Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Graham
That was the strangest thing I’d ever witnessed. Anna Lane wearing my spectacles. I looked at the skies, half awaiting them to turn completely black or for stars to start falling. Perhaps even the sun would turn red.
But nothing happened.
My spectacles weighed heavily in my pocket. No matter that I’d wiped them clean, she’d touched them, worn them. And it was strange. Even though she was Anna Lane, she was still a beautiful woman, and the familiarity she’d shown me was uncharacteristic, at least according to how she usually treated me.
But what she’d said about us hating each other, about how ingenuine we were with each other ... I’d hardly believed her words. I’d known she didn’t like me, though I had wondered why. But to hear, to see, how much I bothered her was more than the exchange of fiery words. This was deeply rooted within her, and to be the cause of it was unsettling, to say the least.
Over the years, Mr. Lane had taught me how to speak to people, how to put them at ease, how to compliment them, charm them, convince them to trust me. Connecting with people was part of investing. I’d always felt so at home with him, I’d never had to work to connect with him. I could always be myself. Unless Anna was around.
Of late, she darkened every room. Always shooting witty retorts to trip me up, make me feel unliked and unwanted. Who could charm their way out of that?
Cunning, calculated, cross. That was Anna Lane.
But everything she’d just said, how ridiculous she’d let herself look with my spectacles on ... Was that girl—that outspoken, teasing woman—who she really was?
She’d stood up and was walking toward Tabs on the rocky shore as though nothing in the world bothered her. There was no rigidness to her shoulders. No heaviness to her step.
How could I keep her that way—as content as Mr. Lane had asked for? She did not want me to engage her with business matters. What could I do? By the end of this week, I needed Anna to love Brighton enough to approve of her father investing with me. But I also needed to succeed on Anna’s terms.
Mr. Lane expected details, information, numbers. But Anna did not need those things. She already knew her father had agreed with my assessment. She sought an experience. One that might rival her childhood travels to Lyme. How could I give her that?
Anna and Tabs were standing at the edge of the shoreline, water lapping up on the rocks by their feet. Tabs pointed down, and Anna looked back at a large boulder nearby. The two walked over and sat down together, and Anna started tugging off her slippers.
I bolted to my feet, gesturing for my servants to clean the picnic, and paced to the boulder. “Anna,” I started, and Tabs gave me a mean look.
“Miss Lane,” she corrected. The little urchin.
Anna’s grin split her face. She looked up at me, considered for a beat, then said, “He has permission. For now.”
Tabs turned her back on me, and Anna added, “We are just dipping our toes in, Graham. Do not fret.”
I liked the sound of my name much less when she was annoyed with me. “I most certainly will fret. Your father has entrusted me with your protection. These rocks are too unstable. You might slip, and if you do—”
“You will be right behind me, I am sure. My knight in shining armor come to save me.”
She gave me a look full of sarcasm, but decidedly lacking in disdain, and I stood still, completely unsure of everything. She deposited her folded stockings on top of her shoes, which were set together on the boulder. Then she reached out her hand to Tabs, who grinned and took it.
“Can we take off our hats?” Tabs asked innocently.
I furrowed my brow. “Absolutely n—”
“Of course!” Anna said over me, reaching to unpin her own. “Just for a small time, though. We wouldn’t wish to burn.”
I spun around in place. The servants were working, but the three of us were otherwise quite alone. The last thing I needed was a rumor traveling about town for Mr. Lane to hear upon his return.
Anna stepped forward, unsteady despite Tabs holding fast to her side to balance her. Her foot was so small and smooth. So strangely intimate. And her smile stretched from ear to ear. This was her childhood, I realized. And she was experiencing it all over again but in a new way.
“Oh my, the rocks are so smooth.” She laughed. “You are right, Tabs. Walking is much easier without slippers.”
“Graham, you should remove your shoes!” Tabs said with wide, innocent eyes.
“No, thank you,” I muttered. Had the world turned upside down?
The sea came in small waves, lapping up and splashing gently. Tabs let go of Anna and dipped low to reach in the water, pulling out a smooth, bright pink shell. “Look at this!”
“Goodness,” Anna said, hobbling close, but not quite in the water. “That is a lovely shade. Where is your bucket?”
“I shall retrieve it!” she called, rushing past us. “Watch for more! Pinks are my favorite.”
The tide was rolling in, and Anna stepped out on the wet rocks. My stomach rolled, muscles tense with anticipation. She might fall or twist her ankle, and then what we would do?
“It’s so quiet here compared to London,” she said, eyes focused on where the sky met the sea.
It took me a full ten seconds to realize she was talking to me.
“Yes,” I agreed quickly. I was standing a full step behind her, just far back enough that the water could not touch me. “Is that ... bad?”
“No,” she said, looking over her shoulder toward me. “It is a good quiet.”
She spoke as though she knew the difference. “Peaceful,” I offered. We never spoke so easily like this, without effort.
She nodded, then turned back to the sea. “Do you come here often?”
Was this a trick? Another way for her to find fault in me? I waited a beat, considering. Her shoulders were relaxed, loose tendrils of her hair wisping softly about her neck in the breeze. The thin muslin of her dress, growing damp from sea air and the laps of water licking her hem, swayed around her, betraying every perfect curve. Her hips, her waist. My mouth went dry, and I swallowed.
“When I am home, we always come here for an afternoon. Just the four of us.”
“With how busy you are?” Anna looked back again and met my gaze, surprised. “Do you honestly?”
“Have you found any more shells?” Tabs called, taking quick but careful steps closer.
Anna hurried to look down, then crouched low to pluck one from the water. Her entire hem drowned, and when she rose up, a foot of her skirts was soaked.
The strangest thing was, Anna Lane—proud woman that I knew her to be—did not seem to mind.
Tabs hobbled on her last step and fell into Anna’s side, both of them laughing as they steadied one another.
“Here, I’ve just found this,” Anna said, pressing a shell into Tabs’s open palm. It was brown and plain, but to my astonishment, Tabs grinned and added it to her collection.
Anna lifted her skirts and followed Tabs, splashing down the shoreline.
If only she’d acted like this, wild and carefree and understanding, life for the past few years would have been much more enjoyable.
“Graham,” she called, startling me out of my wondering. “Our bucket is growing heavy. Carry it for us, won’t you?”
Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out my hand and took the handle. I did not know whether to believe Anna’s show of friendliness, for she certainly did not like me any more or less than usual, or if this was just a way for her to get through the week until her father came to claim her. I followed Anna and Tabs, receiving every shell and occasional rock sent my way, enthralled to see how my wild little sister had befriended the proud and prickly daughter of my business partner.
Until the tide rushed too near my boots, and I scuttled sideways.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, take off your boots, Graham.” Anna’s shoulders sagged as she watched me and shook her head. “Is he always like this?” she asked Tabs.
“Mama says he cares too much what other people think.”
I shook off the few droplets that had succeeded in wetting my boots. “When you are in the business of investing like I am, the opinions of others are important.”
“Well, I for one would not wish to do business with someone so uptight. I much prefer the playful sort.” Anna’s steps turned slow, lazy.
“Uptight?” I blew out a laugh. “You are one to talk.”
“I beg your pardon?” Anna’s brow creased in that familiar way, but her smile was new. Almost like she knew I was taunting her, and for once, she liked it.
I straightened, determined to play this new game she’d started. What could it hurt? Her father would never hear of it, as neither of us would ever tell him. And I was already so low in her opinion, I doubted I could fall much further no matter what I said.
“I have never seen you leave your house in any sort of disarray. Indeed, I hardly recognize you today.” I motioned to the whole of her.
“That is very rude,” Tabs chided me, and I could not help but laugh. She was right, but Anna had started it.
“I am quite at my leisure, Graham. You should try enjoying the view now and again instead of focusing on its investment potential.” Anna raised her haughty little nose in the air and turned away.
Tabs, the little devil, mimicked every motion, scoffing dramatically as she, too, turned away.
Lands above.
Anna was turning my own family against me. She drove me absolutely mad. One minute, she was still and quiet and beautiful, then the next she was irking me to no end. Uptight? I could relax, play, have a good time; Tabs knew it, too. I was not some titled or newly inherited well-to-do chap who dawdled about looking for the next round of entertainment. My family depended on me.
I sat on the rocks, set the bucket down, and wrestled with one of my boots. I’d show her how to have fun. I’d show the both of them.
One boot off, then the other. I threw them aside. Then I tugged off my stockings through muttered curses and threw them in the pile as well.
Anna and Tabs had left me behind, but all for the better. I rose to my feet, yanking an arm out of my coat. If they wanted me playful, I’d give them playful. I’d be as entertaining as any young buck strutting around London. Tossing my coat aside, I navigated the familiar rocks with careful steps. I hurried up behind them, unexpected, then, for the last few measures, bolted into a run.
I caught Tabs around the waist, and she shrieked so loud the gulls took flight. I twisted her little body over my shoulder. “How’s this for playful, little sister?”
“Put me down at once!” Tabs hollered, pounding my back with her fists. But I could hear the laughter in her voice. The happy fear.
I laughed, stepping knee-deep into the frigid water. “Did you not say this morning how dearly you wished to sea bathe?” I tickled her sides, and she writhed, half laughing, half screeching.
“Anna, help!” she cried, and I turned.
Anna had her arms folded, her face aglow. “Your brother has gone mad,” she said, laughing. “It is the most fearsome sight I have ever beheld.”
“He won’t hurt you. Save me, please!” Tabs called.
Anna looked happy. Wishful, almost. The sight of her so open, so rustled by the wind, made my breath catch and my heart pound in my ears. A reckless idea took hold of me. Poorly thought, I knew, but I wanted it. And when I wanted something ...
I whispered to Tabs, “I’ll let you free if you help me get her.”
“Deal,” she whispered back, breathless.
“What are you whispering about?” Anna asked. Slowly, she uncrossed her arms.
I understood her hesitation. We did not let down our walls with each other. This part of me, like her sea-drenched hems, was something new.
But instinct told me to try.
Just as slowly, I slid Tabs down my shoulder to the ground. “You go round to her back,” I whispered. “I’ll chase her straight on. On my mark.”
“What are you doing?” Anna started backing up, hands up in surrender, looking between me and Tabs. “Why did he let you go, Tabs?”
Tabs shrugged, grinning like a jackal as she rounded on Anna. “Dunno!”
When she’d moved far enough away, I shouted, “Now!” And Tabs took off.
Anna shrieked, struggling down the rocky shoreline.
Tabs with her nimble steps reached her in seconds, when I had only just begun to chase after them. “I have her!” she called, arms holding fast around Anna’s waist. “Get her, Graham!”
“He wouldn’t dare,” Anna said, half-heartedly struggling against Tabs. She eyed me with a fierce but playful glare. I knew her well enough after three years to know she was not truly scared. She was testing my limits. Wondering how far I’d dare go.
I stopped in front of her, face to face. “Good work, Miss Tabitha. I’ve wanted to make this woman pay for her crimes for a long time.”
Anna snorted. “My crimes?”
“That dinner basket you offered me back at your house wasn’t the first time you’ve tried to turn me out, was it? Your feigned politeness is like sugared poison.”
“Sugared poison?”
“Indeed, you are so polite. I recall your sweet concern over the scuffs on my boots upon our early acquaintance, and so pointedly in front of your father.”
“You could’ve been a thief, for all we knew.” She raised her chin, smirking. “I do not regret it.”
“Oh?” I stepped closer, until she and I were a breath away. A low ache settled deep in my stomach. This was the closest I had ever been to Anna Lane. We’d been in the same room more times than I could remember, but I’d never counted her breaths, never noticed the little scar above her brow. Up close and unreserved, Anna Lane was a new creature. Though, still, she had that fiery look in her eyes. And that tantalizing scent. Jasmine. Cherries. And the sea. “You will.”
I wondered what she thought of me, seeing me like this. At home. Relaxed. Tabs wanted me to play as I usually did, and apparently so did Anna.
Dare I?
Anna’s lips turned up, her shoulders relaxed like she knew I’d given up, and I took it like a challenge.
In a breath, I lifted her in my arms, cradling her close to my chest, then bolted toward the sea. She held fast to my neck, kicking and shrieking and begging for Tabs to save her.
“You wretched man! Let me down!”
My heart flew into my throat, beating fast through every limb. “This is for the goat cheese!” I said, tightening my hold against her efforts. “And that horrible little notebook you write in!”
I splashed into the sea, and she sucked in a breath, fingers digging into my neck. Her smooth hair brushed my jaw, and I swallowed in the sweet scent. Confound it, how could a woman be so overwhelming in every way? I’d danced with a hundred and not one of them had felt this good. This instantly familiar.
What am I doing?
“I swear, Graham, if you throw me in that water—” Her voice turned desperate, but she’d stopped squirming, her face still tucked into my neck.
“We could have been friends you know, three years ago when I first met you. But you decided I was your enemy. That perfect, hateful little smile you always give me—”
“It makes you mad, doesn’t it?” She was just as breathless as I.
“Furious,” I corrected her, taking a few more steps. My muscles seized with the shock of the cold water rising with my every step. “I hate the way you smirk at me. You know just how to be frustrating.”
“Throw her overboard, Graham!” Tabs called.
“And what of your condescending flattery? Hmm? ‘How stunning you look, Miss Lane,’” she mimicked me. Rather perfectly. “Just last week! What was it you said? ‘What a lovely gown. So flawlessly altered. You glow as though Aphrodite herself kissed your cheeks with envy.’”
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. The sea moved all around us, gulls squawking in the distance, the cool breeze rustling, and I stood knee-deep in water, holding her in my arms like it was the easiest thing in the world. “Every woman deserves to be complimented.”
“Sincerely.” Her eyes bored into mine. They were so light brown they were almost golden in the sun. I blinked, but I found I did not want to look away. Not from her eyes. Not from the curve of her nose. Not from those round lips that parted perfectly enough to be kissed.
I blinked.
Anna Lane.
Mr. Lane’s daughter.
Had I gone entirely mad?
I did the only thing I could think of. The necessary thing.
I dropped her in the water.
Gently, of course, as a gentleman would. To her credit, she fell gracefully, feet first, uttering something between a shriek and a gasp. The water soaked her nearly up to her waist. Slowly, she found her balance, her mouth forming a very shocked O, and lifted her furious eyes to mine.
Blast.
I turned on a heel and bolted back to the shore.
“You devil, Graham Everett!” she shrieked, splashing from behind me.
Tabs cackled, clapping her hands together with a gleeful look, chanting, “We got her! We got her!”
I’d just stepped foot on dry land when slim arms encircled my waist. Slim, but strong. Strong enough that I stumbled backward, and those same arms pulled me down flat on my rear at the same moment the freezing tide rushed in. Water crashed into my back; my muscles seized with shock, breath tight in my lungs.
Anna came round, standing above me and wiping her wet hands on the dry spots of her dress.
She tilted her head, clearly pleased with herself, then walked away.