After his conversation with Lady Charlotte a few days earlier they'd walked out together a number of times but Lord Stanley always seemed to be with them. It was becoming more and more apparent to Robert that Thomas was besotted with Charlotte. He let her up on his horse a few times, going so far as to lift her up himself and just the general way he looked at her added to the comments that Charlotte had made about what the gentleman said to her made it quite clear to Robert that the man was in love with her. Whether she liked him, aside from the obvious brotherly affection she showed, was difficult to tell. Robert felt awkward when he was out with both of them, he always somehow managed to feel like the spare part however much Lady Charlotte tried to involve him in all their conversations.
It was with these feeling in mind that he turned down a walk with Lady Charlotte on the afternoon four days after his arrival. He set out on his own in the opposite direction to the one he had taken with Lady Charlotte and Thomas the last few days, not wishing to intrude upon their walk. However, his wish was not to be granted because it seemed the walk they'd been taking in Robert's presence was not their usual walk, therefore about half an hour after he'd commenced his walk he came across them.
He'd found the stream Lady Charlotte had talked of on their first walk together and was following its meandering channel when he heard a giggle. At fist he assumed it was some girl from somewhere nearby but then he heard a voice that was undoubtedly Lord Stanley's. Thinking that the man had perhaps left Lady Charlotte and ventured on his own walk to meet some local woman he turned away from where the voices were coming from, it was odd though, as far as he was concerned Thomas was attached to Charlotte, greatly so, which would mean he was being stupid risking such a lovely girl by having some relationship for his own pleasure. Besides, the man Robert had known a few years ago when they were both just eighteen was not a man obsessed by pleasure and women. He was just about to turn and venture back the way he'd come when Lady Charlotte's voice quite clearly broke through the trees. Robert froze knowing he was obscured by these trees.
"Thomas, don't be silly, of course I do not love him. How could I when I love you?" So, Robert sighed, the feeling was mutual. He made to turn away when he heard Charlotte's huff that he'd learnt to delight in over the last few days. "If only aunt would see sense. I don't not see why she wants me to marry one future Earl but will not let me marry you, you are to be an Earl too."
"Your aunt as we both know likes everything to go exactly as she plans." Robert knew he should move away and stop eavesdropping on a conversation that was most definitely a private one, but he couldn't. Somehow he wanted to help the two young people, he knew if it was him wishing to marry a woman he loved he would want to be allowed. Equally, he'd taken a liking to Charlotte and really did want her to be happy.
"I wonder what she'd say if she saw me like this now." Charlotte giggles to herself. "No doubt she'd do what she did last time and invite some other eligible bachelor to stay." So, Robert mused, he was a kind of punishment. His mind reeled the only explanation was that Lord and Lady Hexham knew of Charlotte's attachment to Thomas, the latter wished to separate them and was trying to use Robert to entice Charlotte away. No wonder she gets on so well with my mother, Robert chuckles, they're both as busy scheming as the other. Robert couldn't help wondering what Lord Hexham thought of Thomas as a potential candidate as Charlotte's husband. He'd noticed how the man barely got a word in, and when he did open his mouth to defend his niece over some remark his wife had made she always got there first. It seemed then, that perhaps he saw nothing wrong in the match.
"Well, I know what I say when I see your beautiful feet and ankles with no stockings on my dear."
"Oh yes, and what is it you say, my love?"
"You really are adorable. I don't suppose it would be at all possible to entice such a beautiful woman to kiss me?" By the amount of giggling Lady Charlotte was doing Robert deduced that this was a scene they played often, and no doubt it often ended with Thomas asking for a kiss. Robert turned away, not wishing to listen any more upon their conversation.
As he walked back to the house, he thought more about what he had heard, he hoped that one day he might find a woman whom not only he liked as much as Lady Charlotte but to whom he could talk and flirt with as Thomas flirted with her. It was apparent to anyone they were deeply in love and Robert hoped that one day he might have that. He knew it was extremely unlikely, he hardly had a pick of women, his future wife needed to be an heiress after all, and 'what,' he muttered 'is the chance of me falling for a woman that has the money too. Very small.' He sighed and kept walking, determined that when he married he'd know one thing, that Charlotte and Thomas were happily married. That way, in the long marriage that lay ahead of him, likely to be loveless, at least he could remark that love did exist, he'd seen it and that he'd had a a part in bringing them together. He was determined to do whatever he could.
Two days later when Robert had been staying exactly seven days, at dinner, he sat quietly beside Charlotte thinking over how he was going to get his plan to work. He knew that he had to corner Lord and Lady Hexham together and explain not only his situation but the reasons he thinks Charlotte should be allowed to marry where she chooses. He was still unconvinced as to which side of the battle ground Lord Hexham sat. He was usually very quiet and although he had an obvious partiality for his niece it was difficult to tell what he thought of either Robert or Thomas. This was largely due to the fact he was unaware Robert knew of the engagement although there obviously was one, at least in the minds of Charlotte and Thomas, and was therefore acting totally neutral. The other explanation was that he had no opinion, based largely on the fact his wife was the member of their marriage that had all the opinions. It was essential he cornered them both therefore as it was really Lady Hexham who needed to be given a piece of his mind about refusing her besotted niece the choice she had made, the man she had fallen in love with. Lady Hexham, however, was still convinced, because of Charlotte's beauty sh could 'catch someone better' as Charlotte had quoted her once.
Robert, taking a moment to glance up from his food and catching a sharp look from his mother sits up a little straighter thinking she must be telling him not to slouch, to which she just rolls her eyes and mouths something. It takes him a moment to get that she's trying to tell him to talk to Charlotte. As he turns to her however Lady Hexham speaks.
"Charlotte dear, " her voice cuts across the table. 'Where were you today? You left poor Robert here all alone in the library all day. He was quite put out without your beautiful face to gaze upon, or so he told me." Robert was about to open his mouth to protest- he'd never said any such thing- when a cold, feminine hand touched his leg, Charlotte's.
"I was with Thomas aunt, we went to see poor Mrs Brown who is ill in the town. I told Robert I was going and he didn't wish to come." This was true, he thought it best if Thomas and Charlotte had a little more time to themselves as he'd been thrust upon Lady Charlotte the last couple of days giving no chance for the lovers to have some time, not that he'd told Charlotte this of course.
"Well, you should have come and told me and I would have accompanied you. I have told you, you're not to go further than the grounds with Thomas." Tears roll down Charlotte's cheeks and she makes to open her mouth to reply but closes it again and instead stands from the table and leaves. Thomas close at her heels.