Charming Sir Charles (Dashing Widows 5)

“Yes, I’m fine,” the girl said, coming fully inside and shutting the heavy door behind her.

“Then you have no excuse for not coming back to get us,” Sally said coldly. “Leaving us here was wicked and irresponsible, but to stay away long enough to threaten to bring a scandal down on our heads is unforgivable.”

The rebuke clearly startled Meg. “I only intended to be a little while.”

“Even that was reprehensible enough. So why were you so long?”

“I…I got lost.” Meg, who became less chirpy with every second, placed the lantern on a side table. The hand carrying it had shown an increasing tendency to shake.

Charles couldn’t find the heart to be angry with her. “Meg, I warned you that the estate was isolated and hard to find.”

She cast him an apologetic glance. “I know you did. I meant to call on Perdita, then come back. But the lanes around here are a maze. I couldn’t find Perdita’s house, and it’s only good luck that I found my way back here at all.”

“We should be thankful for small mercies, then,” Sally said. “I’ve been worried sick that you’d been attacked or injured.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt,” Meg said in a subdued voice. She cast a glance at Charles, but he shook his head, wishing to heaven that her tricks had resulted in a different outcome. “I’d hoped if you had a chance to be alone, you’d reach an understanding.”

He waited for Sally to flare up, but her voice remained calm. Unnaturally calm, he couldn’t help thinking. “The only understanding we’ve come to is that I have a rattle-pate niece, unfit for polite society.”

“I thought…”

Sally didn’t let her finish. “You’ll have plenty of time for thinking back under your father’s roof, my girl.”

Meg looked aghast. “You can’t send me home.”

“I can and I will.” When she folded her arms, Sally looked as implacable as a stone statue. “Just be grateful that for my sake as well as yours, I won’t tell your father the disgraceful truth.”

“It’s not fair to send me away.” Meg suddenly sounded so young, Charles almost felt sorry for her.

“Miss Meg, I know you meant well today, but perhaps this is for the best,” he said gently.

“You’ve proven yourself unworthy of my trust. You’ve acted in a way that imperiled yourself, not to mention endangered my reputation and Sir Charles’s good name. I just pray we all get out of this without becoming the talk of the Town.”

Sally still spoke in that even, unemotional voice that somehow was worse than if she lost her temper. She’d spoken in just such a tone when she’d dashed all his hopes for happiness. Meg seemed to shrink under every measured, critical word.

“There’s absolutely no need for anybody else to know about this,” he reminded Sally.

“I hope not.” Sally didn’t look at him. “Now tell me you haven’t damaged Sir Charles’s rig or horses.”

The implied insult to her driving skills made Meg fire up. “Of course I didn’t. I’d never injure a horse.”

“It’s a pity you don’t devote some of your care for horses to people, Meg.” Sally sounded deathly tired and sad and defeated.

He’d

sell his soul for the right to comfort her, but he was the last person she’d turn to. His gut cramped with stabbing regret. He loathed the desolation he heard in her voice. A desolation he knew that he, not Meg, had caused, however disappointed she was in her niece.

“Apologize to Sir Charles, then for pity’s sake, let us leave this place. With any luck, they’ll still have our rooms at the Angel.”

The picture of remorse, Meg turned to Charles. “I’m dreadfully sorry, Sir Charles. I hope you can forgive me.”

How could he bear a grudge? In her harebrained fashion, she’d tried to help him. It wasn’t her fault everything had come to ruin and despair. He nodded and summoned up a smile. “Of course I forgive you, Miss Meg.”

“You’re too good,” Meg said in a choked voice.

“At least you’re not hurt,” Charles said. “We were worried about you.”

“He is too good,” Sally said, casting him a narrow-eyed glance before she faced Meg again. “I hope you know how you’ve let me down, and you’ll learn from this debacle never to interfere again in matters you’re too young to understand.”