Married By Midnight(40)
Anne looked down and ran a finger over the fine silk bodice—an excuse not to look Charlotte in the eye. “I would prefer not to entertain such hopes. I have signed an agreement and I mean to fulfill my obligations.”
Charlotte sat down, too. “Entertain such hopes? So you are hopeful. You do care for him? Please tell me. I consider you my friend. I want to know what you are feeling.”
Oh, God... Anne kicked herself sternly. She should have chosen her words more carefully. Yet at the same time she feared she might burst if she didn’t soon confess her feelings to someone.
“Yes, I do care for him,” she said, “but like you, I’ve had my heart broken. Garrett has been clear on the matter. He does not wish to be a married man. He wants his freedom and does not want a partner in life.”
“But if he did want that, would you accept him?”
“He doesn’t.”
“But if he did,” she pressed. “If he declared himself madly in love with you and told you he couldn’t live another day without you, and got down on both knees to beg you to stay and be his true wife, would you not be the happiest woman alive?”
A tiny ember of hope sparked within her at the prospect, and she felt her lips curl into a smile. “I think I would die of happiness,” she confessed.
Charlotte’s whole face lit up like a sky full of exploding fireworks. “I knew it,” she said with a grin.
Anne did not feel quite so jubilant, however, for it was not a dream she dared believe in. She had been disappointed once before by a man who abandoned her for money, and after the scandal, she’d had no choice but to forsake the idea of an honest marriage for herself.
And Garrett—having just tragically lost a fiancée—seemed so very unattainable.
“Please, Charlotte,” she said, “Do not encourage me in this. I do not wish to pursue something I cannot have.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No, but I know what I feel, and I fear I am headed for disaster if I imagine a fairy tale ending. I am afraid to believe it. Promise me you will help me keep a clear head.”
Charlotte regarded her with reluctance.
“Promise me,” Anne insisted, “or I will take this gown off immediately and wear the old rag I was wearing when I arrived.”
Charlotte drew back in horror. “Good heavens, we cannot have that."
“No, we certainly cannot.” Anne lifted the hem and looked down at her stockinged feet. “I will need shoes to go with this. And gloves. Can you help?”
“Of course.” Charlotte went to hunt through her wardrobe, while Anne exhaled heavily with a growing angst that was beginning to weigh very heavily upon her heart.
* * *
Garrett followed his mother back to the sofa and urged her to sit down, for she had gone white as a sheet.
“It’s been a very trying day,” she said. “First your father disappears, now this question from you.”
“I only want to know the truth. I already know I am not legitimate, but we have never talked openly about it. Now that I am home, I need to understand.”
She clasped his hand. “Of course you do, and I do not wish to keep anything from you. What would be the point now that your father is so ill? He will never come back to us like he once was.”
Her voice trembled and Garrett squeezed her hand. “Tell me what happened all those years ago.”
His mother sat back in her chair. “I will come straight to the point. Your intuition is correct...about Dr. Thomas.”
For a long moment Garrett said nothing.
“Does Charlotte know?”
Adelaide nodded. “Yes. Like you, she suspected the truth when she met him. He has been coming to the palace since the spring, not long after Devon returned from America. Dr. Thomas is the most brilliant physician in London, and we all wanted the very best for your father.”
“Why didn’t Charlotte tell me?” Garrett was surprised by this, for she was his twin—but he supposed he deserved to be kept outside the circle. He had abandoned her and the rest of his family by choice.
“She would have told you eventually, I’m sure...when the time was right.”
Garrett massaged his temples and tried to absorb all of this. “Is he your lover?”
“Good heavens, no,” he mother firmly replied. “He is a friend to me now. Nothing more.”
Garrett frowned. “Does he know I am his son?”
“Yes.”
Garrett recalled the moment he dropped to his knees in the Great Hall and Dr. Thomas arrived and took the duke from his arms, and then continued to carry him upstairs. In his mind, Garrett also went over their conversation a short while ago.