“It was my impression that The League of Untamed Hearts didn’t care to discuss men, unless it was to criticize them and the power they wield. Was that not our primary tenet?” Anna argued back at Lucy, who sat beside Helena while they finished their cheese and pickle sandwiches. “Is the Duke of Wells exempt from our collective scorn?”
“Oh, you’re such a spoilsport,” Margaret interjected, throwing a sugar plum at Anna’s head. Anna laughed and collected the sweet treat from beside her, popping it in her mouth with a satisfied grin. “It’s not every day one of us gets to speak with a duke. It has nothing to do with him being a man and everything to do with his station.”
“And that scar…”
That was Sophia. She had seated herself on the roots of the large willow tree, sketching the lake with intense concentration.
“When we saw him at the opera, I knew it would only be a matter of time before we were all talking about him. He is a curio, worth the conversation. Did you know that they used to call his fatherthe Duke of Darkness? Because of his dark eyes, and the way he used to treat women. The new duke is hardly an angel either if what I’ve heard is true. Oh, I want to know what he said too.”
“You are traitors, the lot of you,” Helena said.
Anna cracked open an eye, and to her surprise, she found Helena smiling. She couldn’t have meant the accusation that seriously.
“What aboutUntamed Heartsleaves room for misinterpretation? The Duke of Wells, mysterious and handsome though he may be, is surely just like the rest—and we should treat him thusly.”
Anna wasn’t convinced. She was the one who had spoken to him. And by her estimation, he wasn’t anything like the other men she had been forced to socialize with throughout her Seasons. He had more honor in his little finger than most men did in their whole bodies. And Anna, despite herself, had spent the past week thinking about him—just like she had suspected she would.
She pulled herself up into a sitting position and looked around her, watching a gig leisure down the nearby road. She hadn’t intended to speak about the duke with them, but Margaret had been at George’s birthday party too, and she had told Sophia about Anna’s time with the duke, who had told Lucy, who had told Helena…
“He was…” Anna struggled to find a fitting descriptor. How could she possibly describe a man who terrified her as much as he intrigued her? “He was kind to me.”
“Do you think he was speaking to you just because you were George’s cousin?” Sophia asked, a hint of jealousy in her voice. Out of all of them, she was by far the prettiest and the most popular with the gentlemen of London. “Maybe your cousin asked him to spend the evening with you.”
“You misunderstand,” Anna corrected, shaking her head. She reached over and took another sweetmeat from the pile. “His Grace didn’t seek me out. We were seated beside each other at dinner. We scarcely spoke for the rest of the evening. In fact, I think he went home much earlier than everyone else.”
“But what time youdidspend together seemed to go well,” Margaret pointed out, then blushed. “Not that I was watching… Oh, why play pretend? We wereallwatching. You were by far the most interesting pair at the table. More than once, I saw your father look over at the two of you laughing, seemingly impressed. I have never seen such a benevolent smile on his face before. I half-expected his face to crack down the middle with the effort.”
The girls laughed at that—except Anna. In truth, her father had seemed laxer with her the past week. Like Margaret, she had assumed it was because he had seen her speaking with the duke at the party.
But if he expects our dinner conversation to lead to a courtship, he is severely mistaken. It is as His Grace said—there is only common sense between us. Certainly not romance. Especially given our secret. We could not grow closer if we wanted to.
And she presumed that he did not want to get to know her any better anyway. He was almost ten years older than her, a colonel, and still handsome despite his scar. The Duke of Wells would have his pick of the finest ladies in London if he did want to marry—which presumably he did not—and if shewereinterested in the women who interested him—which of course she wasn’t. So, really, there was no use thinking about him again at all.
“Do you think he will attempt to reacquaint himself with Alicia?” Sophia asked all of a sudden.
And just like that, there was Anna, thinking.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “My cousin has no interest in marrying. And they already had one failed courtship. Why on earth would they attempt another?”
“People can change with time,” Sophia continued, not looking up from her sketchpad. “And it was just something I heard…”
Like a ravenous pack of wolves, the girls sprang from their places on the picnic blanket and gathered around Sophia. She looked sideways at them, alarmed. Then, with a playful grin, she set down her art supplies and drew them closer.
“Mother had tea with some friends at a hotel the other day,” she began, a competent storyteller. “They were discussing the usual things when one of her friends spotted someone she recognized out of the corner of her eye. A singer who was just on her way out after what they all presumed was arendezvouswith a foreign-looking older gentleman. Mother’s friend, you see, is an avid theatre-goer. Her husband is a scholar from Bath, so they are always invited to the latest shows, and it was easy for her to tell?—”
“Merciful Heavens, Sophia! Will you just get on with it?” Helena pressed, having never been particularly patient.
Sophia shot her a scathing look, not liking to be interrupted. She was building up to something titanic—Anna could feel it, her anxiety rising with every new leg in Sophia’s tale.
“Well, you have all guessed by now that it was Alicia. Mother’s friend took her aside and spoke with her for a while before Alicia left. It’s unclear what she said to her. She is discreet in some ways but not in others. What she relayed to my mother is this: Aliciaislooking to marry. She plans to leave her company in Italy and remain in England for the foreseeable future.”
A brisk wind swept up then, while each girl processed the information. Anna was dumbfounded, leaning away from Sophia in shock.
“But of course… Anna, you must have known,” Margaret said, obviously attempting to smooth things over. “Alicia tells you everything.”
“Evidently not,” Anna murmured, bringing her fingers to her mouth. She bit her thumbnail and dropped her gaze in defeat. “Why wouldn’t she tell me?”
“Perhaps she made the decision only recently,” Lucy suggested, more interested in the mystery than anything else. “It’s all so strange. I thought your cousin loved her life as a singer. What would make her change her mind? Andwhowas the older gentleman? Something isn’t right about this.”
