“It’s not Philip’s fault. He has tried tirelessly to push me away.” Anna thought back to his week’s long silence—how she would take a lifetime of arguing with him to never have to go through that again. “But it’s no use. I am doomed to be married to the man I love.”
“A stranger statement has never been spoken.”
“I don’t want him to go to France. But I won’t embarrass myself either by asking him to stay. And where does that leave us?” Anna laughed mirthlessly. “He’ll be gone for years at a time, and I’ll stay here in England, worrying that he has taken on a horde of French mistresses to occupy himself, while I cannot countenance the thought of loving anyone but him. I’ll be alone forever, watching him live a single life while I live mine, devoted but loveless.”
She couldn’t cry if she wanted to. The irony was too sweet.
“Did you know that you felt this way before you agreed to marry him?” Elinor asked, tilting her head to the side. “I cannot in good conscience blame my brother for this unless I know the truth.”
“I had affection for him. I worried it would grow.” Anna felt ashamed. “But it was only once he forbade me from loving him that I realized how much I did.”
“Heavens…” Elinor looked up and squeezed her eyes shut. “This is worse than I ever thought. You must tell him these things, Anna. Before he makes a decision neither of you can take back. This love you have for him won’t fade with time. We always want what we can’t have. It will drive you to insanity.”
“But how? And when?”
Her sister-in-law glanced back into the dining room, where the conversation was still alive and vibrant. The footmen had gathered by the entrance to the servants’ stairwell, carrying bottles of wine they couldn’t serve until someone gave them permission.
“A wiser woman would tell you to wait. But as your sister…” Elinor grabbed Anna’s shoulders. “Go now. I will keep the guests busy.”
“And George?”
“Your cousin has never been one to stand in the way of true love. Tell him to leave and come to me.”
It was a foolish plan, destined to end in tears. But Anna tingled with excitement at the thought of baring her heart to Philip. The longer she waited to tell him the truth, the harder it would be.
With a determined nod, she turned and retraced her steps back to the drawing room.
Male voices were rising from within. She crept toward the door, deciding how best to interrupt them without immediately ruining her chances with Philip.
But the way they were speaking, the seriousness of it, gave her pause.
“… enough trouble between us already,” she heard Philip say.
Anna pressed herself against the wall, just out of sight of the doorway. Someone was pacing inside. It was impossible to tell which of them it was.
“It is not my intention to create more friction between the two of you, believe me.” That was George, his voice pitched anxiously. “And if I had felt I could wait for a more opportune moment… There will not be one. I had planned to skip this dinner party altogether until I received word of her insanity this morning.”
Her heart clenched.
“I have been irreconcilably frustrated with you since you trapped my cousin in this marriage, and I wanted to believe the girls over you because, shame on me, they are my family,” George continued. “And logic does not always prevail with family. But what Alicia told me cannot be true. I see the truth for what it is now. She is a liar, willing to do anything to protect herself.”
“I will not fault you for defending your family.” A glass clinking against marble—a sound that made her bones quake. “Tell me what Alicia has done now before Anna starts to wonder where we are.”
A tear fell from Anna’s eye. She reached up in surprise to wipe it away. Was it the mention of Alicia that had made her cry? Or the softness of Philip’s voice as he spoke her name when he thought she couldn’t hear him?
“It is a terrible thing, Philip. So terrible I can barely bring myself to say it aloud.” George paused long enough to take a long, deep breath. “Alicia is with child and has been for some time. I have known this, and I have kept it secret to protect her. But now…” He sighed. “Now she has claimed that the child is yours.”
CHAPTER23
Philip staggered backward, almost knocking his glass from the mantelpiece. He looked at George, intent on discovering whether this was some sort of prank—something Alicia had faked to drive a final wedge between him and Anna.
He knew George too well to know that this was real.
George shrugged as Philip gathered his thoughts, sitting on the coffee table in the center of the room. Philip could see this sincerity in his eyes—the defeated slump of his shoulders. George had every right to be cross with him after what had happened to Anna, and yet he still trusted him enough to betray Alicia.
“She has lost her mind,” Philip murmured, staring aimlessly into space. “Launching a campaign to ruin my life—no, not just my life. Anna’s life… Tell me this isn’t true.”
“I wish I were lying. Things would be much simpler.” George clasped his hands penitently. “Alicia visited me this morning with the news—says that she plans to confront you and Anna within days, and that if you do not accept the child as your own, she will tell the ton of your misdeed. I knew I had to come and warn you. For what it’s worth, I’m so sorry.”
