Chapter 34 #2
Oh dear. It was hard not to adore a man who adored cards.
The dowager slapped down the opening card and the game began.
Charlotte played her king to clear out the ace, but it went around and she took the first trick.
Ah. That meant that her hunch was likely right and Elizabeth held the ace, so Charlotte threw down another heart.
Together, they cleared out the trumps and started in on the other suits, handily winning the leg.
“Well played,” said Wolfgang.
“Thank you,” said Elizabeth, but Charlotte made a face as she swept up the cards.
Warrick’s eyebrows rose. “Has a simple compliment aroused your ire, Lady Charlotte?”
Charlotte dealt and then flipped the last card to reveal diamonds as the trump suit. “Elizabeth and I both had strong hands and it took very little strategy to win. Do you think women ought to be congratulated for mere competence?”
“Not at all.” He lifted his cards and buried his grin in his hand.
The only strength in Charlotte’s second hand was that she had three diamonds to the king jack, just enough to make a little mischief. She led a club and Wolfgang took the trick with only a ten, which made the dowager cackle. “Oh, they’re running scared now!”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps we’re lulling you into a false sense of security,” said Charlotte.
But Wolfgang and the dowager took the leg, losing only three tricks.
“No congratulations?” Wolfgang said as he gathered up the cards for his deal.
“Of course!” Charlotte turned to Elizabeth. “Congratulations, partner, on recognizing that we didn’t have the cards to put up a defense and not losing heart over it.”
“Congratulations to you,” said Elizabeth, “on remembering we live to fight another day.”
Wolfgang shook his head. “Lady Alice, we’re playing against a pair of minxes.”
“I’m well aware.”
Charlotte turned her attention to the next hand, ignoring the way his voice rumbled through her belly like a little earthquake. Her belly really ought to have more dignity. Or, because dignity had never been her strong suit, her belly at least ought to have more pride.
Wolfgang’s leg shifted beneath the table, his thigh pressing quite deliberately against her knee as he played his card. The thin silk of his stockings clung to his powerful calves, his breeches pulled tight against the hard muscles of his—
Oh, good God, he was egging her on. Charlotte caught his eyes, bit back a laugh, and bashed her knee into his.
“What is happening?” cried the dowager when the table hopped.
“We’re playing cards.” Charlotte kept her face straight as she looked at the score sheet. “That’s one game for each of us, though we took more tricks in the first leg. Elizabeth, I do believe we’re winning.”
Wolfgang’s thigh ventured over to her again, but this time she stretched out her leg and rubbed her calf against his like a cat. He arched an eyebrow at her and she smiled—and ground her heel into his toes.
“Your Grace! What was that noise?” cried the dowager. “Are you all right?”
“I am.” His lips twitched, though he spoke quite gravely. “I survived the brutal assault your granddaughter launched on my toes.”
That caught Lady Skeffington’s attention. “Don’t tell me they’ve found a way to turn whist violent?”
Charlotte collapsed into laughter. “Warrick, you tattletale! If you faced down Napoleon’s army, surely you can face down my slipper?”
His eyes gleamed. “I find you infinitely more dangerous than Napoleon.”
Charlotte had to duck her head so he couldn’t see how the comment pleased her.
The dowager sniffed. “Elizabeth, dear, I can see you’re the only sensible one at the table. Ignore them both and deal the cards.”
The foursome played for two more hours, trading tricks and insults as the candles sputtered down, Lady Skeffington led the other young women to bed, and Lysander and Marby trotted off to the cellars in search of Julian’s private wine reserve.
“Who deals next?” asked Charlotte.
“Not I.” The dowager yawned and pushed back from the table. “In fact, that was my last hand. At this hour, it becomes a game of stamina rather than wits.”
“I admit I’m also rather tired,” said Elizabeth.
“Shall I help you upstairs, Gran?”
But the dowager turned to Wolfgang. “Your Grace, might you lend me your arm? I’m afraid my bones get terribly stiff when I’m up this late.”
Charlotte’s eyes narrowed. “You do recall I’ve escorted you to bed every other night, Gran?”
Wolfgang ignored her, rising to his feet. “It would be a pleasure, Lady Alice.”
“Oh, good. Charlotte, dear, take his other arm. We can all make our way upstairs together.”
Charlotte knew she’d been outflanked and outmaneuvered, but she said good night to Elizabeth in front of the Skeffington rooms, and she wasn’t at all surprised when the dowager said, “Sleep well, darlings!” when they reached her bedchamber, and promptly closed the door in their faces.
Leaving just Wolfgang and her, alone in the corridor together.
Candles flickered from sconces on the wall, dancing up to the plaster ceiling and over the gilt-edged landscapes and portraits, as they made their way, rather slowly, to their own rooms. When they reached Charlotte’s door, Wolfgang leaned his shoulder against a stretch of wall and crossed one boot over the other.
“Why do I have the feeling that we’re exactly where your grandmother wanted us? ”
“Because she’s not the least bit subtle. I hope you can forgive her, Your Grace. I’ve told her she mustn’t try to matchmake.”
“Forgive her?” He grinned. “You mistake me. I’m exceedingly grateful.”
The comment hovered in the air between them, flickering like the candlelight.
Charlotte wanted to ignore it, but it leaped and danced and demanded her attention.
Worse, it seemed like something Lord Wolfgang might have said, in the long-dead days before he became a duke, when something wonderful still shimmered between them.
The Duke of Warrick she could handle, but could she handle Wolfgang?
“You ought to be more careful, Your Grace,” Charlotte said softly. “A foolish woman might think you were flirting.”
It was a warning, but he leaned in closer. “And if I am?”
Charlotte’s heart gave a queer little thump. “Then I suspect you’re a foolish man.”
She turned and reached for her doorknob, but his hand wrapped gently around her wrist. “Charlotte, I can’t keep fighting, or pretending, or ignoring this. Don’t you ever—wonder?”
When she turned back, he was so near she had to tilt her head to look at him. She was standing straight as a pin, rising up to him as he leaned down to her. Both of them, as always, straining toward each other.
He’d given her an opening, one big enough to slip a rapier through and gut him if she chose. Instead, she gave a shaky laugh. “It went so badly wrong the first time.”
His eyes darkened. They were so close together that when he took a breath, Charlotte felt it in her own chest.
“You were younger then, and I was watching my brother die.”
Wolfgang traced her cheek with the back of his hand, leaving a glowing trail that started at the corner of her brow and dipped down to her jawline. Her pulse beat rapidly, crying Please! Please! or Danger! Danger!
When it came to Wolfgang, she could never tell.
“Why would anything be different now?” she asked.
“Because we’re not the same as we were.”
His voice sounded like an ache, and yet her forehead pleated into a frown.
“I’m the same. It’s you who changes back and forth. Wolfgang, what happened last time—I don’t know if I can forgive you.”
“Forgive me?” He stared. “I rather think it’s for me to forgive you.”
“I see.” Charlotte had to take a deep breath so her voice didn’t crack. “Somehow it’s my fault—You courted me all summer, then dropped me on my face! You hurt me with no explanation and no apology, and now you stand here and ask one from me?”
Wolfgang only stared. “What are you talking about?”
Charlotte’s eyes prickled with sudden heat.
Oh God, please don’t cry. Please, not one more humiliation.
She reached for a quip but couldn’t find one, not when so much feeling flooded her.
“I wrote you constantly, I thought we were courting, I thought we were falling in l—” She shook her head.
“Could you not have let me down gently? That last letter—did it please you to be so brutal? I treat the insects in my grandmother’s garden with more consideration than you gave me. ”