A/N Thank you so much for all your beautiful reviews! I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts. I love reading every word. Please keep them coming!
Just a short chapter this time. Next one will be up soon!
Chapter 3
Charles was over the moon. He lay in bed that night, thoroughly exhausted but ridiculously giddy. What a change had occurred since the previous night! Last night, he had lain awake, wondering how he was ever going to be able to ask Mrs. Hughes to allow him to do something he'd wanted to do for so long. Tonight, he had somehow managed finally to ask her, albeit in a very roundabout way, and she had said yes! Quite readily, too, he thought, to his delight.
She had even taken his hand first. He knew that she had done it only as a means of comfort, seeing how distraught he was, but she had achieved her aim. Her gentle caress had seemed somehow to calm him and excite him at the same time. It had soothed him enough to give him confidence and had provoked him enough to stir him into action. After she had initially placed her hand over his, he had felt brave enough to take her hand in his own, in a gesture that he had hoped would convey more than just appreciation or relief. Charles had stumbled earlier trying to find the words to ask permission, but then he had found it much easier to ask her with a look, after their hands were already joined. He had tried to make his eyes say, "I want to hold your hand – really hold it. May I?" The smile she had given him in answer had made his heart race, his cheeks flush, and his breath catch. He could only hope that she had understood (she always did) and fervently prayed that she was as pleased as he was.
Someday, he would tell Mrs. Hughes exactly how he felt. He would bare his soul to the woman he had loved for so long and ask her if she returned his affections. But Charles was not a man given to passionate declarations or bold actions. Nor did he cope well with change. It would take time before he could get to that point. He had to progress in small increments. It had taken all the courage he could muster just to ask to hold her hand.
Charles knew that Mrs. Hughes understood him better than anyone else ever could. Sometimes he felt that she could see into his very soul. She would certainly know how difficult this would be for him. He hoped that she would be patient with him until he could give her more. And, oh, how he wanted to give her more! So much more! All his love. And, oh, how he ached for her love in return!
Someday, he hoped, there would be more. Someday, he hoped, she would be his, and he would be hers, wholly and exclusively. But tonight ... Tonight, for one blissful hour, he had held the hand of the most beautiful, precious woman in the entire world, and she had said she would be happy to allow him to do it again! Tonight, that was enough. Enough to make Charles Carson the happiest man in all of England.