Michael laughed once. “I’m aware of that. But we are turning, you see. Here.” With great emphasis, he turned the corner and continued down the street, Hugh walking along beside him.
“Where are you off to, then?” his friend inquired with mild interest.
“Greensleys,” he stated. He grinned at Hugh quickly. “I’m going to request permission to court Miss Palmer.”
Hugh’s mouth dropped in surprise before spreading into a smile. “Are you, indeed? My felicitations, old fellow. She’s a beautiful lady, to be sure, and I hear only praises of her.”
Michael nodded in agreement. “She is lovely in every respect. I cannot say yet if it will lead to marriage, but…”
“You have hopes?” Hugh prodded, his smile turning teasing, if not suggestive.
“I do, I’ll not deny it.” He shrugged a shoulder, a sense of pride welling within him. “I think she likes me, Sterling.”
Hugh guffawed without shame. “I should ruddy hope so! I’d heard the pair of you had been seen together, but nobody could make heads or tails of it. A courtship would certainly do the trick.”
Michael frowned at the phrase and glanced at him. “For what?”
“Well, for my wife, for one.”
“Elinor? What does she need convincing of?”
Hugh rolled his eyes but continued to smile. “Nothing. She’s just battling Charlotte and her foul mood.”
Michael’s stomach squeezed into a tight fist within him. “What’s Charlotte upset about?”
Fleeting prayers ran rampant as he considered that Elinor could know exactly what transpired at the theater, that all the Spinsters could know.
Oh, gads, how would they work a reference to his behavior into the next issue, if that were the case? They would put it in, he had no doubt. They were just the vindictively creative sort to allude to the event in such a way that only he would understand, but it would be all too clear for him.
“Hang me if I know,” Hugh admitted with a sigh, shaking his head. “Elinor comes home three days a week speaking of nothing but Charlotte’s sour mood, and how she offers a dozen explanations, but nothing seems to make sense to any of them.”
There was some relief in that, but Michael still wasn’t satisfied.
“Why would my courtship with Diana have any bearing on Charlotte’s mood?” he asked sourly, the prickles of discomfort intensifying in his chest and extending into his arms.
Hugh gave him an odd look. “Jealousy, I should think. She’s terribly determined, you know. Don’t you think it would irk her to no end that she had decided to marry and then you entered into a courtship before she managed to? Blimey, she’d bring down thunder from the heavens, I’d expect.”
Relief was so sweet it was almost sickening, and it was all he could do to place one foot in front of the other. If that was all Hugh thought that would give Charlotte fits about the situation facing them all, Michael was safer than he could have imagined.
It appeared that Charlotte truly was not sharing the details of what had happened, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever appreciated discretion more. He’d do the same, of course, and would have had she been the only one with a potential courtship to hand, but he’d have thought Charlotte would tell the Spinsters, at least. Charlotte was all well and good where secrets were concerned with other people, but the Spinsters…
Well, it would not surprise him if they knew everything about their relationship from the very beginning, including Charlotte’s very clear and concise thoughts on the matter.
“It would, you’re quite right,” Michael managed around the odd taste in his mouth. “She was livid when Elinor married before her, so why should it not be the same with me?”
“I thought we weren’t extending to marriage yet,” Hugh teased.
Michael’s face flamed, making his friend laugh and wave him on as he approached Greensley’s home. His cheeks seemed to cool with each step towards the door, even as his heart pounded further.
If he wasn’t sure of his course before, he was now.
The door was opened at once, and he was let in with all due politeness as he extended his card to the butler. It wasn’t but another moment or two that Greensley appeared from his study and walked with him to a drawing room.
“What can I do for you, Sandford?” he asked with a friendly smile. “You find me all alone this morning.”
“That is just as I would hope, Greensley.” Michael inhaled, hesitating only a moment, then ventured, “I would like your permission to court Miss Palmer.”
“What lovely flowers, Charlotte!”
“All six bouquets of them.”
“I thought we weren’t entertaining all the men anymore.”
Charlotte smiled rather smugly as she raised her tea to her lips. “We aren’t. Those are all from Jonathan.”
“Jonathan?” Grace repeated with wide eyes. “Since when do we call the man by his Christian name?”
Charlotte sipped slowly, then placed the cup on its saucer rather demurely, if she did say so herself. “Since I have agreed to his courtship.”
There was a long pause as her words sunk in, and she watched the expressions of each of her friends as they began to have an impact.
“What?” Georgie cried first, her hands slapping in her lap.
“Courtship?” Izzy followed with a squeal of delight.
“You agreed?” Grace repeated in abject disbelief.
“Finally!” Elinor crowed as she raised both hands in the air.
Charlotte laughed at that one. “Finally?” she said with a look at her friend. “Have you been waiting for me to do so?”
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Elinor replied without hesitation, grinning at her. “He’s simply marvelous. Handsome without being distracting, wealthy enough to not be a fortune hunter, and charming without being insincere. And I think he’s rather amusing, which would follow if he’s got an interest in courting you.”
Charlotte made a playful face, but allowed that, as it was undoubtedly true. A man would not get far with her if he did not possess humor and wit, and he would have to have a decent quantity of both in order to take her on.
