Seduced At Sunset Read Free

some
curiosity.
    Charlotte forced herself to stop talking, for she was
quite sure her subtlety had just slipped from her grip like a wet frog and was
hopping like mad out the open window.
    “Are you trying to play the matchmaker, Charlotte?” he
asked with an amused look on his face.
    She found herself relaxing, and chuckled softly as she
dropped her gaze. “There it is. My secret is out. You know me too well, I
suppose. I thought I could lure you innocently to the park, where you would
take one look at Mother and remember what you were to each other at one time.”
Her gaze lifted. “You haven’t seen her since the funeral. That was two years
ago.”
    “How is she doing?” Dr. Thomas asked with a genuine note
of compassion in his tone. “I know it wasn’t easy for her in those final days
before the duke slipped away.”
    “You were a great comfort to her,” Charlotte told him,
leaning forward to clasp and squeeze his hand on the desk. “I don’t know what
we would have done without you. Not just in those final days, but in all the
years when he was so...” She couldn’t finish, for there were no proper words
other than confused, delusional, impossible to care for. Pitiful.
    “I was happy to be of service,” Dr. Thomas said. “You know
how much I care for you and your mother, and for all of your brothers.”
    Garrett especially—her twin—who like his
father, was now a surgeon himself. The two men worked together occasionally at
the medical school in London.
    “I do know it,” Charlotte replied, “which is why I have
come. I would like to see Mother find happiness again. I thought perhaps you
and she might like to spend some time together while she’s in London.”
    “You have given this a lot of thought,” he said with a
smile.
    “Yes,” she openly admitted. “So what do you say? Could you
join us tomorrow for a walk in the park?”
    Dr. Thomas slowly pulled his hand from her grasp and sat
back in his chair. He was quiet for a long moment, and his cool withdrawal
caused a knot of discomfort to form in her belly.
    “I appreciate the invitation,” he said, “but I am afraid I
must decline. I have appointments booked and I am sorry, Charlotte, but your Mother
and I had our chance many years ago. She chose to marry the duke.”
    “But it wasn’t really her choice,” Charlotte argued. “I
know what happened that night before the wedding. She only went through with
her marriage to protect you.”
    “I didn’t need her protection,” he said. “All I wanted was her .” Then he quickly shook his head, waved his hand
as if to erase the conversation, and rose from his chair to stand in front of
the window. “I don’t want to discuss it any further. I care deeply for you and
Adelaide, but please understand that I cannot pursue the very thing that nearly
broke me on so many different occasions. I loved your mother and I dreamed of
her for years, but then the time came for me to move on with my life and accept
the fact that we were not meant to be together.”
    “But she is free at last,” Charlotte argued as she watched
him stare out the window with his hands clasped behind his back. “Won’t you
consider giving it one more try?”
    He faced her. “I am sorry, Charlotte. I am Adelaide’s
friend now, but nothing more.”
    Charlotte stood up and approached him. “Please do not give
up so easily. Things are different now. She is a widow. She can do as she
wishes.”
    “And what is it, exactly, that she wishes to do?” he
asked. “Do you even know?” He regarded Charlotte with a knitted brow. “Did she
send you here? Or is this your idea, alone?”
    Charlotte looked down at the floor. “She doesn’t know I am
here. I didn’t want to push her—or you, for that matter. I had hoped we
could simply encounter each other by accident at the park tomorrow.”
    “I see.” He sat down on the window ledge and pinched the
bridge of his nose. Then he looked up and inhaled deeply. “You must put