Read Highest Stakes for Free Online

propitious moment, I pressed my advantage. I begged that he should grant our betrothal in truth, but he threatened to give me the boot. He means it, Charlotte. As long as I am in his employ, I shall never be more to him than some mindless lackey!"
      "What he thinks signifies nothing! I know you for the man you are, and you are the man I love." She stroked his cheek with tenderness. "Only this is of consequence. If he will not be moved, then we will just run away together. I have my father's timepiece and my mother's pearls. Surely they could sustain us for a time."
      "But only for a time, my love, and notwithstanding that I could never allow it. As it is, without your dowry, we could scarce feed ourselves. No, my love, I am resolved to make my own way and return to you only with respectability and means. Unless I can provide for you in at least a modest semblance of the manner to which you are accustomed, there should be a perpetual cloud dimming our happiness."
      "How can you say so?" she pleaded. " Our love is what matters."
      "Charlotte, a woman must respect the man she marries, and should I fail to support a wife and family by living hand-to-fist, I would never be worthy of your respect or your love. I must make my own way."
      "But how? You aren't going away?"
      "I must."
      "B-but for how long?" Her voice broke; her heart wrenched.
      "That I cannot answer, my love, but we are young. We have time." He drew her hands to his heart.
      "When will you leave?" Her lip quivered.
      "Soon."
      "Oh, my love. My only love." Charlotte flung herself into his arms.

Three

    AN ORPHAN'S TALE

    C harlotte Wallace was thirteen when her uncle's carriage came to collect her three weeks after her parents' accidental deaths. Sir Garfield Wallace's instructions to his London man of business were brief and concise: close up the house, auction off the contents, and dismiss all the servants, save one to care for the child. His directives left Charlotte in an empty house, awaiting the arrival of a man she hardly knew, to take her to a home she had never seen.
      Upon the appointed day at precisely the appointed time, the grand coach-and-four arrived at the modest house on Mount Pleasant near to Grey's Inn Road.
      Perched upon the window seat of the second-floor salon, Charlotte peered apprehensively through the window, hoping her first glimpse of her uncle would provide a glimmer of hope for her future. The vision meeting her eyes did little to diminish her qualms. The footman opened the carriage door, and the portly gentleman wedged himself through the narrow opening and descended. Brushing off the footman's assistance with a frown, he straightened his waistcoat, righted his crooked periwig, and lumbered to the front door with the chastised footman following behind.
      Catching her charge spying out the window, Letty pulled the girl briskly away. "Come, Charlotte. Ye don't want yer uncle to catch ye. 'Twould not be good manners, and ye daren't make a bad impression, seein' he's the only kin come to claim ye."
      Charlotte valiantly battled the incipient tears, but her quivering lip gave her away.
      "Oh, my poor lamb! It breaks me heart, it does, after what ye been through, but ye needs t'pick yer chin up. 'Twill be a'right in the end. Ye go to a grand house in the country wi' two cousins to keep ye comp'ny, and rest assured, Letty'll never leave ye."
      "But I don't even remember them, Letty, not any of them!"
      "I can't doubt it, lambkin. Ye were very young, mayhap three or four the last time that ye visited the Yorkshire kin, but 'tis no matter, luv. Yer cousins'll come to be like brother and sister to ye in no time."
      "I pray you're right, Letty."
      "Rest assured, my duck. 'Twill be all right in the end." She offered an encouraging wink, which Charlotte returned with a forced smile. A rap sounded briskly at the door, and with no other servants to answer it, Letty left her