Chapter 19
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Chapter 19
Lydia Augusta, mother of the Augusta sisters, welcomed Armand Rochefort into the house with a startled expression.
"I apologize for arriving without notice."
Armand spoke with casual charm, though his tone suggested he felt no genuine remorse.
"I happened to be passing through the neighborhood when I recalled that Miss Charlotte left her fan in my drawing room last time. I could have sent it through a servant, as propriety would dictate, but..."
His gaze swept past young Katie, whose curious eyes followed him, and Bianca, barely into her late teens, before settling upon Helena with her radiant golden hair and gracefully tapered waist.
"Miss Helena's piano performance has lingered in my ears ever since. I confess I harbored the selfish hope of hearing her play once more."
Armand winked at Helena. Lydia Augusta received him with an expression of utter bewilderment.
"Welcome, Baron Rochefort. I had been meaning to thank you for looking after my daughters on your last visit..."
Lydia Augusta seemed thoroughly astonished to receive Armand in person—a man of considerable wealth and destined to inherit a barony. Yet she quickly composed herself, as befitted a mother with five daughters awaiting marriage prospects.
"Ah, Helena's performance! My second daughter Helena practices piano all day long, even when we have no guests. She will be delighted to have an audience today. Won't you, Helena?"
"Mother, I was supposed to go to London today..."
Helena protested with displeasure at Armand's wink, but Lydia Augusta silenced her daughter's complaints with a stern expression.
"You visit London every week—missing one day won't hurt! Bianca, tell Collin to bring tea service for Baron Rochefort at once."
Once the tea service was prepared, Helena reluctantly took her seat at the piano, unable to resist her mother's insistent gaze. She played a dark, discordant piece unsuited to teatime, as if to express her displeasure at Armand's presence, yet he seemed entirely unbothered.
"Ahem, ahem."
Charlotte, seated directly beside Armand, cleared her throat to draw his attention. She needed to speak with him—or rather, to confront him. Based on their last conversation, he had clearly come to interrogate me.
But Armand merely raised one finger and shook his head gently.
"We shall converse after the music, Charlotte."
With these words, he closed his eyes and feigned rapt attention to Helena's performance. Of course, he did not forget to whisper in a voice only Charlotte could hear, his tone dripping with amusement at her flustered state.
"I could hardly interrogate you against such a beautiful backdrop."
"I—interrogate? That's hardly—"
Charlotte wanted to protest, but as Lydia Augusta, seated beside Helena and turning the pages of her sheet music, seemed to glance in their direction, she could only bite her lip in silence.
Once the music concluded, Armand suggested that Charlotte join him for a stroll.
"When such a charming young lady leaves her fan at my residence, it would be ungentlemanly of me not to inquire into her intentions. Ha ha!"
Armand spoke as though Charlotte had deliberately left the fan to capture his attention. Charlotte found his presumption absurd, yet she needed a private conversation with him, so she merely grimaced and acquiesced.
Lydia Augusta sensed a peculiar tension flowing between the two of them. Yet she could not discern whether it was the romantic tension that naturally arose between a man and woman, or something far more hostile.
Lydia Augusta spoke.
"Of course. Then Helena shall accompany them—"
As Lydia Augusta turned, she caught sight of Helena seated at the piano, her expression sullen with disappointment at not being able to go to London. Lydia Augusta sighed and amended her words.
"No, I think it best that Bianca accompany Charlotte on the walk instead."
Bianca responded at once.
"I would be delighted. In exchange, might I walk behind you both and gather fallen leaves with Collin to use as bookmarks?"
Lydia Augusta disapproved of Bianca's preference for the company of servants over young ladies of her station, yet she could hardly send the notorious rake and Charlotte out alone together.
Thus the four of them entered the Forest Path before the Augusta Family House. Bianca, having already received instructions from Lydia Augusta, walked at a considerable distance behind with Collin, following at a discreet remove.
Armand confirmed that Bianca and Collin were walking well behind them before he spoke.
"Now then, shall we discuss the matter at hand, Miss? You have not forgotten our exchange—the secrets and the sweet price, have you?"
Armand wore his characteristic cold and cunning expression. Yet Charlotte, having learned from Leopold that he was a secret knight who concealed his true identity and nature, found his countenance neither as frigid nor as frightening as it once had seemed.
Armand continued speaking.
"Tell me—why would someone as ordinary as you take an interest in Prince Leopold, and who told you that His Highness had been staying in London before the reception?"
"...."
As I walked along the Forest Path, I drew a deep breath instead of answering. From this moment forward, I would need to perform a delicate act.
'Now I am the prince's lover, devoted to Leopold, cherished by His Highness....'
Strangely, playing the role of Leopold's beloved seemed effortless. The true difficulty lay in imagining that this flawless prince could love me in return.
As I squeezed my eyes shut instead of speaking, Armand furrowed his brow and threatened me in a voice grown even lower and colder.
"Miss Charlotte, I warned you that if you don't speak to me, you'll face the humiliation of being seized by the Dutch Knight Order, didn't I?"
"Then conversely, couldn't I suspect why you, Armand, have taken an interest in this matter?"
My eyes flew open, and I asked Armand boldly. He flinched in surprise, drawing back his chin, but soon recovered his cunning expression and spoke.
"Hmm, you're bolder than I expected, young lady. Well...."
He brushed back a strand of reddish-brown hair that had fallen across his beautiful face and whispered.
"I have a fondness for ladies with secrets. When they share those secrets with me, I receive the sweetest of rewards."
Armand's eyes, framed by long lashes, glinted with amusement. I thought that whether he was a highly trained secret knight or not, the rumors of his rakish nature might very well be true. I shook my head and spoke.
"Sweet rewards from a lady—at first glance, it sounds rather unseemly...."
I realized the time had come to reveal to Armand that I knew his true identity. Of course, if I suddenly declared that I knew who he really was, I couldn't predict how he'd react, so I decided to send signals gradually.
I continued, forcing an air of composure into my smile.
"I suspect what you're truly interested in, Monsieur Armand, isn't the 'sweet reward' at all, but rather the information I possess about Prince Leopold. The talk of sweet rewards, of ladies' secrets—these are all fabrications designed to conceal your real purpose, aren't they?"
I began preparing myself to confess my secrets bit by bit. Now I had to tell him that my knowledge of Leopold's London schedule stemmed from the fact that I was his secret lover.
At that moment, Armand burst into laughter as if greatly amused.
"Ha, so now you suspect me instead?"
He laughed and turned around, as if checking whether anyone was nearby. Bianca and Collin were still lingering at the entrance of the Forest Path, distracted by gathering fallen leaves.
In that moment, Armand—his face still wearing that smile—dragged Charlotte away from the path and into the dense thicket surrounding them.
"Ah!"
Charlotte cried out as she was thrust deeper into the undergrowth. Armand pinned her between himself and the towering shrubs.
"Are you saying you know my true identity, Charlotte?"
Armand's eyes flashed with menace. His face, no longer playful or cunning, was twisted into something cruel. Confronted by this unexpected transformation, Charlotte's entire body went rigid.
"I—Armand! That is—I—"
In the distance, the voices of Collin and Bianca began to drift closer.
"Enough games, Charlotte. If your sister and maid see us like this, they'll be absolutely delighted. Your maid will spread rumors that you've been having a secret rendezvous in the forest with that notorious libertine baron's son."
Armand drew Charlotte's face close to his lips as he spoke.
Leopold had warned Charlotte to be cautious of Armand, but she never expected him to change so abruptly. His voice turned sharp and cutting.
"If you wish to avoid that, then tell me now. How do you know of Leopold's confidential itinerary? To you ladies it may be mere gossip, but His Highness's disappearance is a matter upon which an entire nation and its people depend."
Charlotte wanted to say anything—everything—but with Armand in such an agitated state, she couldn't fathom how to reveal her identity. As Bianca and Collin's footsteps drew ever nearer, Armand's face pressed closer to hers. With her eyes squeezed shut, Charlotte's lips trembled as she whispered.
"Thy friendship makes us fresh..."
It was the verse Leopold had taught her. Charlotte continued reciting, following the gentle cadence of Leopold's voice echoing in her mind.
"...And doth beget new courage in our breasts." (*From Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.)
As Charlotte finished her recitation, Armand's lips parted.
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