We Were Wild Dogs

Chapter 5

As Captain Winter's arm circled around her back, Charlotte shivered slightly. Alec tightened his grip, pulling her a fraction closer. As they began to move through the steps of the waltz, a sudden shyness overcame them both. Charlotte worried that their previous conversation had been nothing more than luck, and that any conversation they would have now would return to the stilted platitudes of convention that usually made up any discourse within the ton.

"You're a wonderful dancer, Lady Charlotte." Captain Winters said, smiling down at her while guiding her around the dance floor with ease.

"And you, sir. Do they make it a habit to teach waltzing in the Navy?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid my previous partners were never as graceful as you." Alec responded.

"Oh?" 

"Yes, I'm afraid my friend Charles has the misfortune of being tall, gangly, and so uncoordinated that it's a wonder I'm still standing here after all our attempts at waltzing over the years. I've nearly gone overboard at least a half-dozen times, I swear on my life." Alec said laughing.

Charlotte laughed easily in return, which caused the heads of some of the other dancers to turn in their direction.

"We are causing a sensation, I'm afraid." Alec said, as he turned to cast a glance at some of the other dancers.

"If you didn't want to cause a scene, you shouldn't have asked me to dance." Charlotte responded, smiling up at him. Alec grinned wickedly as he leaned his head forward, bringing his mouth right to the shell of her ear, leaving Charlotte flushed.

"Tell me, Lady Charlotte, do you make it a habit of bathing nude in the middle of the woods?" 

Charlotte blushed deeply, suddenly embarrassed. She hadn't wanted to have the afternoon's events brought to light. They were private, a secret between the two of them, and though she knew that nobody could hear them, now that the words were out she felt suddenly cheapened. As if he were laughing at her, as if their afternoon encounter had been nothing more than an embarrassing joke.  

"And tell me, Captain Winters, do you make it a habit to trespass?" Charlotte replied, suddenly stiff in his arms.

Alec gave Lady Charlotte a confused smile. Was she mad at him?

"I was not trespassing, unless you mean in a metaphorical sense. In which case I would suggest not bathing nude in the middle of the woods, if you do not wish people to stumble upon you." As soon as he said the words, Alec regretted them. He sounded like an awful prig.

"Actually, sir, you were trespassing. The moment you crossed the river you were on my father's land. I am free to do as I wish on my property, and if that includes bathing nude, then so be it." Charlotte hissed.

Somewhere in her mind a very rational voice was telling her that she was being ridiculous, and that he hadn't meant to offend, but she was already deep in the throes of her own anger, and was enjoying the sense of vindication too much to extricate herself.

Alec began to feel his own frustration rising at her anger. He couldn't understand what he had done or said that she would be so suddenly upset, and as his own temperament was one that was quick to anger, he could not back down from the argument.

"You may, of course, do as you wish on your own property. But surely you must have realized the perils of bathing nude, even in the supposed privacy of your woods. Unless you were waiting for somebody, and therefore I apologize for interrupting your rendezvous." 

Alec hated himself at that moment. The air of possibility which had surrounded him when he first entered the dance floor had dissipated, to be replaced with a bitter and judgmental tension between the two dancers. Lady Charlotte was now rigid in his arms, and she was clearly seething with anger.