The Trouble with Anna

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

A NNA WAS ALL NERVES THAT evening and Julian seemed to like it. He came to dinner, again, and winked at her, and she was so startled that she dropped her spoon into her chocolate soufflé, earning a laugh from him and a look of grave concern from the Dowager.

“My dear,” the Dowager said, “are you quite all right?”

“Yes, quite!” said Anna, aware that her ears were burning as a footman whisked her spoon away and presented her with a new one.

But was she? Something strange was happening to her and it was all due to the whiskey-eyed devil at the head of the table, candlelight flickering over his face and casting all sorts of fascinating shadows. Even the hollow above his blunt chin melted her brains away.

Anna peeped over at Julian, who had bent his head to his ramekin and—Anna’s eyebrows beetled. The man had his nose over the cloud of chocolate and was inhaling deeply. If he wasn’t careful, he’d snort the whole thing up.

“My lord, what an unusual way to eat your pudding,” she called. “You’ll have better luck if you use your mouth.”

He smiled lazily and pushed the plate away. “I don’t care for sweets.”

“But you take a serving whenever it’s offered and then you stare at it with such longing. Why—”

Julian sprawled deeper in his chair, his eyes so warm that Anna squirmed. “What an interest you take in me, Lady Anna. Any further observations?”

Anna whipped her head back down to her own soufflé.

“Anna, are you sure you’re all right?” asked Charlotte. “You’re terribly fidgety this evening.”

“I’m fine!” Anna took an extra-large bite of soufflé to prove it.

Tomorrow, with Julian.

It felt half like a promise and half like a threat.

By the next morning, Anna’s head had turned into a clock, tick-tick-ticking the time until her appointment with Julian to “sort things out,” which sounded both ominous and promising. So when Charlotte gave a big yawn after breakfast, brushed a curl off her cheek, and said, “Fancy a walk?” Anna leapt to her feet.

“God, yes! I’ll meet you by the staircase in five minutes.”

“I need at least half an hour, perhaps more.” Charlotte squinted at her. “Must you be so sprightly in the morning?”

Anna was still ticking when Charlotte was finally ready—a full fifty-three minutes later by Anna’s head-clock calculations—but much to her dismay, Charlotte led them out toward the back garden instead of to the street.

“I’d much prefer a proper walk than a turn in the garden, if you don’t mind,” Anna said.

Charlotte shot her a grin, closing the terrace doors behind them.

“What about an improper walk?” She took Anna’s hand and pulled her deeper into the garden, only stopping when they reached a massive holly bush well out of sight of the house. “Quick, off with your pelisse and bonnet!” she said, crouching down and brushing aside the glossy leaves to pull out two enormous woolen servant cloaks and a pair of matching plain straw bonnets.

“Ooh! Have you planned some mischief?” Anna untied her hat and tossed it down to Charlotte. “I’m in such a mood for it today.”

Charlotte picked up Anna’s hat and frowned at it. “I’d like to do your hat a mischief. Really, Anna, it’s as if it were designed to be thrown under a bush.”

“Don’t be horrid!” Anna shot back happily. “Where are we off to?”

Charlotte pushed the rest of their things under the holly, swished on her cloak, and pulled her bonnet down low so it concealed her face. “We’re off to see London. All of London, not just the respectable bits we can go when Ivy’s with us. If we’re both dressed as maids, no one will pay us a bit of attention. Shall we?”

The two young women hurried out the back gate hand in hand, keeping their heads down and their laughter in check as they bustled through the mews and past all the grooms and stableboys onto the street. They walked briskly along the green, the sun bright through the bare branches of the plane trees and masses of orange and copper leaves under their feet, and then it was off through the brick corridors of Mayfair, striding along faster and faster at the sheer, heady freedom of being out together in the sprawling city, with no maid to follow them.

“Shall we take a whacking great walk?” Charlotte paused for a moment a few blocks from the Dowager’s townhouse. “We could go to Spitalfields and poke around the silk mills, or to Covent Garden. I wonder if the prostitutes would be kind enough to speak to us? I have so many questions about—”

“Might we go to Tattersall’s?” asked Anna, full of hope.

“Horses? No, thank you.” Charlotte brightened. “I’ve an idea!”

She dashed off and Anna raced behind her, streaking by the brick townhouses with their white porticos and the huge mansions carved from stone, by the stores on Piccadilly and the crowds of shoppers, and onto St. James’s with the palace gatehouse ahead of them.

“I hope the Prince Regent doesn’t make a nuisance of himself while you’re here,” Charlotte said darkly. “I much prefer his wife, poor thing.”

“Oh, look!” said Anna. “It’s St. James’s Park! The Royal Horse Guards are just beyond—”

“No horses!” shouted Charlotte, and strode on, marching the two young women through the park and down St. Margaret’s Street. She didn’t stop until she reached a little patch of grass across from the House of Lords and flung herself down on it, leaning back to let the sun warm her face. “All that power—breathe it in. Oh, Anna, I should have been a king!”

Anna plopped down next to her, laughing. “Did you bring me here to moon over Parliament?”

“I brought you here so you could moon over London, actually. Isn’t she glorious?”

Anna took in the sprawling Palace of Westminster, and Westminster Bridge over the Thames beyond, with boats scudding along its surface and the water reflecting the blue of the sky. Clerks and aides scurried in and out of the palace clutching papers to their chests, while on the corner a fruiterer called out the price of apples. The city seemed to have its own heartbeat, faster than the slow, deep thump of the countryside, and Anna was surprised how much it stirred her.

“Glorious!” she agreed.

Could it be that everything was glorious? Her heart had been so knocked about and bruised these last few weeks, but perhaps it was all about to come out right. It seemed dangerous to pin too much hope on her appointment with Julian in the afternoon, and yet she couldn’t stop herself. Her mind was in two parts, one urging her to run to him, and the other urging her to run far away.

It was a terribly busy place, her head.

Charlotte rolled onto her side, resting her chin in her hand. “What exactly is happening between you and my brother, Anna? I’m trying not to pry but I’m no good at discretion.”

Anna picked a long piece of grass and shredded it to bits. “Well, if you must know, sometimes I think… and then other times I… dash it, Charlotte! The truth is, I’m terribly confused. Have you ever…?”

Charlotte grinned. “Many times!”

“Why did I bother to ask? You’ve had so many flirtations and none of them mean a thing to you.”

Charlotte turned over onto her back and stared up into the sky. “If you must know, there was one time… but the whole thing was too stupid. It only lasted the course of a single afternoon.”

“You never said!”

“There was nothing to say. I met a man, I went batty for him, and I thought…” Charlotte shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but her eyes said it did. “I was wrong.”

“You’re being very stingy with the details! What happened?”

“Nothing. It seemed so momentous, but it all fizzled out and I never understood why. I was terribly glum until I realized he must have very bad taste, poor thing.” Charlotte’s smile peeped out. “Imagine having me on the hook and not reeling me in?”

“What a fool.”

“A complete cloth-head!”

Anna flopped down beside her friend and both young women stared up at the clouds.

It seemed to Anna that love had a way of mucking one up, making idiots out of even the most sensible people.

Was it her turn?