“Beatrice said I could,” Anna replied. “You do not have her permission, and I will not sneak you a bottle, so do not ask.”
“How unkind you are to your favorite brother.”
Anna saw him silhouetted in the cellar doorway and could not resist smiling. “Who said you were my favorite?”
“Ah yes, for Max’s sake, we should keep that a secret.” Dickie stretched down his hand to help his sister up the last few steps, back into the warm light of the kitchens.
Brushing dust off her skirts, she weaved her arm through her brother’s. “What brings you down here? Were you sent to ensure I had not fallen to my death?”
“Matilda was worried. She challenged me to find you within ten minutes, so do not think this is a selfless act.” He grinned. “I simply have a sense for where you might be hiding when you are overwhelmed.”
Anna continued to brush the dust from her skirts, though there was not a speck left. “Who said I was overwhelmed?”
“Matilda suspected they had been too… aggressive, though she would not say about what. They are waiting in the study for you, to resume the revelries.” Dickie took the champagne bottle from her, tucked it under his free arm, and led her out into the labyrinth of hallways. “Is it, perchance, to do with Lord Luminport?”
Anna cast him an imploring look, and he gave a discreet nod of understanding.
“What of you?” she said stiffly. “Has anyone captured your attention? Caro, perhaps?”
Of course, she knew that Caroline had shown some interest in her brother, and that he had shown interest in her in return, but with Dickie, that didn’t always mean much. Nevertheless, she would not allow him to hurt Caro, and intended to warn him that if he was not serious with his intentions, he should leave her be.
First, however, she wanted to gauge the potential.
Dickie smiled, but it did not reach his eyes as it usually did. “Caro is, perhaps, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Any gentleman would be a king if he were to have such a lady at his side, but I feel nothing beyond a friendly affection toward her.” He cast his sister a sideways glance. “There is no need to scold me or warn me, Anna. I have already decided to keep my distance. I do not want to hurt her any more than anyone wants to see her hurt.”
“What? But… you seemed to be getting along so well.” Anna had not expected that sort of awareness from her brother; she had already been rehearsing the mild threat she had meant to give him.
Dickie nodded. “That is part of the trouble, I think. We agree on everything, and though that is a lovely thing in a friend, it is—to my shame—rather boring in a bridal possibility.” He squeezed Anna’s arm. “She feels the same, before you berate me. I have encountered enough ladies to know when I am boring one.”
“But a happy marriage is built upon agreeing, and two people sharing the same values, and thinking alike!” Anna protested.
They turned a corner onto the main hallway, where the sound of music and laughter echoed up to the cavernous ceilings, coming from the glowing light of the drawing room at the farthest end.
Dickie hesitated and pressed on. “You think I know nothing of love, and perhaps you are right, but what Idoknow is that a marriage is successful when you want to be together despite your disagreements. When you do not see eye to eye on everything, but you look out on your life together anyway, becausethatis what you agree on the most—being with one another, and only one another.”
Astonished, Anna almost missed her footing as she walked along at her brother’s side. Never in her life would she have thought that Dickie could sound so wise and, moreover, that she would see the sense in what he said.
Nor was it the only thing he had said that struck a chord in her. The way he spoke of Caroline was exactly the way she currently felt about Simon: He was handsome, he was sweet, and any woman would be lucky to have him at her side… but she felt nothing beyond a friendly affection. It was not the fierce and fiery love she had always declared she would find in the real world. It was not even close.
“No retort?” Dickie teased. “No damning lecture? No protest?”
Anna gazed ahead at the pool of light spilling from the drawing room. “I am thinking of one.”
But as they parted ways halfway down the hall, Anna retrieving the champagne before Dickie could scamper off with it, she still had no reply for him. She could pick no hole in his argument, though a few were forming in her own.
Perhapsshehad been looking at things all wrong.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
“What is your estate like?” Lady Joan asked, as she walked the reed-bordered shores of the fishpond with Percy.
He heard her, but it was as if she was speaking to him underwater. “Hmm?”
“What is your estate like? Does it have grounds as splendid as this?” Lady Joan repeated, smiling up at him.
He nearly laughed. “Alas not. My estate is… in the midst of a refurbishment, but it has a rugged sort of charm.”
“Ah, it is in need of a woman’s influence.” Lady Joan nodded as if that answered everything.
