Chapter 27

“Goodness, this is not what I expected to be greeted with today,” Simon muttered, as he sat on the bottom step of the staircase, licking his wounded pride.

Anna folded her arms across her chest, pleased to find that she no longer felt any awkwardness in his company. “And what, pray tell, were you expecting? Forgive me, but you know you are not welcome here.”

“Who told you that?” Simon rubbed his neck, peering up at her suspiciously.

“Lady Caroline,” Anna replied.

Simon shook his head. “That is nonsense. She was encouraging of my pursuit.”

“When?”

“Pardon?”

Anna smiled sweetly. “When was she encouraging of your pursuit?”

“It is common enough knowledge that when a lady is interested, she pretends that she is not,” Simon said, as if Anna were an idiot.

“Alas, that is more of a common myth. When a lady is interested, she will show that she is interested. It will be there in her smiles and her laughter and her desire to be nearer to you and the way she, perhaps, stumbles over her words when she is answering a question.” Anna crouched down to his level. “I would also advise not upsetting her friends, for that is unlikely to serve you well.”

He puffed out a breath and leaned forward, holding his head in his hands. “I am sorry, Lady Anna.” He shook his head slightly. “I do not know what has become of me. I am not ordinarily like this.”

“What do you mean?”

He lifted his gaze, and his eyes were bleary. “I have never been so captivated by someone, and… my mother and father have threatened me, demanding that I marry before the end of the year.” He glanced toward the drawing room door, where Caroline was pretending not to eavesdrop. “I have been driven to madness, Lady Anna.”

“I hear that can happen,” she said, more gently. “However, you know that your pursuit of Lady Caroline must end here, do you not?”

He nodded weakly. “I knew the same night I began that rumor about you.” A pained smile curved over his lips. “I should not have done that to you, Lady Anna. You were nothing but nice to me, and believe it or not, I really did mean it when I said I hoped we could be friends. You are… lovely, Lady Anna. And I am grateful that the rumor did not spread. Truly, I am.”

“Why did you mention it at all?” Anna pressed.

He shrugged. “I knew you were in the Orangery—I had gone there myself to seek some solitude, to forge a plan of how to approach Lady Caroline. I saw you through the doors.” His gaze flitted to the stoic figure of Percival, still standing sentinel, and shuddered. “Then, I saw the Duke of Granville coming toward the Orangery. An idea came to me.”

“Was he right—did you do it to thwart him?”

Simon hesitated. “I did it to thwart two potential suitors at once. I knew His Grace had ceased his suit, but I wanted to make doubly certain. And I knew that Lady Caroline had shown an interest in your brother. So, I thought that I could kill two birds with one stone, and distract your brother enough with a family scandal to prevent him from spending time with Lady Caroline.”

“I would marvel at your stroke of inspiration if it had not nearly cost me my reputation,” Anna said stiffly. “Yet, the most deceitful schemes rarely offer the conclusion you desire.”

“Is what you do not deceitful, in a way?” Simon countered, though not unkindly. He seemed too tired for that.

Anna chuckled. “What The Matchmaker puts into the letters she sends is usually the things that the parties involved are not courageous enough to say. I might embellish, but I am never deceitful in the cruel sense. I help an affection that already exists to bloom. You tried to kill all the flowers around the bloom and ended up killing that too.”

He laughed quietly, meeting her gaze with a sheepish expression. “I had not thought of it like that, but I suspect you are right.” He paused. “I am sorry, Lady Anna. It was wrong of me to say, and to think, that your fate did not matter. I was… desperate, I suppose. Desperate to find a love I desired, rather than a wife of convenience that will be chosen for me.”

“I doubt we shall ever be friends, Lord Luminport, but that I can understand,” she told him, feeling a little bit sorry for him. He would not have been the first person who had been driven somewhat mad by the prospect of having their parents pick a match for them.

Simon sat back against the steps and nodded discreetly toward Percival. “I did not realize that there actually was an affection between the two of you. Bizarrely, I think I would have been less inclined to whisper a rumor about you if I had known.”

“He is my friend,” she replied. “Friends defend one another.”

Simon shrugged. “If you say so, though I would not behave like that for anyone other than a lady I cherished. Then again, I do not have any friends who are ladies, so who am I to judge? Nor do I have a lady to cherish anymore.”

“And do not forget that you also tried to put his name in the scandal sheets, during a time when he too is searching for a suitable wife,” Anna pointed out hurriedly, a warmth rushing into her cheeks.

“I cannot argue with you there.”

Anna stood up. “I hope you find what you are looking for.” She smiled. “If my identity had not been revealed, I might have offered to help you.”

“I wish I had known it before I did such… heinous things,” he replied, also rising to his feet. “I suppose I ought to leave before the lord of this household comes and gives me my second beating of the day.”

Anna nodded. “Yes, you should, and I hope it goes without saying that you should not call upon this house, or the young lady herein, again.”

“I am… not worthy of her.” His smile turned sad. “If I had been myself, perhaps it would be different, but… no matter. May I escort you out?”

Anna glanced toward the doors, noticing Percival’s posture stiffen slightly. “No, thank you. I shall be quite well to walk alone.”

“As you prefer.” Tipping his head to her, Simon made his hesitant approach to the manor entrance, slipping past Percival like a child trying to sneak out in their finest clothes to steal another half hour in the gardens.

Anna waited for a short while, wondering if Percival would turn to fetch her, and escort her out himself. But he remained as he was, with his back to her, as if waiting for her to make the decision for him.

“If you are not married by the end of the year,” Caroline whispered, sidling up to Anna, “I shall eat my bonnet. Goodness, if you are not married by the end of summer, I shall eat it.”

Anna pulled her friend in, smiling as Caroline rested her head on her shoulder. “That is the danger with hope, Caro—the higher you let it soar, the harder it will hurt when it crashes back to the earth.”

“And what if it keeps on flying, right up to the heavens?” Caroline replied, putting her arms around Anna’s middle.

Anna sighed. “At my age, dearest Caro, one cannot risk everything on “what if.””

* * *

Try as he might, Percy could not swallow the fury that burned inside him, that Simon had been so callous with Anna’s heart—a precious thing that he would have given anything to be offered. If Anna had not been standing such a short distance away, he was certain he would have marched after Simon and punched him, at least once, for the slight against her.

At least she did not discover me eavesdropping. It was a small relief that Simon’s arrival had distracted him from the door, considering how severely he had chastised her for the same thing.

Yet, as he had passed by, he had happened to hear his name mentioned and had not been able to help himself. In a way, he was glad that he had listened in to the conversation between the two women, for it had answered his question as to whether or not his feelings were returned.

Caroline had asked Anna quite directly if she felt anything for him, and Anna had not been able to answer. Earlier in the conversation, she had claimed there was nothing between them. It was all he needed to hold his tongue, to keep his affections to himself, and to keep his distance, as Max had demanded.

Not that it would stop him from defending her honor. Not that it would stop him from seeking out her company. Perhaps, by that time next year, they would be able to laugh and snipe about what had occurred this summer.

“Shall we?” Anna’s soft voice startled him out of his reverie, her hand sliding through his arm.

He swallowed his surprise. “Have you said your farewells?”

“I have promised to say them when I return.” She peered up at him.

“After you have seen my ruin of an estate, you mean?”

She laughed quietly. “I doubt it is as bad as you gentlemen claim it is, but I know my brother; he will not permit me to stay, no matter what I say. As such, I thought it best to inform the household that I might be making a more prolonged visit in… Well, by tonight, I imagine.”

“Are you well?” he asked, as he began to lead her down the porch steps to the carriages.

She leaned into him slightly. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

“I assure you, Lord Luminport’s feeble flailing did no harm to me,” he replied, coaxing a half smile onto his face.

She laughed again, such a sweet and musical sound. “I am glad. Indeed, I would like to thank you for defending me like that. You did not need to, but… I am thankful, nevertheless.”

“I thought you said you could fight your own battles?” He nudged her gently in the ribs. “What happened to your warrior courage?”

She grinned up at him. “I suppose I realized that I am much smaller than I thought, and that a tongue is only a vicious weapon in certain company.”

“Ah, I have been lashed well enough in my years with you. If you had reprimanded him half as savagely as you have reprimanded me in the past, there would not have been a drop of his pride left.” His half-smile became a full smile, as the warm sunlight bathed her in a glorious golden light that made her look as if she really had come from a different, more ethereal world altogether.

Anna tilted her face up to that shining sunlight. “But this is better, is it not?”

“What?”

She inhaled a deep breath of the summer air. “Being friends. Being friendly with one another.”

“I daresay it is,” he replied, as they reached her carriage.

But I want more.

The thought was a barb in his mind as he helped Anna into her carriage, holding onto her hand for far longer than was necessary. Indeed, he held on for so long that she turned back, wearing a puzzled frown upon her face.

“I believe it is customary for you to let go, once you have stolen such a task from the footman,” she said, smiling uncertainly.

He put one foot on the step and rose higher, until he was face to face with the woman he adored; her hand still held in his. Her eyes widened as he stood there gazing at her, his throat bobbing as he swallowed thickly.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

His other hand came up to cradle her cheek, his thumb brushing soft strokes across that rosy apple. He waited for her to shove him backward, to tell him to leave her alone, but when the rebuke did not come, he dared to let his gaze flit from her eyes to her lips. Remembering.

Slowly, he dipped his head, pressing a tender kiss to her soft lips. A moment of bliss, then no more. A goodbye that he could not resist.

“Go home,” he murmured, pulling back. “Tell Max that you have changed your mind and forget about this summer.”

She blinked at him. “What?”

“My estate is no place for a lady,” he told her. “It is no place for any sort of lady. I am giving up my search, Anna.”

As he stepped back, she shook her head as if emerging from a trance. “You… kiss me, twice, and then you tell me to… go home? What sort of… devil are you?” Her breath hitched. “Are you determined to see if you can leave a greater wound than any gentleman before you?”

“I do not mean to wound you at all,” he replied sincerely. “But I am selfish, and I am harsh, and I am not capable of inflicting anything but harm. I am not capable of gentleness and affection and love. Love makes people do the most foolish things, after all.”

He closed the carriage door on her and walked to the front, where he looked up at the driver. “When the front carriage leaves, you are to remain here. Lady Anna will be residing at Westyork tonight—it is against her wishes, but her brother has commanded it.”

The driver tapped the side of his nose. “Aye, Your Grace.”

As Percival walked to the front carriage and got inside, his mind was made up; he would spend a few days with Dickie and Max at Granville House and then, no more of that either. For he had realized that he could not have one without the other, and he simply did not have it in him to be just a friend to Anna.

Sitting down, he rubbed the heel of his palm against his chest, where that strange ache had returned with a vengeance.