Page 78 of Her Scottish Duke
“Does everyone talk like you in Scotland?” Jeffrey asked with an amused smile on his lips.
“Aye, they do. Sometimes the accent is even stronger.”
“Ha! I look forward to trying to decipher it.” Jeffrey chuckled and leaned on the side of the carriage. “When I come to see you, I’ll bring the papers we need to form our business investments. We can look at what work we can do in Edinburgh, then.”
“I’d like that. Thank ye.” Gerard hesitated, not quite stepping up into the carriage yet. He glanced back at the house behind him, realizing that when he had first entered it, he had felt somewhat numb and distanced from the place, but he had grown to become quite fond of it.
There are memories in that house I willnae forget.
He saw Charlotte dancing in his arms again, and the moment that he had leaned down to kiss her.
“I must confess, I’m surprised you’re leaving so soon,” Jeffrey said in a quiet whisper.
“Ye are? I told ye early on I’d have to return.”
“You did.” Jeffrey nodded in agreement. “I guess I mistakenly thought that you might stay for someone else.”
“Someone?”
“Well, I will not be the one to say her name if you will not.”
Gerard froze, his hand on the carriage door. Jeffrey had that mischievous glint in his eye again.
Charlotte.
“I cannae stay in one place for any woman,” Gerard whispered. “Besides, she has other things in her life now. She’ll soon forget about me.” His gut swirled with envy as he thought of the way she had mentioned Mr. Michael Withers.
She intends to marry him. The man would be a fool to say nay.
“By the time I return, I imagine she’ll be betrothed, Jeffrey. Aye, she’ll be livin’ the happy life she longs for.”
That glint fell away from Jeffrey’s eye. His lips pressed firmly together in a flattened line, and Gerard could tell his friend was doing his best to mask his surprise and disappointment.
“Let us nae talk of her again,” Gerard pleaded. “Life will be different from now on.”
“As you wish.” Jeffrey nodded, then summoned another smile to his face. “Now, on you go. If this journey is to take a week, then the sooner you are on the road, the sooner you are there. I wish you a safe journey indeed. Write to me when you arrive.”
“I will. Thank ye, Jeffrey.” Gerard shook his friend’s hand one last time and climbed into the carriage. Jeffrey shut the door and then stepped back, joining Mrs. Philips on the bottom step that led to the house.
Gerard looked at the two of them in front of the house. Something twinged in his gut, and he realized that he was in fact a little sorry to turn his back on this house. It had become his home, much more so than he thought was possible.
“Goodbye!” he called from the carriage window and offered a single wave. Jeffrey and Mrs. Philips were far more animated in their own waves, continuing to wave at him and shout goodbye as the carriage lurched forward and carried him away down the road.
Long after he could no longer see them through the window, Gerard found himself thinking of them. He stared without any direction or purpose at the moving city of London beyond the window. At one point, he saw a lady wearing a bonnet that was so similar to one he had seen Charlotte wear that he leaned forward in his seat.
Was it possible he could say one final goodbye?
Then the lady turned, and it was not Charlotte at all. The carriage lurched forward, and any chance of seeing Charlotte again vanished.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Charlotte stirred the milk in her tea, staring at the liquid and watching the few bubbles which had floated to the surface. Try as she might, she couldn’t raise her head and focus on her family’s conversation around her. She sat slumped in her chair at the table, her posture far from what it usually was, her deportment poor indeed, yet she had no wish to improve it.
“Charlotte, dear?” Margaret called to her.
Charlotte tore her gaze from her teacup, raising her chin to find Margaret was not the only one looking at her. All around the breakfast table, her whole family had their gazes on her.
“What?”
