attentions on an innocent woman? Why should I want to be the brother of a man who steals from the farmers who have supported the lavish lifestyles of this do-no-good for almost three decades?”
More importantly, how could the world be so blind to who David truly was?
Adam, for one, would never want to be near the man who disrespected a wonderful woman like Charlene Fielding. Never. Ever.
He didn’t say the last part.
Not with Miss Martin in the room. She was a way to send David away without causing Mother too much heartache.
Not with his mother taking David’s side. He didn’t want any unwelcome and dangerous attention on her. She had suffered enough.
“David Cross is no brother of mine.” His eyes narrowed on David. “You are not welcome in my house. Get out.”
He turned on his heel and slammed the door in his wake.
*
Charlene settled on her bed, pressing a cool cloth to her forehead and shutting her eyes, willing the ache behind her temples to retreat.
It had been a wretched afternoon with David’s return, Adam’s deceit, and Mr. Grafton’s being placed in the middle of it all.
The events all clawed at her nerves until she fled to her chambers.
Sanctuary, at last.
Or it had been—until her door crashed open. Her eyes snapped open as Maddie and Ashley hurtled in like twin cannonballs.
Charlene mumbled to herself, the ache in her temples flaring.
“Char!” Maddie cried, nearly tripping over the hem of her gown in her haste. “We are so glad you are here!”
“Yes, and unharmed,” Ashley said, flinging herself onto the foot of Charlene’s bed.
Unharmed?
Why wouldn’t she be unharmed?
“What are you talking about?” She lowered the cloth and glared at them. “And can you please mind your voices. My brain is trying to split my head in half.”
“Apologies,” they both chirped, softer this time.
“But this is important,” Maddie said, rather urgently. “There are whispers going about.”
“Whispers?” Was this about David’s return?
Was that what they meant? But Charlene had never told them about her shameful past. Not because she didn’t trust them, but she truly did feel ashamed forever believing David had a good bone in his body.
She was also supremely ashamed she’d allowed that deception to happen to her.
That she trusted the wrong man. If she hadn’t been so trusting, none of it would have happened…
and yet, the fact that it did shed light on who the better man was.
Somewhere in her heart, Charlene had always known.
But she’d needed confirmation of Adam’s attention to her.
Which seemed to be the theme of her life.
Trusting the wrong men.
“Were you near a hotel today?” Ashley asked.
Charlene stilled, dread forming in the pit of her stomach. “Why?”
“So that’s a yes,” Maddie said, nodding.
Charlene sat up slowly, the pounding in her temples intensifying. “Yes. I was. Now tell me.” Before her heart climbed from her throat!
Ashley sighed. “Someone saw you. In Vauxhall. With David Cross.”
Maddie nodded, her curls bouncing with each one.
Very well. They saw her. That didn’t mean anything. “So, they saw me.”
“It’s also being said you fled from a man like a—what was it?” Maddie asked.
“A hare being pursued by a wolf,” Ashley supplied.
Charlene’s mouth twisted. “How poetic.” David certainly was a wolf. And not the romantic, good kind. The evil, sadistic kind, more like.
“It’s most likely going to be in the papers tomorrow,” Maddie said, voice dropping to a whisper as though the walls might be listening.
So it had come to this.
Charlene dropped her face into her hands with a groan. She could already picture it: her name smeared across every scandal sheet, whispered in drawing rooms and behind fluttering fans. She would be labeled reckless. Perhaps even compromised. Tainted.
Tainted.
Adam could never pursue a woman who had even the faintest hint of scandal clinging to her. And she—Charlene squeezed her eyes shut—she would never be anything but a stain on his spotless lineage.
Well, not so spotless. But most men could weather storms of scandal. Women could not.
Even if he had wanted her—which, she thought he did—he could not have her now. Not a duke. Not a man with big duties to be fulfilled.
And truth be told, part of her still seethed with his betrayal. Adam had suspected David’s return, had hidden it from her. Perhaps he had been trying to protect her, but it had left her unprepared, exposed all the same.
Better to lose him now, before the dream grew any sweeter.
Better not to hope.
Charlene drew a shuddering breath. “Very well,” she said coolly. “I shall simply have to endure exile with as much grace as I can muster.”
Ashley stared at her. “You cannot possibly intend to simply accept this. You were going to meet Adam, were you not? He needs to step up and take responsibility. And why on earth would you run from him? Did he do something to you?”
“I didn’t run from him,” Charlene admitted. “I ran from his brother. David Cross.”
“David Cross?” Maddie murmured. “Why would you run from him?”
“Because he hurt me.” And then Charlene explained what happened to her that fateful, nightmarish night. From the almost engagement, his sweet smiles, to the moment he had tried to take what he wanted, and she refused. What happened after. And now he was back.
Tears had sprung to both her friends’ eyes, and their faces had turned rather pale. Charlene didn’t want that. She didn’t want them to pity her. “I am here, and I got through it. So, I shall have none of your pity.”
“We don’t pity you,” Ashley said, her face resuming color before turning to bright red. “I shall kill him for you. No, Linsey shall kill him for you. I cannot believe scum like him returned to London! How dare he!”
“I agree. I know where to find hemlock if you ever need a dose,” Maddie said darkly.
Charlene suddenly laughed. Her world was seemingly crumbling around her, but she still had her friends. In the grand scheme of things, that was all she needed.
And yet still, her heart throbbed with the same intensity as her temples. No good would come of her being seen today. But it was hard to tell how things would spiral. At the moment, with all the aches in her body, it was also hard to care.
But one thing she did know.
She didn’t want to live in a city where that horrible creature prowled.
“Pox on all Crosses anyway,” Ashley announced. “Who needs them when there is a pool of good, fine gentlemen in the world?”
Maddie chuckled, joining them on the bed.
Charlene found herself laughing, too. Short, sharp bursts that teetered on the edge of tears. Oh, it hurt, loving and losing all at once. But at least, among her friends, it didn’t feel quite so heavy.
She tossed the cloth aside and pushed to her feet, squaring her shoulders.
“If I must be a scandal,” she said grandly, “then by Jove, I shall face it with my head held high.”
Ashley grinned and clapped her hands.
Maddie wiped her eyes. “There’s our Charlene.”
Yet deep inside, where no laughter could reach, Charlene felt something shatter. Quietly. Irreparably. Forever.