The Trouble with Anna

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

T HE TREES WHIPPED BY ON Julian’s long gallop back to Mayne. He stalked into the entry hall, calling to Gifford, “Where is Lady Charlotte? I need her at once.”

“Oh, hullo, Julian!” Charlotte, a streak of buttercup yellow, raced down the staircase. “I can’t stop now, Anna’s expecting me.”

Julian’s eyes went flat. “I’m afraid it can’t wait. In the drawing room, if you please.”

Charlotte heaved a great sigh and clomped down the last few stairs. “Very well, but do be quick. And if it’s about those trifling few bets I placed, I’ll tell you right now that it’s my allowance and I shall spend it as I —”

“It’s not your allowance.”

“Oh dear. More serious than Charlotte’s allowance?” A soft voice wafted down the hall and Julian looked over to see his grandmother, thinner than ever but straight as a pin, making her way toward him.

“Gran!” He strode down the hall toward her, took up both her hands, and lifted them up for a kiss, inhaling the deeply familiar scent of sweetbrier and newly turned earth, as if she were fresh from the garden. “I wasn’t expecting you for hours yet, and Charlotte didn’t see fit to mention that you’d arrived.”

He frowned over at his sister, who had the grace not to roll her eyes.

For once.

The Dowager smiled, as serene as ever. “That child is always highly occupied . Only at my age does one begin to understand that calm seas are infinitely better than turbulent ones. Now, may I join you, or is this a private matter?”

His mouth flattened.

“Ah. It’s dire indeed. In that case, you may need me.” The Dowager held out her arm to Julian, who tucked it into his elbow and escorted her into the drawing room, where he settled her into a well-cushioned chair.

Charlotte, in case her displeasure wasn’t clear already, heaved another loud sigh, tramped in after them, and propped herself moodily against the fireplace, her dark hair massing like storm clouds.

The Dowager arranged one of her shawls across her lap and nodded to her grandson. “Now then. You may begin.”

Julian summoned his patience. He adored his half sister and grandmother, but his life would be considerably easier if he could manage to adore simpler creatures. Like chickens. Or a herd of well-mannered cattle.

“Charlotte, my news concerns your friend. Lady Anna has been involved in something unsavory—”

“Oh, how wonderful !” Charlotte pushed away from the fireplace and clapped her hands. “A scandal is just the thing to cheer her up.”

The Dowager threw back her head and laughed, until she caught Julian’s look and make a weak attempt at a coughing fit.

“It is not wonderful. Lady Anna is to inherit Chatham—”

Charlotte lifted her chin. “What’s wrong with a woman owning a little property?”

“Damn it!” Julian shouted. “She’ll only inherit if I marry her!”

Charlotte paled. “ What? ”

“You heard me.”

“Oh dear,” said the Dowager.

Charlotte shook her head. “I don’t understand. Anna’s not to inherit Chatham until you marry her?”

“There is no until about it,” Julian snapped. “I won’t be tricked into marriage nor led with so paltry a bribe. Lady Anna is not to inherit Chatham at all .”

Charlotte sank down onto a settee. “Oh, that old wart of a man! Oh, my poor Anna! What has he done?”

The anger banked low in Julian’s gullet sent up a howling flame. “What they’ve both done, you mean.”

Charlotte jumped to her feet. “I mean nothing of the sort! Anna would never agree to something so freakish.”

He forced himself to speak gently. “I’m afraid you have no experience with how far people will lower themselves for money.”

Charlotte paced the room, her skirts swinging wildly. All at once she whirled on him. “Tell me you didn’t get all lordly and terrifying with Anna, right after she received a great shock?” The answer must have been marked on his face, because her eyes narrowed to slits. “Oh dear. I’m afraid you and I are about to have a great many words, and not one of them pleasant.”

The Dowager Countess shook her head. “That’s no way to solve things, my darling. Now, Charlotte, you seem to believe the girl is a saint, and, Julian, you believe she’s a sinner. Which is it? Because the answer will determine a great many things.”

“Anna’s a saint!” Charlotte declared, although she looked instantly uneasy. “Well, I must admit that her tongue is sharp and her temper is uncertain. I wouldn’t place myself in pushing distance of a pond, for instance, if I had recently wronged her. But I can promise she didn’t do this!”

“And Julian—why do you believe the girl is guilty?”

Julian thought back to the Viscount’s study, to Lady Anna’s dark head bowed in misery. Lady Anna was guilty because of course she was, because he’d seen enough of the world to know that people always were. “Ramsay is a great prize—”

“Aha!” cried Charlotte. “It’s your amazing self-regard! You can’t imagine a single female who wouldn’t want to marry you.”

“Damn it, Charlotte! You said yourself that she’s a firebrand!”

“Yes, a firebrand! Not a thief!”

Doubt crept in on Julian, cold and insidious. He couldn’t erase the memory of Lady Anna’s cheeks when she’d raised her face, the red slap of shock against her pale skin. If he was wrong, he’d behaved abominably. To a young woman, all alone in the world, who had some claim to his protection.

Christ.

Charlotte saw her opening and pounced. “Lady Anna is my closest friend . Do you think me such a lackwit as to so misread her character?”

Julian’s jaw worked. A rare uneasy feeling that felt uncomfortably like guilt rumbled through his stomach. His sister was many things, most of them trouble, but she was nobody’s fool. “Let me be clear—are you telling me you believe Lord Barton acted without Lady Anna’s knowledge? You vouch for her?”

Charlotte looked him straight in the eye. “I’d trust Anna with my life.”

Damn it.

Charlotte had once asked Julian waspishly if he had to be right all the time. The answer was yes, because he had 1,524 dependents counting on him, 1,524 livelihoods held carefully in his hands. But it seemed his judgment was badly off when it came to one small, silent, and deeply vexing young woman.

Julian gave his sister a cool nod. “In that case, I won’t detain you any longer.”

Charlotte gave a tilt of her head, magnanimous in victory. She rose to her feet, pressed a kiss on her grandmother’s cheek, and swept out of the room like a young queen.