We Were Wild Dogs

Chapter 4

The dinner started well enough. Charlotte was seated, as she knew she would be, towards the head of the table. Captain Winters, taking the seat his brother would have had, sat opposite her. 

Though disinclined to make direct eye contact with him - the afternoon's events had been enough - Charlotte was able to send surreptitious glances his way. She noticed that he did not entirely fit in with the rest of the guests at the Grimsby party; he was well educated in etiquette and proper societal deportment, that much was clear, but he still seemed apart from the other guests. There was a wildness to him, one that had been lacquered over by evening wear and propriety, but it was there nonetheless. His body, tall and muscular, did not fit into his evening wear properly. His muscles shifted constantly under the cut of his coat, and there was a restless energy to him that reverberated around his body like a halo. 

The feral Lottie within Charlotte struggled against her, desperate to greet someone who was so obviously a member of her wild society.

Charlotte looked up and glanced at Captain Winters again. He was looking at her, his eyes burning brightly. But with what?

Alec had to concentrate on his meal to keep from grinning. Sitting across from Lady Charlotte was a blessing.

He couldn't stop looking at her. He was like a man possessed. Alec had to use most of his energy to ensure that his movements were in check. But his damned traitorous eyes rebelled, and he could not persuade them to look away from the figure in front of him. Her dark hair was swept back, but small wisps escaped and Alec could just catch a glimpse of the soft curls which caressed the back of her neck. Every so often the memory of her naked form arose in his mind, leaving him aching and flushed.

Charlotte hardly noticed the conversations around her, and when the time came for the ladies to remove to the sitting room, she had to be reminded of her place. Charlotte felt rooted to the spot, and as she rose and turned from her seat, she felt Captain Winter's burning gaze follow her movements.

The sitting room was all a-twitter by the time Charlotte made her way in. The gossip was of course centred entirely around Captain Winters, and the Winters family as a whole. Charlotte sat next to Lady Balcombe, who was listening in on the conversation between the two young debutantes beside her.

"Why is everybody so interested in him?" Charlotte whispered as she joined the elderly Lady.

"Don't you know? I'm surprised you haven't heard about it." Lady Balcombe turned her full attention onto Charlotte and fixed her with a hard stare.

"I've heard of the Viscounty of Winters, of course." As one of the oldest titles in all of England, it was hard to miss. "The last Viscount led the family into financial ruin, did he not?"

"He did. But that's not what everybody is gossiping about. It's the new Viscount that has everybody so interested."

"The new Viscount? But I thought he'd had the title for a while now?"

"He has, but that's not the interesting thing. What has everybody so enthralled is the fact that he's gone missing."

--

Alec rolled his eyes as he listened to another long diatribe about the state of young men in London society. Dandies, the lot of them, apparently. What seemed to escape everybody's notice, however, was that the descriptions they were giving of these cretins applied to nearly every man in the room. Alec sighed and shifted in his seat, his mind naturally wandering through the house, towards the room inhabited by the women. Especially his lady, as he came to think of her.

Lady Charlotte Lamb. Alec gave a wolfish grin.

"What are you grinning about, boy?" Sir Edward said, settling in at Alec's side.