Will didn’t wait for her to answer; he simply lowered his head and kissed her. Charlotte snapped out of her hazy state and began to feel distinctly annoyed. What was it about these men? They seemed to think they could plaster their lips to hers at any moment they wished! She drew back sharply, rising to her feet.

“Lord Holland,” she said calmly. “You and I have already discussed the subject of marriage and I refused your hand.”

For an instant Will just sat on the bench and looked up at her. That was before, he thought silently. Before you cut your hair, before you changed your dress, before you became so irresistible. But how can you tell a woman that this time you really mean it? How could you say such a thing without revealing that you had been hunting her fortune and not herself, even if you were no longer? He rose and took her hands in his. “Charlotte, I—” But whatever he meant to say was broken off.

Charlotte’s eyes flew past his shoulders and a small but radiant smile broke over her face. Will stared down at her in stupefaction for a few seconds, then dropped her hands in resignation, turning around. Striding through the trees toward them was a chattering party of elegantly dressed people including Alexander Foakes, the Earl of Sheffield and Downes, who once again carried his small daughter perched on his shoulder.

Will looked down at his companion. Her face grew faintly rosy as she watched the earl approach. She seemed entirely unaware of Will’s presence. The baron’s shoulders drooped slightly. He was no fool. Charlotte was lost to him … unless … could she be aware of Alex’s impotence? For a mad instant Will pictured himself telling her, comforting her as she threw her disconsolate self into his arms. Insanity. How on earth would you tell a gently bred young lady such a thing? Why, she probably didn’t even understand the mechanics involved!

He glanced at Alex. It seemed so unlikely, anyway. Alex’s large, muscled body suited the current fashion for skintight pantaloons perfectly. Even from here Will found it extremely unlikely that he was incapable.

Damn it! Will felt a stab of pain in his chest. He had grown so used to the idea of hunting a young woman for her fortune that he had forgotten that real emotion could be involved. But … he glanced down again at Charlotte. Her lips were upturned in a welcoming smile; in her eyes was a look he had never seen before. Oh, the hell with it, Will thought. Even if her parents did send Alex packing (what parents would allow a girl to marry a man with an impairment like that?) she would never really be his.

And at that point Will, unbeknown to himself, moved smoothly out of the category of fortune hunter. He turned a corner that disallowed marriages made solely on the basis of money.