Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Anna stared at the devilish man across from her, forcing her voice to sound calm and confident. She had asked a question and was afraid of the answer, but his lingering gaze and silence were much worse, so she repeated her words, “How do you think our marriage will benefit me?”
Mr Klane leaned back in the leather, brushing his fingers distractedly across his full lips.
He was unhelpfully handsome. He was nothing like she had expected, thinking he would be an uncouth, low-class dog snarling and barking demands at her.
Instead, she was face to face with a dark, cunning, enchanting creature - with all the lure and danger of a dragon.
Something about him compelled her to speak honestly and truly.
It was as if his lack of decorum dissolved her own.
“Well, there is the obvious. A woman your age needs a husband and now you have one.”
“That is not specific to you,” Anna interrupted. “I assure you, I am not short of offers from other gentlemen.”
This was not completely true. Anna had admirers.
She had been the belle of several balls in her younger years.
Yet interest had waned in the last year or two, reflecting her family’s falling fortunes.
Gentlemen looked at her with admiration, citing her as a model of decorum and a guidepost for young ladies entering society.
Still, they did not beg for her first dance anymore.
However, there was no need for Mr Klane to know that.
He laughed. Anna noticed the way his cold smile deepened with fascination. She tried not to be distracted by the alluring, sharp line of his jaw, his handsome, white teeth.
“My, my,” he murmured, “you are somewhat impetuous, aren’t you?”
She blushed under the perusal of his dark eyes but refused to answer. He really was a rogue. He took out his cigar and lit a match. It was not polite to smoke in front of a lady, but Anna did not think he cared.
“Benefits, well, let me see.” He crossed his ankles lazily, leaning back so that the leather squeaked. “You will live comfortably.” He gestured around her home as if it were squalor, and her hackles raised.
“I live well enough.”
“You deserve better.” She was surprised by his words. She looked into his face for signs of mockery, but there were none. Only his dark eyes and a thumb slowly ran up and down the cigar. He saw her look and smiled. “A beautiful bird deserves a lovely apiary, does it not?”
Or to be set free, Anna thought bitterly to herself but couldn’t bring herself to say it. A second, smaller voice whispered quietly: He finds you beautiful.
“My country estate, Fallenbrook, shall suit you. My sister lives there.”
“You have a sister?”
“I do.” He blew smoke out of his mouth. “I intend for her to enter society this year with your guidance.”
“That seems like a benefit to you,” Anna pointed out, glaring. “Babysitting a young girl is hardly going to help me.”
“Well, you have not met her.” Anna wished he wouldn’t look so devilishly attractive when he grinned. “Well, if that is not a benefit, what of children? I hear most ladies are quite urgent about their need to be mothers at your age.”
“I see.”
Anna felt her throat closing up with trepidation.
The idea of this cold, terribly handsome man touching her was unthinkable.
A combined feeling of terror and guilty excitement rose in her stomach.
It made her tremor and she clenched her hands into fists.
She saw his eyes flicker over them and wished she had not.
“I would not demand it.” He spoke quietly.
“Excuse me?”
“I will not demand your body.” He looked at her with such a direct stare that she fought an urge to quail away. “Not immediately. I will give you time, to grow… accustomed.”
“That is…” Anna stumbled for the word. It was not kind. Nothing about what her father had agreed with this man was kind, but it was not the hardhearted indifference she had expected. She remembered her mother’s words about not judging a man on rumors alone. “Generous,” she finally said.
He nodded. “I will also give you leave, several days each month, to travel here for your mother.”
“Thank you.” Her surprise was genuine. “That is kind of you.”
“Does that not seem beneficial to you? Or did you have other benefits in mind?”
She stared at him for a moment. She could not ask him for what she really wanted.
She wanted to be free to turn his proposal down, but that was beyond her reach.
She wanted him to love her, and for her to fall in love with him and for them to live happily, but that was something she could not ask for either.
However, there was perhaps a way she could hold her father to account.
“Would it be possible to ensure that part of the debt you settle on my father might be portioned for my mother’s medical needs?”
Mr Klane frowned. “You do not trust your father to do it?”
“Not a whit.”
Mr Klane smiled again. Anna knew that somehow, with her blunt honesty, she had pleased him. In fact, she felt that so far, in every way, she had managed to please him.
“It suits me well enough.” He finished his cigar and drained his brandy. “Having my future wife’s mother die will do no good. The whole family would be plunged into mourning. It would hardly help my sister advance.”
Anna blanched at his sudden turn to callousness.
She had relaxed slightly in his company, and now his coldness hit her anew with the painful sting of his distasteful manners.
She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt like her mother had suggested.
She wanted to try. But he made it hard for her to like or respect him when he behaved like this.
Instead, she tried to match his detachment.
“Well then, that is another benefit for you.” Anna tossed her hair and tried to appear confident. “It seems like I am doing you a great favor, Mr Klane.”
“Silas,” he said, setting his brandy glass down and rising from his chair. “We are going to be married. You shall call me Silas. Or if you must, Lucifer.”
Anna sucked in her breath. She had heard the rumors of that particular nefarious nickname. It disturbed her, but she tried to hide it under a show of bravado.
“I suppose you may call me Anna.” She also rose and lifted her chin to his face. “I have no unnecessary monikers. If I must have one, I prefer Lilith to the Bride of Hell.”
He laughed out loud, and Anna felt a thrill of excitement. She didn’t know why, but she felt the need to impress him, to show that she could not be frightened. Perhaps it was no more than the instinct of prey before a predator, trying to deflect attention, but it felt strange.
His dark eyes glinted dangerously as he moved closer, and she held her breath, feeling a strange stirring deep inside her.
Keep calm, she told herself, he cannot be trusted.
“Good day, Silas.”
He smiled as if aware of exactly what had crossed her mind.
“Good day, Anna. I will see you at church.”