Lord Marlton presses her about marriage

Lord Marlton was already into his cups, his dinner-jacket unbuttoned so the brocade of his waistcoat was clearly visible and his face was splotched with ruddy spots. He held a silvered crystal goblet loosely in his fist, but he lurched to his feet when she entered the great dining hall. Smiling broadly her father waved her over to the windows that looked out over the village at the bottom of the hill. Both her Aunts were waiting by their brother's side, they too were already drinking and had an air of suppressed excitement.

"Charlotte, my dear, how lovely you look this evening." Behind him Charlotte saw her aunts exchange a snide smirk and she knew just what they were thinking, her skin was freckled and tanned by the sun and nothing short of an act of God himself could take away the extra inches that made her tower over the other women in the room. Her aunts had made her shortcomings very clear, but today Charlotte knew that at least one man (and very likely two of them) found her desirable; with that knowledge, the opinions of two spinsters no longer seemed as important. Charlotte giggled inside as she tried to imagine either of the sour-faced spinsters as a young debutante flirting coyly with eager suitors.

That was hard, but not impossible to picture. However when she tried to extend the mental picture to one of them unlacing a man's leggings and slipping their small palms into the open waistband her imagination failed her. Had either of those matrons ever held a man's pulsing cock in their hands? Or stroked it as she had until it erupted like Vesuvius of old? Impossible!

As she crossed the room to join the others she wondered if the knowing smile on her face today was different from her smile of a week ago. Could her family tell just by looking that she was no longer the innocent girl they thought they knew?

"Ah Charlotte." Lord Marlton continued "I have wonderful news." Charlotte wondered what could have her father even more pleased than the end of Black Brand and the return of law and order to his lands. "Mr. Worthington has asked for your hand in marriage." Before she could find the words to respond to the long anticipated request Aunt Jane took her hand in hers and gave it a firm squeeze.

"It's wonderful, Charlotte." People are beginning to talk, "After all, you'll be twenty-one next autumn and Elizabeth and I know only too well that once a woman reaches that age there is little interest from any proper suitors." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "You cannot imagine the sorts of unsavoury speculators that will start circling like vultures over a bloated carcass." Aunt Elizabeth from the other shoulder hurried to assure her that Jason was not one of those unsuitable suitors.

"Mr. Worthington is not one of those questionable adventurers, your father has been very careful to ensure that he is worthy of your hand." Charlotte still couldn't find the words to describe the mixture of emotions that clamored for attention. She decided somberly that her aunts would undoubtedly categorize of Mr. Fuller as one of those opportunistic vultures; a man eager to take advantage of a young woman **** for matrimony.

"Wonderful, wonderful," Marlton either did not notice or chose to ignore his daughter's reserved response and swept the women towards the dining room entrance. "I will send word to Lord Worthington, that his son should plan on yet another visit to Lady Charlotte to formalize the matter." The knowledge that Jason would be proposing to her within the week twisted Charlotte's intestines into a knot; until she met Mr. Fuller she might well have been as pleased with the union as her family was, but now ... Major Talbot added his best wishes to the others but Charlotte barely heard the words. What did that brazen outlaw have to do with her marriage plans? It wasn't like she could marry a convicted felon like him!

Charlotte could feel her world collapsing around her, she could refuse this offer - it was not too late if she put her foot down now. The provision in her mother's will supported her right not to marry against her will, but the fight with her father would be ugly and the older she got the less support there would be from the judiciary. Charlotte knew too well that the Honourable Lords of the courts were men very much like her father, it is one thing to defend a tender young maiden of sixteen from an unwanted marriage, but to let a woman in her twenties defy her elders with no valid justification could set dangerous precedents.

Taking her seat at the dinner table across from her father Charlotte considered what she should say.