Page 21 of Loving a Noble Gentleman
Chapter 10
Mary sat across from her sister chewing on her bottom lip. She had arranged to see Charlotte the day after meeting with Duke Edmund for the second time under the assumption that she would need someone to rant to and complain about him ... but now she did not know what to say.
“So, how did it go?” Charlotte narrowed her eyes curiously at her sister. She had been silent for far too long; it was starting to become strange. “You said in your letter that Walter made you speak with the Duke again. Are you surer than ever that you do not wish to follow Father’s wishes, because like I said before, you can always come and stay here ...”
“I am not sure,” Mary interrupted. She spent all night long lying awake, trying to place her feelings into some kind of box that made sense, but there was no way to decipher her emotions. All she knew was that they were different. “I do not know what I want ...”
“Is this because of the house?” Charlotte’s words grew louder in her desperation. “Because it is not worth it; I can promise you that much.”
Mary shook her head quickly; she knew her sister’s opinion on the subject. It was exactly how she felt about it too ... until recently. Very recently. “No, it is not that at all. I am not too sure how I feel. I think ...” She paused thoughtfully for a brief moment. “I do not know why, but I think I might like him.”
“You do?” Charlotte almost yelled. She forgot herself for a moment before reeling herself in. The privacy would only last so long; the last thing she wanted was for anyone else in the house to rush to the room. She lowered her voice, steeled herself, and continued speaking, “I mean, you do? You like him? How do you mean you like him?”
Mary forced herself to stop for a second before answering. She had not realised how insensitive this might sound to Charlotte. Her sister was miserable, stuck in a marriage that she did not like with a man chosen by their father. Mary sat with her, telling her that she might possibly be happy with the man that their father had chosen for her. It was not fair.
“I ... I do not know,” she ended up finishing lamely. “I am not sure what I am talking about.”
Charlotte breathed deeply as she tried her best to calm down. She recognised that expression on her sister’s face and did not like it at all. It was not her intention to make Mary feel uncomfortable sharing her own story with her. Just because she was unhappy, it did not mean that everyone else should be too.
Maybe Father did better for Mary,she thought morosely.Maybe he actually did see the mistake that he made with me.
Admittedly, that did churn bitterness in her gut. She felt that she deserved happiness too, but that did not take away from the fact that Mary could at least find comfort in her own life. Charlotte needed to find it within herself to be pleased for Mary, even if it was just to her face.
“Mary,” she said seriously while reaching out to grab her sister’s hand in what she hoped would be a comforting gesture. “I believe that you do know, and I wish that you would share it with me so I can be happy for you.”
Mary did not know what to do. On the one hand, she truly did not want to harm her sister, but on the other, she did not want to keep secrets from her either. She decided to give her a small snippet of the truth.
“I do think I could grow to like him,” she replied carefully. “Maybe he is not as bad as I first thought. I do not know exactly how I feel, but it is not as negative as I felt the first time around. Maybe he is not so arrogant.”
Charlotte nodded slowly, acceptingly. “Well, that is good news. At least if you like the Duke, then you can marry him and still keep the house. You can inherit it.”
Mary stood up and paced the room thoughtfully. “What do you think I should do if I do inherit the house?” she asked Charlotte. “I presume that the Duke will have a home of his own that he will want us to live in. Just like your husband ...”
The words fell into silence as she spun back to see her sister with her head in her hands and her shoulders shaking. It was such an odd, unexpected sight that Mary did not know what to think at first. She could not recall a time when she had ever seen Charlotte crying before which was why it took her a moment to recognise what was going on.
As soon as she did, she snapped into action. She raced to Charlotte’s side and threw an arm over her shoulder. It felt a little uncomfortable as if she was acting in a far too emotional way, but she kept it there regardless.
“What is happening, Charlotte?” she asked anxiously. “Please, tell me what is going on. What has you so upset?”
Charlotte pulled her face up from her hands to look at Mary. With the tears streaming down her face, smudging her make-up on the way down, she knew that she looked a fright, but right now, that was the least of her worries. Charlotte had been living in a hopeless, endless pit of despair for far too long, shouldering the weight of the world upon her. She had not shared her worries for fear of making her situation feel too real, but now she had no choice. She had to share, or she would burst in two.
“I ... I ...” Still it was hard for her to break the habit and actually speak. “I ...”
Mary thought back to the bruises she had seen on her sister’s arm the last time they were together, and she gulped loudly. She wanted to help Charlotte more than anything in the whole world, but how would she help her to escape a cruel and abusive husband? That was utterly unheard of.
“You … what … Charlotte?” Despite the rapid rate that her heart was racing and the dryness of her mouth, Mary spoke, needing to know the truth immediately before her wild imagination got the better of her.
“I am having a baby.”
Charlotte burst into tears; she sobbed so hard her entire body shook violently under the pressure of it all. She had suspected that was the case for a while, and as time went on, there was no way she could deny it anymore. She was having her husband’s baby, and she felt utterly terrified about that.
“A baby?” Mary gasped. “You are having a baby?”
Charlotte sobbed even harder. Somehow, hearing Mary say it made it all the more terrifying. The unusual sensation in her stomach, the life growing in there, it was not going anywhere. She could not escape it.
“I am,” she eventually continued pitifully. “And I am scared.”
She shook her head, and Mary thought for one second she caught a glimpse of another bruise on her sister’s neck. She could not just ask her if she could see it because she knew Charlotte would only speak of it if she wanted to, but she felt certain that it was there all the same.
