Page 68 of Married to the Forbidden Duke
How foolish.
“Are you happy?” Charlotte asked. “I tried to visit you, you know, but your aunt and uncle always turned me away. They said seeing me would distress you.” She cast an assessing glance at Alice. “I think they would have been right. But now, you seem…brighter. More resilient. I am glad.” She gave a brilliant smile.
“You think I wasn’t resilient before the accident?” Alice teased, arching a brow.
Charlotte pursed her lips as she considered. “You’d never experienced hardship. I don’t think you knew what it meant to be resilient. But no, I don’t think you were. You had to learn it.”
Alice pondered that. “You think I have now?”
“Well, you are sitting there on a horse when the last time I saw you, you were lying in a bed telling the world not to interfere with you any longer.” She gave a long, slow smile. “And I’ve heard stories about the bold Duchess of Langford. She doesn’t care what others think of her.”
Alice grimaced. “I am positive they said less flattering things about me.”
“Perhaps,” Charlotte allowed, then grinned. “I’m delighted to discover they were talking about you. They weresayingthey disapproved of you, but I think I heard envy in their voices.”
“Envy...?”
“You married one of the most eligible bachelors in the country—oh, to hell with his reputation; he is still a Duke—and then proceeded to take thetonby storm. Before the year is out, I predict it will be fashionable to walk with a cane and a limp.”
“Nonsense!” Alice snorted.
“You became everything we discussed when we were children. Do you remember?” Charlotte’s smile softened as she drew into their past. “We were troublemakers.Rogue fireworksthey’d call us. And we always talked about turning thetonon its head. Being the source of a small scandal and coming out the other side.”
“I remember,” Alice mused, feeling the smile at her mouth despite herself. “We said that no man would ever be able to control us.”
“Foolishness,” Charlotte smirked, shaking her head. “But you must admit, you have done admirably in that respect. Still.” She considered Alice on her horse. “You would never have been brave enough to go ahead with it back then.”
“No?”
“Truthfully, you were far too concerned with what people thought of you. I was always the one persuading us to get into trouble.”
“Small amounts of trouble,” Alice protested. “Like going out onto the balcony when we knew there were gentlemen out there.”
“You were still worried about your reputation.”
“Look where that got me,” Alice shrugged.
Charlotte raised her brows. “Yes, now you’re married. How truly shocking. What a disgrace.”
“Be serious.” Alice gave a sideways glance.
“I am!” Charlotte shielded her eyes as she looked up at Alice. “Tell me, would you be afraid to enter a balcony with a gentleman?”
“In this scenario, am I unmarried?”
“Yes.”
“And this man, do I like him?”
“Obviously. Why else would you go out there?”
Alice laughed and considered. As a girl, it was true, she would have been always thinking about what others thought of her. Her parents, in particular. But now, if she was unmarried, what would shechooseto do?
If she liked the gentleman in question—or rather, if the gentleman in question wasFrederick, the answer was obvious.
“Worst case scenario, he would be honor-bound to offer for me,” she murmured, then shrugged. “If I liked him that much, why would that be a problem for me?”
“And there you have it. You see? That is not what you would have said six years ago.” She grinned. “And I rather like this version of you. Let’s live up to our former dream.”
