Page 86 of Tempted By an Unconventional Lady
Arthur snorted from the corner of the room, amused by such a thing. “Uncle Elliot will do whatever my aunt wishes. Whether it is love or punishment, I am not sure, but either way, he is obedient.”
“He is a good man who wants a quiet life,” Charlotte replied. “Nothing more.”
With a huff at her own defeat, Aunt Lydia threw herself onto the couch and crossed her arms like an overgrown child who hadn’t got her way.
“Well,” Alexander said, folding the parchment up. He went over to the desk, allowed a drop of wax to land on the seal, then he stamped it with Aunt Lydia’s own stamp. “There is only one thing left to do then,” he said, turning to grin at Charlotte.
Charlotte tilted her head curiously. “Is there? Have I forgotten somebody?”
Alexander placed the letter down on the desk, then turned fully toward her. His smile was soft at first, barely there, but the more he looked at her, the bigger it grew. He didn’t need to say any words, for they were all there in his smile and in his eyes. Charlotte gazed back at him and told her everything she was feeling, too. The cord that bound them together felt stronger than ever, and Charlotte somehow knew that nothing and nobody could ever break it.
“Charlotte Fairchild,” Alexander began, and Charlotte felt her chest vibrate with all the possibilities of what was to come.
“Yes,” she muttered, her voice barely there. Would he propose to her again? Hadn’t he done that already? She bit her bottom lip, hoping to hear the sweet words once more.
“When I went to Hampshire with Stewart, I was not expecting to even make a friend, let alone fall in love. But then I met this lady. She was so different, so unusual, and she captured my attention instantly.”
“Who was she?” Charlotte asked, enjoying teasing him. “Do I know her?”
“Funny enough, you know her better than anyone,” he said.
He took a step closer to her, an invisible band pulling them together, and Charlotte forgot about the rest of the world. Aunt Lydia and her scowl, Arthur and his perpetual grin, the tea going cold on the side. It all faded into an inconsequential background, for Alexander was the only one she could see. He was her life, her light, her everything.
“Do I now?” she asked.
“I have never known a woman so certain about who she is before. You do not blindly follow the ways of theton, yet you are graceful and elegant. You follow your heart but with it,you are good and honorable. You are beautiful beyond compare, Charlotte, both inside and out.”
“You are too sweet, Your Grace,” Charlotte whispered for fear her voice would break and she would descend into tears of happiness.
“No,youare too sweet. When I first met you, I was drawn to you. Curious about you. But even then, I did not think love was in the cards. I did not think I would ever love again. But you coaxed it out of me, Charlotte, and you have made me a better man for it. It was your love, in truth, that gave me the strength to follow my investments and draw them into profit. You have fixed my heart and with it, you have fixed me.”
He took her bare hand in his, and the touch of his skin sent sparks flying through her body. How, after all this time, could he still have such an impact on her?
“I could only do so because you fixed me,” she replied. She stared up into his eyes and knew she would never get tired of peering into them, into him. “I didn’t think I was capable of love, nor did I think a man would ever treat me as I wanted to be treated. But you made me see that it was all possible.”
“I am glad you think so.” He smiled at her once more, then he got down onto his knee and looked up into her face.
“My darling, beautiful, Charlotte Fairchild. Would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
Aunt Lydia groaned in the background, and Arthur sighed happily, but neither sound mattered to either Charlotte or Alexander. The only sound that mattered was Charlotte’s cry of ‘yes!’ as she leaped forward into his arms.
Epilogue
“I must say, I am impressed you managed to pull it off,” Chelsea said as she slipped another diamond-tipped pin into Charlotte’s hair. “Planning an entire wedding in less than a month!”
“I told you,” Charlotte said, “we had no reason—nor desire—to wait. We would have done it sooner had we not had to wait for the banns to be read at church.”
Chelsea giggled as Annie helped her place the veil into her hair. “You went from never wanting to marry to insisting on marrying as quickly as possible.”
Charlotte spun around on her stool and looked up at her oldest, dearest friend. “Well, perhaps you were right all along. It seems I really did just need to meet the right man.”
“And never could there ever be a man more right for you than the duke himself. You are perfect together. Even Leonard agrees, and he hardly ever has anything to say about anything—at least not to me.”
Charlotte frowned. “But you are happy together, aren’t you?”
“Oh yes!” Chelsea waved her hand dismissively, though she wore a mischievous grin. “It’s just how I like it. I get all the perks of marriage, if you catch my drift, without having to manage his opinions too much.”
This time, Charlotte giggled. “You sound like an old married woman already, as if you have been married forty years and have run out of things to say to each other.”
