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Caden shot Anna a perplexed look before returning his attention to Zeke. “His recent illness? The messenger claimed I needed to return to Chissington Hall post-haste.”

Zeke gave a slow nod of understanding. His eyes lit on Anna and their combined luggage, before returning to Caden. “It’s just the two of you, then?”

Caden frowned. “Yes. But the earl. Is he…?”

Zeke sent his brother a reassuring grin. “Thanks to Kitty, the earl is fitter than you or I. You’re under a misapprehension, brother.”

Caden opened his mouth to speak, but Zeke forestalled him with a hand raised, palm out. “Let us continue our discussion indoors. Kitty won’t thank me for leaving her out of an exchange which promises to be, at the very least, interesting, not to mention she’ll be delighted to see you.”

Zeke’s gaze traveled once more to Anna. “You can introduce your friend to both of us at once, as well.”

His casual suggestion seemed to Anna more of a command.

Lifting her chin, she determined not to budge an inch until Caden gave his assent. She slid her gaze toward him.

His warm eyes twinkled at her as if he read her intent. He proffered his arm.

The three proceeded indoors.

Inside the thick walls of the manse, the house was almost chilly, despite the warmth of the day. The combined scents of lemon oil, fresh flowers and long-standing wealth filled the air.

Her momentary bravado vanished. She’d entered into the Claybourne Dynasty lair. Lord only knew what fate would befall her now.

“Kitty will be reading, unless I miss my guess. She’s headed up a ladies’ book club dedicated to the advancement of women’s legal rights, if you can believe that.”

Caden snorted and the brothers exchanged looks of commiseration. “Oh, I can believe it.”

They moved unhurriedly through a winding maze of corridors to a destination seemingly known by both.

Moments later, they entered a small drawing room. One glance told Anna the family used this space for intimate gatherings. Still elegant like the rest of the manse, the chamber had a comfortable, lived-in feel.

A small fire burned in the grate. Green and cream scrolled silk-paper covered the walls where floor to ceiling shelving, filled with objects d’art and books did not.

Plush carpets lay over gleaming hardwood floors, and the furnishings—velvet covered wingback chairs and a sturdy looking sofa—nestled around a large walnut table .

A leather-bound tome lay open on a side table, and a discarded throw draped over the arm of the nearest chair, as if someone had recently vacated the seat.

“I see the book, but not my wife. Can’t have gone far.”

Anna skimmed the book’s title. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Zeke approached the east-facing wall, where two exterior doors opened to a cozy terrace. The sun’s glowing rays poured through the open doorway like an offering from heaven. He peered outside.

In an instant, his entire cool countenance metamorphosed to one of utter besottedness. “Kitty, darling.”

Anna heard the woman’s small start of surprise. Second’s later she appeared in the doorway. Gem covered combs held her long, ebony hair back from her face, while allowing the length of it to spill down her back. She was, to Anna’s mind, stunningly beautiful.

She clutched several long stemmed roses which she’d obviously just clipped. She aimed a warm, affectionate smile at Zeke. Then, noting the presence of others, turned and spotted Caden. Her face lit with unabashed delight.

“Caden, when did you arrive? Zeke, did you know? Why-ever did you not inform me? And who is this with you?” All of this came out in an exhilarated rush as she flew across the room toward Caden.

Slowing just enough to set the roses aside, she launched herself at Caden who caught her up in his arms with a hardy chuckle.

“For your information, Caden’s arrival is as much a surprise for me as it is for you.” Zeke came up behind his wife. He rested his hands on her shoulders. “Through some odd miscommunication, he got word the earl had taken ill.”

Lady Thurgood looked nonplussed. “The earl, ill? Nothing could be further from the truth. Wherever did you hear that, Caden? ”

Caden arched a brow. “A very good question. Where is the old man now?”

“Resting after our afternoon walk,” she answered.

“Kitty’s a hard task-master. She insists Claybourne get his regular exercise,” Zeke said.

Caden sent her a fond grin.

Anna was beginning to feel like an unwelcome voyeur when the future countess turned her pale green gaze on her. “Now then, who is this you’ve brought home with you?”

Was it Anna’s imagination, or did a strange look pass over the woman’s face before her mouth curved in the placid smile she now wore?

Zeke’s attention shifted to Anna, his expression sober.

“Yes, well,” Caden cleared his throat and moved to stand beside her.

Her palms went sweaty in her kid-skin gloves. She braced herself for his explanation, and their reaction to learning they housed a member of the peerage’s run-away bride.

“Mrs. Jones…”

Her gaze snapped in his direction. He was introducing her as Jones?

“…may I Introduce my brother and his future countess, Lord Ezekiel Thurgood of Claybourne and his wife Lady Kitty Thurgood.”

Dazed, she somehow managed a greeting and polite curtsy.

“Zeke, my lady, I am very pleased to introduce you to Mrs. Anna Jones.” He paused a beat. “My fiancé.”

A stunned silence greeted Caden’s pronouncement.

Anna belatedly realized her mouth hung agape, and she closed it with a snap. Fiancé?

The room grew increasingly dim until it dawned on her she held her breath. She gasped in a greedy lungful of air, simultaneously noting Lady Kitty and Zeke exchanging matching, unreadable looks. Surprise? Horror? Disbelief? She couldn’t say.

“Mrs. Anna Jones, you say?” Zeke asked, with a slight stress on the word Mrs.

“Yes. My fiancé is a widow.”

Zeke and Lady Kitty stared at Caden with expectant expressions.

When neither Caden nor Anna elaborated, Lady Kitty glowered at Caden, hands fisted on her hips. “Surely you don’t expect to get away with this, Caden.”

Anna’s skin went clammy.

She burst out laughing, then went on in a playful, chiding tone. “How did you come to be engaged? What plans have you made? You can’t just announce your engagement and leave out all the juicy details.”

“Details. Of course,” Caden replied, not quite masking his relief, at least to Anna’s ears. “But perhaps we could save the explanations for later, when the earl is about. This way we can share our good fortune once. Much more efficient that way.”

Brows beetled, Lady Kitty opened her mouth, as if to argue.

Zeke’s words stayed her. “An excellent notion.”

She scowled up at him.

Seemingly unaware of her displeasure, he continued. “Speaking of the earl, how about the two of us pay him a visit now, eh, Caden? He would hardly appreciate us leaving him in the dark about your homecoming.”

“Nothing I’d like more. Regardless of the happy report regarding his good health, I travelled all this way in a state of worry over his welfare and I’d rather like to see him with my own eyes.”

Zeke inclined his head in a regal fashion. “We’ll go directly. Kitty? ”

Her irritation vanished like it never existed. The ebony haired beauty crossed the invisible divide between the two couples to link arms with Anna.

“Never fear, I shall take charge of Mrs. Jones and see her settled.” Her inscrutable pale green gaze captured Anna’s. “However far you’ve come, traveling is always exhausting. I’m sure you’d like to freshen up.”

Dismay filled her. More than anything she wanted to get Caden alone to demand an explanation. Instead, she pasted what she hoped passed for a polite smile on her face and lied through her teeth.

“Thank you, Lady Thurgood. Your hospitality is most welcome.” She turned to Caden. “I’ll see you soon?”

He sent her a crooked grin. “Count on it.”

***

In unspoken agreement, Caden and Zeke waited, still and silent, for the ladies to depart.

The door closed. The ladies’ footsteps receded in the hall.

“Right.” Zeke moved to the credenza housing the brandy.

He poured two healthy snifters, then made his way back to Caden. He handed Caden one of the snifters and indicated the armchairs near the grate with the other. Without waiting for Caden to follow, Zeke took a seat.

So much for visiting the earl.

Caden sat. Waited.

Zeke raised his glass in a toast.

Caden returned the gesture .

Zeke downed the contents of his glass, then set the crystal on the polished wooden side table between them with a decisive click. “Surprised to see you, after everything you said when you left.”

Caden felt his face go hot. “I may have overreacted slightly. Not that I was wrong, you understand.”

“Of course not,” Zeke said in his standard condescending manner that, for some reason, wasn’t getting Caden’s goat like it usually did.

“The thing is, when I heard about the earl—”

“—The earl’s supposed illness which turned out to be false information?”

Caden nodded once. “The very same. When I thought the earl ill, my reasons for leaving in the state I did seemed…” Damn. He was not going to call himself childish—even though he had been—and substantiate everything Zeke had said about him.

He started again. “That is, I realized worrying about your low opinion of me might be a waste of my time and not worth drawing a line in the sand over.”

Zeke raised his brows. “I see.”

Caden took a healthy swallow of brandy. The rich amber liquid slid down his throat, warm, smooth, and neat. “Should we go see the earl now?”

Zeke drummed his fingers briefly on his knee. “Actually, if you don’t mind, before we share the news of your engagement with the earl, I’d like to know what in hell you’re up to.”

Typical Zeke. Caden snorted and tossed back the remaining brandy. “The normal manner of things, I expect. One gets engaged, posts the banns, sets a date—”

“Yes, but normally one does not get himself engaged to someone who’s already married. ”

Caden froze a beat, then drained his glass. “You saw the ad the bastard posted? Color me surprised you paid it any mind.”

“I remarked on it precisely because I recognized the chit. She’s the one you pined over for months after her family—Masters, was the name, if I remember correctly?—departed for London never to return.”

Caden scowled at his brother. “Pined? I did no such thing.”

Zeke smirked. “Please. I pointed the ad out to Kitty and said, ‘That’s the girl whose family summered in Derby when Cade and I were boys. Caden had a mad tendre for her.’ I assumed the poor girl ran away from Bolton once she figured out what sort of scum she married. Do I have it right?”

“Something like that,” Caden grumbled. He scrubbed a hand over his stubble-roughened jaw. “Hell and damnation. Do you think Kitty recognized Anna as the woman in the ad?”

“Anna, eh? That’s what she goes by now?”

Caden grunted his assent.

“As to whether or not Kitty recognized the woman—”

“My fiancé,” Caden corrected, striving for patience.

Zeke’s brows shot up. “Fiancé? I assumed…Wait. Don’t tell me you got the girl with child?”

His patience reached its end. He fixed his brother with an icy stare. Then a thought hit him like a solid punch, square between the eyes and his vision blurred.

Anna very well may be carrying his babe. He’d attempted to avoid such an outcome. Still. Nothing was fool proof. He could well imagine Anna’s belly, round and full. A hot rush of wonder stole his breath.

“I’ll be damned,” Zeke murmured.

Caden blinked. “Eh?” He shook his head and dragged himself back to the present. “I seem to have lost the thread of our conversation. ”

One corner of Zeke’s mouth hitched upward. “You asked me whether or not Kitty recognized your fiancé .” He stressed the word, almost as if poking fun at Caden. “Hard to say.”

“Supposing Kitty did. What are the odds she’ll question Anna directly?”

Zeke grinned. “Is that a rhetorical question?”

“Hell and damnation,” Caden groused again, then sighed. “Thankfully Anna is, by no means, a shrinking violet. Too, the facts were all meant to come out eventually.”

“I’m relieved to hear you meant to fill us in before bringing scandal down upon our family.”

Caden arched a brow, amused in spite of himself. “Is scandal something you’re worried over, these days?” He refrained from iterating the obvious—to his mind, at any rate—that they’d all braved scandal quite recently—for Kitty’s sake.

“Worried is too strong a word. I’ll admit I would prefer to avoid one if possible.”

Caden examined his nails. “And if it isn’t?”

He looked up in surprise when Zeke reached over to squeeze his shoulder.

“In that case, forewarned is forearmed. I’m with you, brother, no matter what, always. Now, kindly bring me up to speed on where things stand before we present your situation to the earl.”

The door to the family parlor swung open. The earl, looking hale and fit and every bit the patriarch of the family, burst into the room. “So it’s true. My youngest grandson has returned to the fray—with a fiancé, no less.”