When she was finished Caroline walked in stunned silence for a few minutes, blinking now and again at her friend. “You really have a very frightening mind. It worries me, Char, it really does. I cannot help but think of what havoc you could wreak were your mind to one day snap. As for your plan…”

Charlotte strolled on with her arm through Caroline’s, her mind at ease as the latter lectured her on the folly of her plan. With the matter of a distracting scandal taken care of, she could focus on the much more important matter of proving the Pretender’s claim false. No doubt Crouch could help her there. Crouch was very useful when it came to things of that sort, things such as kidnapping and investigating people who made claims against earls, and the like.

“Alasdair won’t like my consulting Crouch,” she mused, incidentally interrupting Caroline’s lecture, halting long enough to tear out the memorandum page of notes she’d written earlier for Caroline. “Certainly not after that silliness this morning when he tried to browbeat me—honestly, Caro, it was browbeating, pure and simple! There ought to be a law against husbands abusing their wives in such a manner—but then, as Mama was wont to say, what he does not know cannot hurt me.”

“Er…”

Charlotte handed her friend the slip of paper, tucking the memorandum book away in her reticule before waving to a woman near a large rhododendron. “There is Mrs. Whitney. She said she would be in the park today. For Alasdair’s sake I must say hello, even if she is the most tiresome of women. It’s been a lovely walk, Caro, and I take my leave of you secure in the knowledge that I have the dearest, sweetest friend in all England, a friend who I know will not let me down in my time of need. I shall spend a few minutes with Mrs. Whitney; then I must be on my way to set Crouch to investigating the Pretender. My best to your dear Algernon. Jackson, come along and stop flirting with Clothilde, I have a great number of things to do today.”

Caroline slumped onto a convenient bench as Charlotte waved cheerfully before hurrying toward a gray-haired older woman and her maid. There were times—such as when she went up against Char’s indomitable will—that she felt as effective as a soap bubble against a herd of Charlotte’s elephants…no matter what their color.

Fourteen

“You, sir, are a liar. You lied to your wife. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Dare glared at the face before him, then threw his towel at the mirror and bent to splash water over his heated brow. Perhaps liar was too strong a word—he was behind schedule, and he did anticipate working around the clock on the engine so as to have it ready for trial by the week’s end. Those hadn’t been lies. Still, he could have easily carved a few hours out of his day to go riding with Charlotte in the park.