“You would stand by me even if the entire tonreviled me?” He didn’t give Anna time to answer, even though it would have been an instantaneous yes. “I don’t deserve that.”
“It’s not about what you deserve. It’s about what I want to do.” She scoffed at her words. “Which more or less sums up our entire marriage so far, don’t you think? You always thinking you know what’s best for me. Well, I know what’s best for me… and it’s you.”
The air between them was charged with more than electricity.
“Knowing what you do now…” she trailed off, fearing his answer. “What are you going to tell the Duke of Wellington?”
“Before tonight, I hadn’t made up my mind. It should have been easy to accept the position abroad. The colonel in me longs to go, but the husband…” He gritted his teeth, closing the space between them. “Curse him! The husband cannot stand the thought of being apart from you.”
Philip reached for her hand in the darkness and found it, his body pressing against hers. Anna’s skin burned where he touched her.
“It goes against my every vow to you to want to remain here. I have seen the way women wilt in their marriages. The thought that you could become another victim at the hands of a Wilmington tyrant has made it possible—not easy—to keep my distance from you.”
“I won’t be a victim, because you will not allow it.” Anna cupped his face in her free hand. He pressed his cheek into her palm, and she was so happy she could have burst into tears. “You do not have to repeat the mistakes of your forebearers. I am not a sadist like my father. And I do not turn a blind eye to wickedness like my mother. If I can choose to be better than them, so can you. I believe that with all my heart.”
She started as Philip leaned forward, pulling her into his arms and holding her close. He stroked the back of her hair—but he was the one who needed soothing. Her hands tentatively searched his back, holding him tightly against her.
“I would be a fool not to trust such a pure and valiant heart as yours,” Philip said.
He cradled her face, and she melted under his touch. Lightning flashed across the sky beyond the glass as he walked her backward, his lips finding hers. She came alive with his kiss, her face warming as they backed into something solid.
A discordant series of notes rang out in the silence. Philip broke the kiss and looked down at her, laughing softly. Anna turned to inspect the object behind them, pulling away the cloth that had been covering it.
“A piano,” she whispered, playing a note once the keyboard was revealed and finding it in tune. “Has this been here the whole time?”
“It’s yours,” Philip revealed, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I ordered it the day after we arrived, hoping it would occupy you. I was waiting for the right moment to show it to you.”
“Now is the right moment,” she whispered, pulling him in for another kiss.
CHAPTER24
Aweek later, Anna knocked on the door of Philip’s study. He looked up from the papers he had been reading, a pair of spectacles perched on the tip of his nose.
“How very dashing,” she teased, coming to sit on the desk. “Are these a new addition to your wardrobe?”
“A permanent fixture I had hoped to keep hidden from you. A man is no good if he cannot read his own handwriting.” Philip sighed and removed his spectacles, placing them on the desk. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his face. “I can manage to see for the most part, but these land agreements cannot be processed quickly enough and require my full attention. I have tasked Granville with hiring a decent estate manager for Cotoneaster. Why anyone aspires to land management is a mystery to me…”
Anna picked up his spectacles and examined them fondly, looking at his warped shape through the lenses. “You would rather go toe-to-toe with real soldiers than solicitors?”
“The former is less likely to kill me.” He laughed under his breath, taking her hand midair to wrest the glasses from her, before letting her keep them. His touch still sent sparks up her arms, even though he wasn’t keeping his distance from her anymore. “Are you nervous about today?”
“I wouldn’t be bothering you otherwise.” She drew in a fortifying breath. “I can’t even sit still long enough to play something on the piano.”
“Hmm.” Philip squinted down at the documents on his desk, returning to his task. “I refrained from mentioning the cacophony coming from the music room to spare your feelings, but since you brought it up… The sooner this is over with, the better for the sake of our minds, and ears.”
Anna folded the spectacles and returned them to him, placing them beside his snuffbox, before shifting her attention to the view of the courtyard beyond the windows.
Her cousin would be arriving at any moment. Anna had written to Alicia the morning after the storm, inviting her to come to Cotoneaster and discuss everything she had learned. She had kept her wording vague, not wanting to give Alicia potential evidence in writing. They had received her reply just that morning, confirming that Alicia was willing to come and speak with them.
Willing, she had written, as though lying about the father of her child and trying to ruin Philip’s life was a great inconvenience for her.
Little did Alicia know that she would get more than she had bargained for once she arrived a few hours later.
Anna and Philip waited diligently in the drawing room while the butler escorted Alicia inside. She had tried to accentuate her slightly swollen stomach that day, in a satin dress, a small bump protruding from her frame against the stubborn fabric. Anna hid her shock while Alicia waltzed into the room and gave a devilish smile.
“Your Grace,” she greeted. “Anna.”
Anna let the insult slide.
