An Unconventional Courtship Read Online Free

have insisted on accompanying them. The man might be open to a wee bit of adventure, but his choice of profession indicated he certainly was much too proper and strait-laced when it came to decorum. He needed a woman like Charlotte to help him see the humor in life.
    No matter how attracted to him she found herself, she could not entertain the idea of marriage to a man if he didn’t believe men and women should occupy the same place in society. That would be the first matter they’d need to address. Then would follow the subject of children. She desired a large family, maybe double the amount any sensible man would want. She had some vague understanding of what a man and woman must do in order to create a baby. From the way her body had tingled whenever George had bumped up against her at the speech, she was definitely interested in researching the matter with him.
    • • •
    George settled into his routine on Monday, but his thoughts kept flitting back to the previous day and his encounter with the unusual woman with the lovely name. Charlotte Ashcroft had occupied his mind all the previous evening, and today he was having trouble adding his sums together. The bank usually closed to the public at two, and then an hour or so would be spent reconciling the books. Normally, it was the part of the day George loved, but today his mind was full of lilac water and silk. His customary routine was being interrupted, and it disturbed him.
    Jane Weymouth never entered his head when he was working. He never even gave her a thought. But Charlotte Ashcroft certainly did. Her petite form, which curved enticingly in all the right places, her pale hair and brown eyes, her scent of flowers, all played in his head. He could find her in the park this afternoon, as she so boldly suggested he do. She was probably accustomed to men crawling after her. But he was no ordinary man, and he would not be so easily tamed.
    He should have insisted on being given her card, so he could call on her properly, at her home, rather than at another chance meeting. Perhaps he should go to the stables and prepare his horse for a ride after the workday ended. If his mount took him to St. John’s Park, it wouldn’t be because Charlotte requested his presence, but rather because his horse needed the exercise. He pondered his idea for a few moments before he decided against it. There would be other Mondays in the park, and he had a mountain of paperwork ahead of him and then dinner with Jane and her family. Charlotte Ashcroft would have to wait.
    He thought for a moment about the more sedate Jane Weymouth. There was certainly no comparison between the personalities of Miss Weymouth and Miss Ashcroft. He never laughed in Jane’s presence, even during those brief moments when they were left alone together. And they certainly never sat side by side with legs almost touching. Perhaps this evening, as they gathered around the piano after dinner to sing, he’d seat himself beside her on the piano bench to turn the pages of the music for her, and their legs would touch. He wondered if he’d get the same sensation moving up his leg that he did when the fetching Miss Ashcroft brushed up against him.
    He passed St. John’s Park as he walked to his parents’ house, which was in the next block down the street. The park was surrounded by the most fashionable residential neighborhood in the city and anchored by St. John’s chapel itself. Surely, if Charlotte and Emma walked in the park on a regular basis, they must live close by. George studied each house that surrounded the chapel, trying to determine which might belong to Charlotte’s father. He wondered about her father and what type of business he was in. It must be something successful to be able to live so close to the park. And he wondered about Charlotte. Did she have many suitors? He assumed she did. Someone as lively and outgoing as Miss Ashcroft probably would have men at her beck and call constantly. He’d