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“He saw Bolton’s ad in the Times, mentioned same to Kitty.

I hadn’t considered he’d have recognized you from so many years ago.

After all, I didn’t recognize you straight away when you hovered not two feet above me.

In fairness to myself, Zeke had the benefit of reading your name in print alongside your likeness .

“And so, forewarned, he questioned me the moment you quit the room. Then the earl joined us. You’ll be gratified to know we reached a decision about what’s to be done to sort your situation.”

“Oh? You’ve decided? Do tell.”

If he heard the sarcasm in her tone, he gave no indication.

“Assuming Bolton has been apprised of your presence at the house party and subsequent disappearance in conjunction with my departure, we expect to find him on our doorstep sooner than later. We devised a plan to enlist the earl’s man-of-affairs to uncover everything he can on Bolton—concerning his finances, business ventures, personal circumstances, etcetera, etcetera.

In short, we’re searching for leverage, something we can use to free you from the sham of a marriage which Bolton and your step-mother wrangled you into. ”

“You make it sound so simple.”

Caden shrugged. “No reason it shouldn’t be.”

“What about the rest?”

He arched his brows. “The rest?”

She cleared her throat. “What did you tell them about our so-called engagement?”

He tugged at his waistcoat, not meeting her eyes. “A consensus was reached. As soon as the annulment is procured, we’ll proceed with the wedding post haste.”

“Post haste?”

He winced apologetically. “Let’s just say it escaped neither Zeke’s nor the earl’s attention that the one sure-fire way to get you out of your marriage we rejected out-of-hand.”

“Proof of my virginity. So you, what? Admitted we…” She couldn’t finish her statement. Could barely breathe. She waved her hand in a vague, all encompassing gesture.

“Don’t be daft. ”

She glared at him.

“Nothing specific was said.”

“But they know,” she hissed, humiliated beyond measure.

He turned to look out the window toward the river. “They’re two intelligent men. Of course they know, just as they know precisely where to lay the blame for the situation.”

Blame. The word echoed in her mind. Did he even know what that one word revealed about his true feelings? Blame implied someone was at fault. Implied someone made an error in judgement. The fact he viewed himself as that person didn’t lessen the sting.

“A good plan is in place. The first step ought to meet with your approval, at least.”

“Dealing with Bolton,” she murmured.

“Precisely.”

Without making the conscious decision to do so, she rose and joined him at the window. She simply wanted—needed to be near him.

“What did you and Kitty discuss?”

She gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I told her nearly everything.”

Caden eyed her with mock shock. “Was she scandalized?”

She gave his shoulder a half-hearted swat. “I said nearly everything, including the fact that we are not actually engaged.”

Caden grunted. “What did she say to that?”

“She insisted I was mistaken. Me . About whether I’m engaged. I don’t know whether to thank you or scold you for this latest entanglement, Caden Thurgood.”

“You’ll let me know when you’ve decided, I’m sure.”

She gazed up at him.

Though the sun had not completely sunk, the moon had risen and its reflection off the river gleamed in his eyes, currently fixed on her lips. A muscle in his jaw ticked .

Her insides shimmered. A mind numbing, all-consuming need filled her, blotting out every other consideration. She wanted Caden to kiss her, now. To make love to her again, right here in his grandfather’s manse.

She opened her mouth intent on telling him everything he’d said about her wanting him to kiss her and touch her was true.

Abruptly, he tugged on his cuffs and sauntered for the door. “I’d best make myself scarce before the maid arrives and my presence scandalizes the household.”

She frowned, barely resisting the urge to chase after him. “You’re going? Now?”

“Hadn’t I better?” he asked, turning to gaze over his shoulder at her, all innocence.

“Of course,” she snapped out.

With a crooked grin of farewell, he exited the chamber. A moment later, she heard the antechamber door open and close.

She stared at the empty doorway, a cacophony of emotions roiling inside her. Restlessness and yearning, safety and warmth, happiness and belonging. Because she was here, with Caden, and he wanted to marry her.

Where was her affront at a marriage proposal born of duty rather than affection? She had until her marriage with Bolton was dissolved to figure out how to let Caden go. That was what she ought to do, wasn’t it?

Kitty seemed to think he cared for her. He must, beyond the call of mere duty, mustn’t he? Would that be so wrong a basis for marriage?

Probably. But she wanted it to be enough, God help her.

** *

Caden met Zeke and the earl in the family parlor. The three had agreed to convene slightly ahead of the appointed hour when the ladies were due to arrive.

A fire crackled merrily in the hearth. The earl lounged in his usual armchair, while Zeke, decanter in hand, splashed ruby-red liquid into three of the six glasses set out on the credenza.

“Ah, Caden, just in time.” Zeke held out a glass to Caden before delivering the earl’s wine and taking the seat beside his.

Caden joined them, lowering himself onto the adjacent sofa.

“It’s good to have both my boys home,” the earl said, raising his glass in a toast.

Caden lifted his glass to the earl then sipped.

How things had changed from the last time he was home.

Instead of chomping at the bit to be away from his older brother, he felt settled.

Instead of alienation, he felt camaraderie.

A clear sense of purpose and resolve replaced the usual restless, aimless energy that plagued him in recent years.

Thanks to Anna. She’d changed everything. She’d changed him. He liked the changes if he was being honest.

“You’ll both be pleased to know Carson Hallis responded to the telegram we sent out today,” the earl said.

Far from seeming annoyed by the potential difficulty posed by the Bolton complication , as the earl deemed it, Caden’s grandfather appeared energized. His and Anna’s future wedding plans likely played a part in the old man’s attitude.

Unfortunately, Anna had denied their engagement during her tète-á-tète with Kitty . Who knew what she’d say to the earl when they met. By the end of the evening, would they or would they not be engaged in the eyes of his family? More importantly, would Anna ever agree to the engagement ?

“What did Hallis have to say?” Zeke asked.

Caden eyed the earl expectantly. Inside he brooded. It must have occurred to Anna she might be carrying his babe. Even so, she seemed markedly resistant to the idea of marriage to him.

He couldn’t blame her. What did he have to offer? He was not of the same ilk as Zeke and the earl. He was, by all accounts, his father’s son.

Even so, he had no intention of letting her go. And so, faced with her evident opposition, he had no choice but to play the ace he'd been born with and hope the gamble worked. His entire future rested on it.

The earl rolled his wine stem between his fingers.

“Hallis plans to employ his minions to dig into Bolton’s court filings, banking records, as well as search out any and all rumors amongst the ton and and demi-monde concerning his personal affairs.

With luck, he’ll have something for us by the end of the week. ”

“I assume you apprised him of the need for discretion.” Caden said.

“Never fear, the message covered all that and more,” the earl replied.

“Excellent.” Caden swirled the ruby liquid in his glass and breathed in the rich aroma of berry and spice. “What if he finds nothing more than a marriage certificate?”

The earl rose from his armchair with the ease of a man twenty years his junior. Zeke was right. He looked more hale and hardy than he had in years.

He stood at the mantle, wine glass in hand, a gleam in his faded blue eyes, every bit the family patriarch. “We’ll get the thing annulled. Call in some favors, or, barring that, buy all his gaming debts and pronounce them due.”

Zeke, as usual, took a more careful approach. “We should wait and see what Hallis finds. There doesn’t appear to be any immediate danger or point in rushing the process.” He lowered his voice and muttered, “Let us hope.”

Caden bit back a smile. It was the second time Zeke had broached the possibility Caden had gotten Anna with Child. He couldn’t find it in him to get too terribly annoyed. He’d been pondering the same thing to the point of obsession, mainly because he was of two minds.

While the thought of her carrying his child filled him with wonder and stole his ability to think straight, the truth was, he didn’t want Anna to marry him out of necessity. What kind of fool did that make him?

“There are some family matters we need to see to, sooner than later, however,” Zeke said.

Caden eyed his brother. “Such as?”

Zeke gave a one-shouldered shrug. “As you’re to be wed and will have a wife to provide for, your current financial situation will have to change.”

Caden straightened and set his glass on a side table with a decisive click. This was the opening he’d hoped for.

Zeke continued. “You’ll, of course, resume living in the Hall.

Once married, you and your lady wife will move into a wing more suited to housing a family, rather than make-do with the chamber in the bachelor suites where you habitually reside.

Your quarterly allowance shall be reinstated, and…

” he flashed a magnanimous grin, “…we shall forget all about the unfortunate incident that precipitated your recent…er…”

“Fall from grace?” Caden put in dryly. “How about, no?”

Zeke’s grin vanished and a flash of annoyance sparked in his blue eyes. “No? I had hoped you’d matured enough to move past this stubborn streak. ”

Caden pinched the bridge of his nose, striving for patience. He no longer had the luxury to tell his brother to stuff it, nor, oddly, the inclination. Anna’s influence, no doubt.

“I appreciate the offer, Zeke. However, I have an alternate proposition to make—one that I believe will clear up the recent misapprehension on your part regarding the funds I requested.”

Zeke’s look of annoyance faded, replaced by one of grudging intrigue. “Do you mean to say you actually intend to explain yourself, rather than leave the earl and I to our suppositions and conjectures?”

Caden met his brother’s eyes with an unblinking stare. “I fully intended to explain myself, and would have, had I not heard insulting suppositions and conjectures spoken behind my back.”

“I’d hardly call a private conversation between the earl and I speaking behind your back. One could argue you had no business listening-in to our private discussion. As for the rest, you never gave us a chance to—”

“Boys, enough.” The earl’s gruff tone brooked no argument. He held one hand outstretched like a maestro holding a section of the symphony in check. “This is not the time for another of your squabbles. The ladies are coming.”

Only then did Caden note the muted, distinctly feminine voices echoing down the hall, announcing the ladies’ impending arrival.

“Might I suggest we continue this”—Caden cleared his throat—“ discussion after supper?”

Zeke snorted. “I can hardly wait.”

The ladies’ chatter grew louder. Anticipation tightened Caden’s gut.

In moments he would introduce, Anna, his future wife, to the earl, and he had no earthly idea what she might say. For that matter, he had no notion of what the earl might say .

The black sheep of the family, he had announced his engagement to a married woman on the run from her psychopath husband—a woman apparently not overjoyed by the prospect of marriage to him. It was anyone’s guess how the next hour might unfold.

He closed his eyes briefly and inhaled through his nose, slow and deep. He’d faced worse odds. He thought.

A sudden image of her, strolling one-slippered down the stone corridor, formed unbidden in his mind and he choked back a laugh.

He’d carted Anna’s lone satin slipper with him all the way from Yorkshire.

Most likely she hadn’t bothered keeping its match.

He still didn’t know why he hadn’t surrendered the thing to her the night she’d lost it.

No doubt the set had cost her a pretty penny.

He’d make it up to her with a dozen such pairs.

Fine slippers or boots or whatever she preferred.

Of course, cementing his financial resources meant repairing the damage he’d done with his knee jerk reaction in rejecting Zeke’s authority and all things to do with his familial estate. One thing at a time.

He opened his eyes.

Aunt Lillian entered the chamber, her evening attire impeccable, her white hair piled high in typical fashion. Next came a smiling Kitty, whose pale green eyes shot immediately to him, expectant, and, as always, warm.

Then came Anna.

She had indeed dressed for dinner. She wore one of her new-to-her, oddly well-fitting gowns.

This one was fashioned of a pale gold-ish amber that seemed particularly suited to her coloring and which hugged her curves to perfection.

Her chestnut hair was styled in a classic chignon, allowing for soft tendrils to frame her crowd-stopping face .

She paused just past the threshold, eyes searching the room, and, spotting him, sent him a tentative smile that hit him like a punch to the gut and drew him to her like a magnet.

In seconds, he held her silk gloved hand to his lips. “Good evening. I trust you had a pleasant rest?”

She nodded once. Her almond-shaped eyes held his, uncharacteristic uncertainty swirling in their depths.

An overwhelming urge to shield her from any discomfort or harm filled him. He’d never in his life felt such an affinity for someone not his family, and certainly had never felt the need to side-up against his family. But this was Anna. His Anna. With her, all bets were off.

He tucked her fingers into the crook of his arm and shifted to face the room with her locked at his side. “Come. It’s past time you meet my grandfather, the Earl of Claybourne.”