Caroline was staring at her with openmouthed horror. “You can’t mean that! You can’t be serious when you say that we’re not good for anything but looking pretty and entertaining people and spending money!”

“Tell me something else the ladies of the ton can do? Something worthwhile.”

“Well…” Caroline looked a bit flustered, biting her lip as she thought. “We can…we have…there’s charity!”

“Spending our husband’s money,” Charlotte pointed out. “Can you think of nothing more?”

“Yes…no…oh, you’re rushing me, I can’t think when you rush me.”

Charlotte sighed. “I fear there is nothing more. At least in my case there is nothing more. Dare is on the road to mental and emotional healing. I have no doubt that he could survive without me now. He has the servants to help him rebuild his engine, he has David’s connection to assist him in selling the engine even if all his other investors lost interest, and most of all, he has the intelligence and charm and warmth to find himself another wife, one who will be just what he wants, not a wife who hoisted herself on him. Foisted,” she corrected herself before Caroline could, blinking back tears that seemed to have been wept straight from her heart. “The truth is, I’m really not needed anymore now that Dare’s well.”

“He loves you,” Caroline offered, dabbing at her own eyes with her handkerchief. “That is a sort of need, isn’t it? And you love him.”

“He loves me, but he doesn’t have a driving reason to keep me in his life. ’Tis the truth that he’d be better off without me.”

“You don’t intend…you can’t mean you’d…”

“No, of course not, don’t be so megalomaniac. I simply mean that I believe the best thing—the best thing for Dare—will be to gain an annulment to the marriage, so he might live out his life in happiness. Even though my heart shall be destroyed by parting from him, I will have the satisfaction of knowing he will be happy.”

“Oh, that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.” Caroline sniffled. “So brave of you! So self-sacrificing! You are the noblest woman I know, Char.”

“I am, aren’t I?” Charlotte agreed morosely, her lip quivering as the full extent of her sacrifice dawned upon her. “I cannot believe it has come to this, Caro, but I truly do want him to be happy, no matter how miserable his happiness makes me. It was fine when he needed me, but now…” She wiped at a tear that had crept down her cheek. “Well, there is no sense in crying, my path is clear. And now that we have that settled, I was hoping you’d have some tidbit of gossip about the Pretender that might direct me to other avenues of investigation, something I could use to sway public opinion against him. I shall make that my last act of kindness before giving Dare his freedom.”

Caroline’s naturally pale coloring paled even more. She fretted a handkerchief as she watched Charlotte carefully. “Oh, dear.”