The Trouble with Anna

Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

J ULIAN PULLED YET ANOTHER PIECE of straw out of Anna’s dark hair, a feeble effort when the mass of it was tumbling out of its pins and the straw wasn’t half as incriminating as his stupid grin, her dazed look, and the sloppy state of their clothing. Besides, he had nothing to hide. He wanted all of London to know what he’d been up to with Lady Anna Reston in his grandmother’s stable.

Now all he had to do was get Anna to agree to a special license and he could drag her out of London and off to Clare, where there were any number of surfaces to flatten her against. He’d tuck her up in bed for days at a time, feed her up on scones and clotted cream and proceed to exhaust her completely, so all that came out of that querulous little mouth of hers was “Yes, Julian” or “More, Julian” or “Oh dear god, Julian, what a splendid man you are.”

His whole body thrummed in satisfaction and he had to laugh. Perhaps that last thought was a step too far, but he’d be more than content with one of those huffy little breaths she took each time his mouth touched hers.

He shrugged on his jacket, tied a careless knot in his cravat.

Anna surveyed him, her frown growing. “How do you do it?”

“Vigorously, and with feeling.”

Her cheeks went pink. She turned such delicious colors when he teased, it was all he could do not to nibble her. And now he was aflame too, and it wasn’t his cheeks.

Special. License.

He relented. “How do I do what?”

She flapped an accusing hand. “Look so…”

“Lordly? Commanding?”

Anna glared at him. “So unwrinkled . You were just rolling me around and—”

“I submit we were both rolling.”

“You’re impossible!”

He hauled her to him for a quick kiss. “Countess, for you I am easy. And if you don’t stop distracting me, I shall forget my true purpose for tracking you down to the stables and prove it to you. Again.”

“But you tracked me down to the stable to give me my ring, and also to—” Anna stopped abruptly. Too late. She’d already stumbled into the hole she’d dug.

“Yes,” he agreed solemnly. “Also that. But I have one last reason.”

Julian straightened her dress, extracted yet another piece of straw from her hair, and tugged her hand gently, leading her toward the farthest stall.

“A wedding present for you, although I’m afraid it lacks originality.” He swung the stall door open. “You may recall that I’ve given him to you before.”

Anna took one look inside the stall and froze. He could see her mind whirring with a million little calculations, all of them ending in a dying wheeze. Poor darling. He could almost feel sorry for her, if the moment wasn’t so deeply satisfying.

She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

“Yes, it’s Charon. Yes, I’ve bought him for you again. Instead of gawping like a fish, you might say ‘Thank you,’ or ‘Oh, how wonderful.’?” He paused, cocked his head. “Perhaps you might say, ‘Dear god, Julian, what a splendid man you are?’?”

She collapsed with laughter, and it slayed him to see her so unguarded, so full of joy. “I hope Hartley fleeced you badly!”

He shook his head. “No, lightning, you fleeced me badly. Hartley merely acted as my proxy.”

Her little mouth fell open.

He nodded apologetically.

“You blackguard! Do you mean I sold Charon to you?”

“The things you’ve tried to hide from me would fill a book. A book I have read, luckily.”

“I agonized!” She ducked neatly into Charon’s stall. “I suffered tremendous guilt! And I missed him. It hurt to say good-bye to such a beauty.”

The gray pricked up his ears and she glowed up at him. “Yes, I’m talking about you. Aren’t you the most gorgeous creature?”

Charon gave a full body shiver under the stroke of her hand as she murmured at him, opening her fingers to let him nuzzle her palm. When she turned back to Julian, she glowed. “Thank you. He’s splendid.”

Splendid. Julian’s stomach fell.

The horse was splendid.

Suddenly Julian wasn’t quite as enamored of his own cleverness.

My god, man, are you jealous of a horse?

Anna peeped at him. “Julian? You’ve gone all brooding.”

Julian gave a wry smile. “I’ve made a rare tactical error, you see. I don’t like to see you smitten with anyone but me.”

He had an impulse to catch her by the waist, lift her up to eye-level, and tell her that she made his chest ache. To kiss her until she was limp and her eyes went glassy. Say it! he urged himself.

Julian pulled her out of the stall and felt her breath catch as he pressed a fierce kiss on her forehead. “Anna, there’s something I must tell you.”

Her eyes met his, dark and full of hope. “Yes?”

“I—”

She waited.

“I—”

Julian’s throat closed up and his stomach lurched, leaving him shaky, uncertain, and exposed.

It wasn’t easy, this declaration stuff. It was damned unmanly! Worse, it was damned unnatural. Perhaps a declaration should wait until everything was more settled. Or until they were somewhere with less manure. On their wedding night, or after the birth of their first child. Now that he thought of it, there was something deeply romantic about deathbed declarations.

“Julian?” Anna prompted.

“I’m serious about a special license,” he said. “Won’t you consider it?”

She looked up and searched his face, those sharp eyes poking past the surface, as if she could see all the way down to his bones. The stable felt suddenly still and solemn, like a cathedral.

Anna laid her hand on his chest. “You look terribly unsettled, do you know that?” She spread her fingers wide, exploring. “Your heart is galloping.”

If only she knew.

“It’s trying to keep up with you.”

But she ignored his quip. “This isn’t easy for either of us, is it? We’re both so terribly mistrustful.” She dropped her eyes to his cravat, as if that could stop him from reading the expressions that flitted across her face. First sadness, which made him feel desperate and also inadequate, like a lone soldier trying to face down an army. Then her jaw firmed with determination, though he wasn’t sure what that meant. Just as he’d begun to despair, her little mouth curved helplessly and her eyes went soft and warm.

She raised her gaze to meet his. “I suppose one of us will have to lead the way. Yes to a special license, plea—”

But she couldn’t complete the sentence, because Julian crushed her to his chest and kissed the wits right out of her.