The Trouble with Anna

Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

Y OU’RE VERY QUIET, ANNA,” SAID the Dowager the next night. The silver-tipped ostrich feather she wore in her hair brushed the top of the carriage as they swayed along the streets to Maltraver House. “Are you nervous for your first ball?”

“A little.”

“Quite right,” said the Dowager. “It’s a lot to keep straight and we haven’t had much time to prepare. Remember, your first curtsey should be made to—”

“Enough, Gran!” said Charlotte. “One more word and I swear my eyes will cross. Anna, if you must remember something, remember to dance until your feet ache, then hide your slippers behind a palm and dance some more. Remember to have a glorious time, and if you’re not having a glorious time, remember to drink champagne—it lends even the dullest dinner companion some sparkle.”

“Charlotte, really! You know how your brother feels about over-imbibing.”

Charlotte made a face. “Shall we toss out the rules, just for tonight? It’s Anna’s first ball. It can be magic, if we let it.”

The Dowager frowned at her granddaughter. “At my first London ball, I took that last rule of yours too seriously and ended up dreadfully ill the next morning. My mother didn’t speak to me for a week. And at your first London ball, Charlotte, I seem to recall you nearly had your Almack’s vouchers revoked.”

Charlotte laughed. “You see? Magic!”

Anna nibbled at her lip. “I’ll try not to disgrace you, my lady.”

“All of a sudden, it’s not you I’m worried about,” said the Dowager with a meaningful look at her granddaughter.

Guilt shivered through Anna. She certainly had no intention of disgracing the Dowager, but she did plan on selling a horse and collecting more bets, neither of which had been covered in her extensive etiquette lessons.

The carriage came to a stop and Anna caught her breath. Maltraver House was lit by what looked to be a hundred lanterns, flickering over the stone stairs, gleaming off the guests who made their way past a line of footmen standing at attention. The men were immaculate in their jackets and snowy cravats or in the brilliant scarlet of their regimentals, their chests clinking with medals. But it was the women who shone, their silk dresses whispering, their hair threaded with ribbons or—Anna was shocked to see—strings of real pearls. Diamonds and a rainbow of other stones winked out from earlobes and necklines, or even from the impossibly tiny buttons that fastened the long gloves the women wore. Everyone looked so impeccably turned out, so alarmingly self-assured, that for a second Anna could only see them as one terrifying mass.

Charlotte leaned in. “You see that woman with the iron hair, glaring at everyone? Don’t stare! She’s mean as a wart, but it’s no wonder—her daughter died two years ago, poor darling. And that rather portly man looking down his nose? He talks with a lisp and it makes him terribly shy. They’re all just people, Anna. Some nice, some beastly, most in need of a little kindness.”

Anna tried to smile, but failed miserably.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! Did you bring your handkerchief?”

Anna nodded weakly.

Charlotte sighed dramatically and thrust her hand into the gap where the upholstery met the carriage wall to pull out a small flask, which she shoved at Anna.

Anna unscrewed the top and sniffed the contents. “What’s this?”

“Scotch.” Charlotte widened her eyes when the Dowager sputtered. “What, Gran? I know you and your garden club drink it when you think no one’s looking. Tonight’s such a special night I thought you might like to share?”

The Dowager went pink. “Really, Charlotte!”

Anna took a large swig of the stuff and thrust the flask back to Charlotte, but the Dowager swept it out of her hands.

“I’ll take that!” The Dowager took a quick swig of her own and thrust the flask into her reticule just as a footman opened the carriage door.

“One last thing,” the Dowager instructed Anna as they reached the top of the wide stone stairs. “When Julian joins us later, you’ll need to dance with him. One dance. Will you manage?”

Anna’s eyes flashed. “I will.”

“Wonderful. Perhaps without looking quite so murderous?”

“She makes no promises.” Charlotte swept the three of them into the house and down to the ballroom.

The butler threw out his chest to announce them, but the ballroom was so packed and clamoring that Anna had a blissful moment to imagine they might slip in unnoticed.

No such luck. Only a few steps into the room and they were mobbed.

“How do you stand this?” Anna yelled to Charlotte. Already her eyes were crossing, her brain couldn’t keep hold of a single name, and all the Dowager’s painstaking instructions had danced right out of her head. Anna forgot to curtsey entirely, only bobbing down when Charlotte gave her a particularly emphatic pinch.

“It’s not usually so bad!” Charlotte shouted, nabbing two glasses of champagne from a passing footman. “Everyone wants a look at you!”

“I feel like a creature in a menagerie!” Anna gulped gratefully at her drink.

“A lion, I hope!”

“More like a hyena!”

Charlotte pulled a face. “What a thing to say, when I’ve dressed you so beautifully.”

To be fair, that much was true. Charlotte was in lush rose, her gown gathered in a million little pintucks. It was ever so slightly—and very deliberately—too big for her. The smooth expanse of her shoulders rising out of the froth of fabric and lace felt slightly scandalous, as if she were one deep breath away from being entirely naked.

Anna, on the other hand, was ruthlessly tailored, the lines and cut of her gown clean and close-fitted. The beauty of the gown came from the fabric, a pale, glimmering gold that caught the light each time Anna moved, throwing shadows across her body. A band of darker gold embroidery dipped down low over her breasts.

“I think no jewelry,” Charlotte had said during her inspection. “There’s nothing like a naked neck to make a man want to nibble it.”

Anna turned scarlet. “Your brother doesn’t want to nibble me!”

Charlotte had smiled sweetly. “Who said anything about Julian?”

When the music changed, a young man appeared in front of Anna and bowed. “My dance, I believe?”

Anna frowned and looked down at her card. “If you say so. Which one are you?”

“James Marby, my lady.” He shot a puzzled look at Charlotte.

“Oh yes! The one who helped us place our bets.” Anna passed Charlotte her empty champagne coupe, put her hand in the young man’s, and gave a shrug. “God help your feet!”

“What was that, my lady?”

Charlotte choked back a laugh. “She said, ‘What a treat!’?”

“I believe she said, ‘I prefer to dance with my fiancé,’?” came a deep voice from behind them.

Awareness swept up Anna’s back, her skin suddenly awake and glowing. She stood stiff, refusing to turn toward Julian, but she could trace every inch of space he occupied behind her, as if her body had turned to stardust, shimmering toward his gravity.

“See here!” said Marby “I am not such a muttonhead as to mix up my dances. I would swear—”

“That Lady Charlotte would make a wonderful alternate partner? I quite agree,” Julian interjected.

Marby’s ears turned red. “The last time I danced with your sister, she tried to trip me, deliberately crashed us into a pillar, and said, ‘How dare you!’ as loud as she could when we circled by my mother. The lecture I got is still blistering my ears, when Mother should know I’m not that sort of man. Steal my dance with Lady Anna if you must, but spare me Charlotte!”

Charlotte collapsed with laughter. “Poor Marby! Was it as bad as all that? I was dreadfully bored that night, you see.” She linked her arm with his and explained, “Marby’s family lives close to Clare, our main estate. Don’t be fooled by his cherub face—he’s a fiend at heart.”

Marby brightened. “I say, Ramsay, do you really want my dance? I’ve been itching to try that new phaeton of yours. Shall we trade—my dance for an afternoon driving your phaeton?”

“Done,” said Julian, and before Anna could blink he lifted her away into the swirl of dancers.

“Oh!” Anna stumbled, caught off guard, and her eyes flew up to the hard lines of his face as he spun her through the first turns of the waltz. For a flicker of a second, Anna allowed herself to imagine that this was all real, that Julian held her close because he wanted to.

But he was stiff as a board and he wouldn’t look at her.

Anna wrenched her gaze away. “What a lot of people there are here tonight.”

“Really, Anna? Polite conversation? I don’t think I can stomach it.”

Anna’s jaw clenched. “Your grandmother was quite clear that we must pretend to be engaged, at least for a while.”

“Then by all means, let’s pretend. I’d hate to disappoint my grandmother.” Julian pulled her close and she squeaked. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said, his voice scraping roughly across her skin. “I’m pretending. This is how I would hold you, if you were my fiancée. I’d hold you as close as I could without causing scandal.”

“I see.” Anna tried to ignore the black of his jacket, how it almost touched her cheek. Just a few more inches and she could rest her face against his chest. She returned doggedly to her subject. “Tell me, my lord, do people really pack in like this for entertainment?”

He barked a laugh, a strange, harsh sound. “More polite conversation? If I were your fiancé, we wouldn’t talk about the crowd . I’d tell you I lost my sanity the moment I met you. I’d say you stole it, just as you stole my reason and my—”

“Enough!” Anna pushed back against the circle of his arms. “You may not like me, but there’s no need to tease me like this!”

His arms tightened around her. “Not like you? My god, Anna, is that what you—”

“I don’t want to discuss it!”

Julian’s face darkened, even as he continued to spin her deftly around the room. “Very well. But we will talk about your future. Perhaps not now, but soon.”

“My future is no longer your concern!”

“Last I looked, I’m still your guardian. I’ve spoken with my lawyers. I can’t recover Chatham, but I’ll buy the horses for you and provide a settlement large enough to start a stable of your own.”

“Settlement?” Humiliation left Anna scorched. “I won’t take it.”

“I won’t leave you destitute.”

“Only a very rich man could call me destitute!” she cried. “Besides, Charlotte and I have a—”

Anna snapped her mouth shut, but the damage was done.

Julian searched her face, arrested.

Guilt heated her cheeks, but his mouth began to curve and his tension fell away. The more rattled Anna got, the wider and more infuriating his smile.

“Charlotte and you…?” he prompted. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch that.”

Julian let the silence stretch out, long enough for Anna to trip on it.

The little troublemaker. What was she up to that was making her flustered, harassed, and pinker by the moment?

“I’m afraid I cut you off?” he offered politely. “I could have sworn you were about to say something.”

“Nothing interesting!” she snapped.

What a pretty pink she’d turned, the color of Cook’s bonbons that Julian tortured himself over. He was overcome with thoughts of sugar, and nibbling, and the shockingly addictive feel of Anna’s mouth. It wouldn’t take a moment to whisk her up the stairs and into Lord Maltraver’s rather notorious study.

He spun her around the dance floor, navigating neatly into a corner where his broad back and a convenient potted tree blocked her from the rest of the room. Anna’s neck was looking particularly naked tonight, and if they were in Maltraver’s study Julian could give in to his increasingly irresistible urge to lean over and—

He brought himself up short and bitterness flooded back. She wasn’t his to nibble. She wasn’t his at all.

In fact, she hated him.

Anna pushed up on her tiptoes and tried to peek over his shoulder. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” She always smelled so fresh, like lemons dipped in sugar. He frowned. Tonight she smelled smoky and almost peaty, like…

She looked up at him, full of accusation. “We were in the middle of the dance floor and all of a sudden it feels as if we’re completely alone. What a peculiar talent! Is it something all gentlemen can do?”

Julian frowned. “If any other gentleman attempts it, inform me at once.”

“Oh? But you may do as you wish?”

“Yes.” The thought was quite pleasing. “As your fiancé, I may do as I wish.”

“My fake fiancé!”

“I believe you are attempting to change the subject. We were discussing whatever scheme you and Charlotte have cooked up.” More silence, more stony looks, more barricades and fortifications. Too bad for her that he knew how to storm her castle. “How charming! You wish to play a guessing game. You and Charlotte are making a plan for your future?”

Her eyes shot daggers at him.

“Your plan is shameless, I presume?”

“I don’t know what you mean, my lord.”

An idea occurred to him and wiped his pleasure away. “You mustn’t worry about Chatham’s servants. Promise me you won’t do anything madcap for them. I’ll take care of them, no matter what happens to the estate.”

Her eyes blazed. “Chatham is my responsibility and the lawyer I recently contracted is working on it!”

“Damn it, don’t sell the horses, Anna. I forbid it!”

Anna said nothing, but an expression flitted across her face, fleeting as a firefly. It was both guilty and just the smallest bit… pleased?

As if she knew a joke, at his expense.

Odd. Interesting.

If only he could kiss her until her lips formed an O of wonder and all her secrets came tumbling out.

Think, man! And not about Anna’s mouth! Why should the idea of selling horses light her up?

The answer stamped its foot and shook its glossy gray mane at him.

Aha!

“Are we quite done here?” she asked.

Julian shook his head. “The music is still playing. I’m afraid our dance isn’t over yet.”

“We’re not dancing. We’re arguing in a corner.”

“The rules say you’re mine until the music stops. If you prefer, we can speak of more pleasant things. Tell me, did you like the horse I sent you? I wondered, because you never thanked me for him.”

He was rewarded when she choked.

“Th-thank you! Charon’s glorious. You know he is.” The musicians played the last bars, and Anna brightened. “Oh, look! There’s Lord Hartley. I was particularly hoping he’d be here tonight.”

All Julian’s pleasure fled. “You are not to talk to Lord Hartley.”

Anna stared up at him as if he’d gone witless. “Why? He’s my particular friend.”

“It’s unseemly for you to have a particular friend ,” growled Julian.

Anna yanked her hand from his. “I see. And I shall give your opinion the consideration it deserves.”

Anna marched off across the ballroom, making a beeline for Hartley and leaving Julian fuming behind her.