“Lucas is leaving the country,” Evelyn had blurted out by way of greeting before taking a seat on the chaise and helping herself to some of Anna’s freshly poured tea.
Anna had been, of course, thoroughly shocked, though she still managed to signal to her maid to fetch another cup.
Serving Britain in the navy had been the sole focus of Lucas’ life for these past years. The navy had been the reason he’d left her without so much as a goodbye all those years ago. Nobody knew exactly what he’d been doing since he’d left it behind, though by all accounts he was rich enough to live as an idle gentleman for the rest of his life if he so chose. But leaving England?
Anna, of course, had pressed for more information, but Evelyn had none. However, she did have a promise from him to come to dinner at Andrew’s townhouse the next evening.
Anna’s heart had thundered at the news.
Dinner was small. Intimate, even, especially this one since Evelyn informed her that she only intended on it being herself and Andrew, Jonathan and Gabrielle, and Lucas and Anna.
Thank goodness Anna’s mother had decided to take her leave this morning, loudly bemoaning the fact that neither of her children, nor her ungrateful chit of a niece, had bothered begging her to stay, much less accompanying her.
In response, Jonathan had fairly carried her to the carriage in order to speed along her journey and had sent her on her way having extracted a promise that she would be gone from the main house and into the dower house by the time he returned from Ireland.
All in all, it had been a dramatic event that only Mrs. Spencer could produce.
The slight pull of her hair brought Anna’s thoughts back to this evening and her upcoming encounter with Lucas.
It was exactly what family dinners would have been had Lucas stayed with her and married her all those years ago.
Of course, when Evelyn had told her about this dinner, she wondered aloud as to why on earth Lucas would agree to such a thing, given how he felt about her.
This was the point at which Evelyn had become terribly distracted by the fringing on her reticule.
It was when Evelyn continued to avoid eye contact and started prattling on about fish and venison that Anna’s heart had sunk. Lucas had agreed to come to dinner, unaware that Anna would be attending.
Anna, at that point, had refused to come.
But Evelyn was as persistent as she was interfering.
“How can you possibly resist finding out what he’s up to?” she had demanded.
“His business is none of mine, Evelyn.” Anna sniffed, though she’d have given her right arm to know what his plans were. “Besides, I am sure you will tell me everything as soon as you learn it.”
“Oh no, I won’t,” Evelyn had responded mutinously. “If you are too cowardly to come to dinner with the man, you don’t deserve the reward of knowing.”
Perhaps it was cowardly to avoid him at all costs. But it hurt too much to be around him; that was the simple fact.
On the other hand, she so desperately wanted to know everything she could about him, even now.
And besides, she thought as the internal war raged on unbeknownst to Evelyn, Anna had every right to dine with her own family. If Lucas had a problem with that, then it was just too bad.
“Fine,” Anna had eventually announced casually. “I shall come to dinner. But do not blame me if he takes one look at me and leaves.”
Evelyn had nodded in triumph and stood to take her leave.
“My dear, what man has ever taken a look at you and wanted to leave?” Evelyn scoffed before sweeping from the room without awaiting an answer.
“He has,” Anna had whispered to the empty room.
And so it was that she sat here now, in one of her finest dinner gowns, a confection of ice-blue satin, diamonds adorning her ears and throat, and feeling more nervous than she had felt at her own debut.
“All done, miss,” announced her maid as she moved to the closet on the other side of the room.
Anna smiled as she twisted her head this way and that, admiring Beth’s talents.
Her blonde hair had been curled and twisted until it sat at her nape in an elegant array of rolls dotted with diamond hair pins.
It was understated yet striking, perfect for what she wanted tonight. She had spent hours getting ready, but didn’t want to look like she had.
Beth excused herself to fetch Anna’s cloak. It was a warm summer’s eve, but the weather would be much cooler when Anna left to return home.
Anna worried her lip as she stood and inspected her image in the full-length looking glass. The gown skimmed her curves before falling in waves to the floor. She had worried that the diamonds would be too ostentatious. And truth be told, she really couldn’t stand to wear them usually, since they’d been gifts from Peter. All her jewellery had, excepting a couple of baubles her mother had passed down to her.
But she so wanted to look well. And she didn’t care to examine the reasons for that too closely.
Beth arrived back with a light-coloured satin cloak, freshly pressed.
“The carriage is ready, miss,” she said as she placed the cloak on Anna’s shoulders.
“Thank you, Beth.”
Anna turned and moved toward the door of her bedchamber.
“Good luck, miss,” Beth called.
Anna smiled her thanks, too nervous to speak.
Beth wasn’t privy to much of her situation with Lucas, but anyone with eyes in her head could see Anna’s anxiety, she supposed.
Stepping outside and moving toward her waiting carriage, Anna tried to slow the rapid thump of her heart.
It felt as though the vessel would, at any moment, tear itself from her body and take flight, straight to the man who didn’t want it.
HE SHOULD HAVE known. Had known, really, that she would be here.
Of course she was here.
Lucas wouldn’t have been surprised if there’d been a reverend here, too, lest Evelyn somehow manage to trick him into marrying Anna.
And it wasn’t just Evelyn. Gabrielle too was none-too-subtle in her attempts to shove Lucas and Anna together.
The saving grace was that Anna seemed as embarrassed as he was by the spectacle, or perhaps furious at their attempts to get her to slum it with a merchant’s son.
After all, if she’d been in on the rouse and trying to trap him, she wouldn’t be hiding in a corner avoiding eye contact. Would she?
He knew she was because he hadn’t stopped bloody staring at her since he’d arrived.
Did she have to be so damned beautiful?
He had watched as she’d fidgeted with her gloves. Had watched as she’d accepted a glass of sherry from her brother with a smile but little conversation. And he had watched as Evelyn had tried valiantly to coax her over to join them, but Anna had refused to join the conversation with a stubborn shake of her head.
And that shake had caused her curls to loosen a little, a tendril to skim her smooth neck, and all at once his mouth was dry as a bone.
No, from her behaviour he could safely assume that she had no interest in trying to engage him or bring him to heel.
Besides, it was more than a little arrogant of him to assume she’d want him now. He might be rich as Croesus, but he was still of low birth. No amount of the Spanish gold he’d acquired during his sailings would change that.
“Anna is looking marvellously well, is she not?” Gabby asked with faux innocence for the third time.
“Yes, she is,” Lucas answered evenly for the third time.
“Hard to believe she is still single,” Gabby continued. “I have not known her long, of course. But I know men. And her looks alone should be enough to secure her a hundred proposals.”
Lucas swallowed.
He tried not to imagine one hundred men close enough to Anna to even be able to propose. He didn’t care about her anymore, he reminded himself.
“And that’s not even considering her personality,” Gabby continued
while Evelyn nodded enthusiastically beside her. “A kinder, sweeter person you couldn’t imagine.”
“Oh, yes,” piped up Evelyn. “She truly is an angel. You know, since her vile husband passed away, she has dedicated so much time to helping the poor, the sick, and most especially the widows and children of fallen soldiers and naval officers.”
Evelyn dropped this last part into the conversation so casually that Lucas didn’t have time to school his face, and the gleam of triumph in the women’s eyes was proof that his shock had shown.
“She’s so dedicated,” Evelyn continued triumphantly. “Of course, Aunt Millicent is horrified that her only daughter would lower herself in such a way. But Anna has steadfastly refused to pander to her ridiculous mother.”
It was no secret that Evelyn and her aunt didn’t get on. Since Evelyn had gone to live with Millicent and the late Geoffrey Spencer when she was ten, they had treated her appallingly.
Lucas didn’t feel comfortable standing there having Anna’s virtues regaled to him as though she were a prime piece of horseflesh at Tattersall’s.
Besides which, he knew better than they that Anna Spencer’s heart could be as cold and unfeeling as was possible when she was so inclined.
The idea of her helping the soldiers and officers he had seen suffer. Of helping their widows left in inevitable poverty. Well, it threw him. It was a subject close to his heart, and he didn’t need anything endearing Anna Grant to him. Not now when it was far too late.
“The Anna I knew wouldn’t have cared a jot for anyone below her. What a surprise to hear she is so vastly changed.”
The silence in the wake of these words was deafening. Not in the least because the two women standing before him were glaring at him and quite capable of seriously damaging him should they choose to. Evelyn was a crack shot, and Gabrielle probably knew about fifty ways to kill him with just a finger.
“Excuse me,” he said and sketched a quick bow before making his way to Jonathan and Andrew, who had been engaged in a quiet conversation by the fireplace.
He might as well join them now, before their wives told them what he’d said about Anna and he had to add them to the list of people who would want to injure him.
“I just think perhaps a little more persuasion—”
“I have tried, Jon. Eve has tried. There’s no budging her.”
“Why is she being so bloody stubborn?”
“Because she’s a Spencer,” Andrew answered dryly.
Both men looked up at Lucas’ approach, and without a word, Jonathan poured a finger of brandy into a tumbler then passed it to him.
“What are you discussing?” Lucas asked, uncaring if the question was a bit forward. He was growing steadily more comfortable in the company of these two men, which was ironic since at one time they had both thought Lucas was chasing their respective wives.
“Anna,” Andrew answered, and Lucas’ heart dropped.
It seemed there was no escaping the woman, even if he purposely kept the width of the room between them.
He glanced over once more to see that Anna had now been joined by Evelyn and Gabby.
The thud of relief he felt in his heart that she wasn’t left alone in the corner was as surprising as it was unwelcome.
Anna Grant didn’t need him looking out for her. And he didn’t need to torment himself by doing so.
“She’s being — stubborn,” Andrew expanded.
“She’s being a pain in my arse,” Jonathan countered bluntly.
“What has she done?” Lucas asked, though he shouldn’t care.
“Well, as you know, Gabby and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Ireland, and since the Season is drawing to a close and never appealed to Evelyn anyway, Andrew and Evelyn are going to his seat in Shropshire.”
Lucas merely raised a brow. He couldn’t see what the problem was and how it affected Anna.
“And this is a problem because…?”
“Because Anna is refusing to go home and refusing to go and stay with Evelyn.”
“Right,” Lucas answered as though he understood, which he really didn’t.
Jonathan sighed and muttered an oath.
“I know it sounds ridiculous but — well, I do not want her alone.”
“She’s an adult, Jonathan,” Lucas answered mildly.
“Yes, she is.”
At the sound of the female voice behind him, all three men whipped their heads around and then down to find a furious-looking Anna glaring at them, arms folded, lips pursed.
She looked like a stern, beautiful governess who needed to loosen up, and Lucas’ mind immediately went somewhere it had no business going in front of her brother.
He forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand, which was that Anna was furious with all three of them, even though he’d done nothing wrong.
GRANTED, THIS WASN’T how she would have chosen to speak to Lucas for the first time. But really, it was the outside of enough that he would be discussing her life with her brother and brother-in-law when he wouldn’t even speak two words directly to her.
The three of them looked like overgrown children about to be scolded for their misdeeds, but Anna refused to smile at the picture they painted.
She was heartily sick of this.
Ever since Peter had, frankly, done her a favour and offed himself, her family had been tiptoeing round her, treating her as though she were made of china.
In fact, even before then, that had been the case.
Her life with Peter had been the stuff of nightmares at times; there was no doubt about that. But she had survived it, hadn’t she? Without any help from them.
“Jonathan, how many times do we have to have this conversation? I am not a bloody child. I am a grown woman. Stop trying to control my life.”
Anna stared at her brother, refusing to look at anyone else.
If she saw the disgust that was sure to be in Lucas’ eyes, because she knew her behaviour was not that of a lady of the ton, then she would very likely burst into tears, making an even bigger spectacle of herself.
“I’m not trying to control your life, Anna. I just worry about you,” Jonathan murmured, looking suitably chastised.
Anna could hardly continue to rant in the face of immediate contrition.
So, yet again, the rage, frustration, and dissatisfaction she felt at being treated like a little girl, and worse, at being treated like a charity by her own family, was pushed down and stifled.
“You have no reason to worry, Jon,” she said stiffly. “I have told you, many times… this is my life. I am comfortable. I am in good health. I have good standing in the ton. I do not need to live with my brother or sister, or, heaven forbid, my mother.”
Jonathan smiled ruefully at the last example.
“You need to let me live my life.”
There was an uncomfortable silence, and Anna felt her cheeks begin to burn.
She had essentially ruined Evelyn’s dinner party and possibly Lucas’ last social event, depending on what his plans were.
Thankfully, the butler arrived at that moment to announce that dinner was served.
His words seemed to break some of the tension, and Gabby and Evelyn began to chatter about anything and everything as they were escorted into the dining room by their husbands.
Anna turned to Lucas.
It was an instinctive action. He was the only gentleman left in the room.
She looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to at least make eye contact.
Her stomach was suddenly filled with rioting butterflies.
He would crook his elbow now, and she would place her hand on his arm, and finally, she would be touching him again.
After what seemed like an age, Lucas turned to look at her.
She smiled softly, hesitantly.
He stared blankly back.
And then, without a single word, he turned and made his way to the dining room, leaving her standing alone.
CHAPTER FOU
R
“LUCAS, I SIMPLY must ask. What do you do now that you’ve left the navy?”
Lucas couldn’t help but smile at the impertinent question.
Gabrielle Dumas — well, Gabrielle Spencer now — had never been concerned with things like subtlety and good manners.
“At least let him finish his soup.” Jonathan smiled at his wife.
Gabby tossed her head in true Gallic fashion. “He can tell me in-between mouthfuls,” she answered mutinously.
Everyone laughed.
Everyone except Anna.
Lucas felt a burst of shame as he thought about how he’d treated her, not escorting her to dinner. It had, he knew, been unpardonably rude. Thankfully Jonathan hadn’t noticed, or he’d no doubt be eating bullets now instead of turtle soup.
He wanted to apologise. He wanted to explain that he couldn’t trust himself to touch her.
But he was still bitter, still furious, still hurt. So how sorry was he, really? Didn’t she deserve such treatment?
After how she’d treated him?
“Why not start with why you left the navy?” Evelyn asked, clearly as concerned with propriety as Gabby.
Lucas couldn’t help but smile at their persistence. He found himself rather enjoying the stir he was creating.
“Evelyn, give the man some peace,” Andrew said, though his grin suggested he wasn’t too unhappy about the interrogation Lucas was receiving.
“I do not mind,” he answered. “I had suspected I was being lured here under false pretences.”
Evelyn smiled unrepentantly.
Lucas risked a glance across the table to see if Anna was paying attention.
She hadn’t spoken a word since they’d entered the dining room. She hadn’t looked at him, even once.
He felt another pang of guilt, and that angered him further.
What did he have to be guilty for?
She had abandoned him years ago, sent her father to run him out of town. And then, he’d made a fool of himself yet again three years ago, and she had rejected him. Yet again.
Perhaps she did look more vulnerable than he ever thought possible. Perhaps her beauty now had a sadness and fragility about it that it hadn’t had in the past.
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