“Saving my reputation?” She laughed. “From what?”
Percy shook his head. “It is beyond foolish, Anna, to attempt to be alone with a gentleman. Nothing can be gained from it that cannot be gained from speaking with a gentleman in the safety of company, where your chaperone can see you.”
“I am six-and-twenty, Percival,” she replied. “I debuted eight years ago. Eight seasons unmarried, unwanted, cast aside. I hardly think there is any need for a chaperone, even if Iwereto attempt to be alone with a gentleman. Which I am not. Remove the ‘with a gentleman’ part, and that is what I was trying to do!”
Percy frowned. “But… I saw you. I saw Lord Luminport in the hallway, not two minutes ago.” He hesitated. “Were you not intending to meet him here?”
“What?” She stared at him as if he had grown another head. “Are you quite serious?”
He straightened up. “I am gravely serious.”
“Lord Luminport is not interested in me, Percival!” she said, her voice tight, her eyes brimming. “This evening, he has written his name on my spinster card, and his shall be the last written there. I was a pawn, Percival. A pawn, so he could get closer to Caro, so he could learn if Caro likedyou. It was all a performance, and would you like to know the very worst part about it? I fell for it. I knew he was not right for me, I knew my heart did not want him, but I thought—I would settle for this. If it means not being the outcast, if it means gaining a place in the Wives’ and Mothers’ Club, if it means my friends view me as an equal again, I would settle for this.”
Percy gazed at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, dressed in all her finery, resembling a goddess, and wished to throttle the man who had made such a divine creature shed tears. His heart twinged at her sorrow, the utter desolation in her voice, and before he knew what he was doing, he had pulled her into his arms.
He held her tightly, one hand cradling the back of her head, his lips whispering comforting, hushing sounds against the silky softness of her golden hair.
“I did not know,” he said. “My goodness, I did not know.”
“But you thought you knew enough about me, about how desperate I am, to accuse me of trying to steal away with a gentleman by myself,” she replied, though she made no attempt to pull away.
Instead, her arms slipped around his waist, and she buried her face in his chest, hiding her tears from him.
“I put two and two together, and made five,” he murmured, cursing inwardly at his stupidity. Of course, Anna was not the sort of woman who would wander off alone with a gentleman. Around everyone but him, she was a lady of propriety and procedure, longing to find her love in the ‘proper’ way.
She sniffed. “Indeed, you have no right to scold me when you arenotmy brother and yet, you are in this room alone with me.” She paused, hiccupping. “Embracing me because I have had my silly heart broken by a gentleman I did not even like that much.”
“Your heart is not silly, Anna,” he told her, his thumb lightly stroking the middle of her back. “Lord Luminport is the idiot. I knew he was not worthy of you, but I held my tongue because you seemed interested. Anna, you are a rare creature, brimming with humor and vitality and charm, and he is a dullard.”
A small laugh puffed against his chest, and he held her closer.
“I suspect Caro will think the same thing,” she mumbled.
He smiled against her hair. “Does The Matchmaker believe so?”
“I am not manipulative,” she replied. “I will not intervene.”
“Do you thinkanyoneis good enough for Caro?”
She shrugged. “Probably not. A foreign prince, perhaps—ridiculously handsome, endlessly kind, with grace and charm and dignity.” She froze in his arms, pushing back. “You should not be here. We should not be here together. I thank you for your comfort, but… this is wrong.”
“It is?” It did not feel wrong to him.
“You cannot do this to me, Percival,” she said, peering up. “It is too confusing. If you treat me kindly, at such a time as this, I am likely to misunderstand, and your friendship is not something I can afford to lose. Please, you should leave.”
He did not move. “In what way would you misunderstand?”
“I… Percival, I… Oh, mercy, I am already bewildered.” She shook her head. “Perhaps, if you were to start an argument with me, I would feel better.”
“But I do not want to argue anymore.”
A shaky breath left her lips. “You see, this is what I am referring to. When you speak to me like that, I do not know what to make of it. Why, you are behaving as if you?—”
He kissed her, not to quieten her or confuse her, but because he could not help it. He wanted her to understand, and where words failed him, a kiss surely would not.
Her lips were soft against his, her body rigid in his arms as he pulled her to him again. The shock was evident in the tremble of her mouth, but as she thawed from the initial surprise, she relaxed in his embrace. Her hands pressed against his chest as her lips moved hesitantly, with the nervousness of someone who had never been kissed before.
A slow graze guided her, his lips catching hers in a gentle ebb and flow, while his hand cradled the nape of her neck. His thumb brushed that sensitive skin, while his other arm continued to hold her close, as if he feared she might vanish if he were to loosen his grip even a little.
