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Chapter Twenty-Four

A wooden faced Caden issued a summons, gathering everyone in the formal parlor.

All parties filed in, positioning themselves within earshot and viewing distance of the sofa where he and Anna sat.

Lady Kitty took the armchair opposite them, while the heir apparent stood sentinel behind her.

Lady Wentworth, shooting a sidelong glance at Caden’s brother, chose an adjacent settee.

Lady Lillian perched on an armchair beside Lady Kitty’s, and the earl presided over all from his vantage before the mantle.

Anna glanced around the room, taking in anew the plush carpets, the gilt adornments, the velvet and satin covered cushions, and gleaming, polished surfaces.

This beautiful parlor had seen all her dreams crumble at her feet.

If she never again stepped foot in this luxuriously appointed chamber, it would be too soon.

Dread settled into her very bones. Her plan had seemed so simple.

Tell Caden he no longer had to marry her, and wait for him to confess his true reason for asking had less to do with obligation and everything to do with his desire to spend his life with her.

She wasn’t greedy. She could wait for him to fall in love with her.

Instead, in less time than it took to make his breakfast selection from the sideboard, he opted to let her go. She was leaving. Today. Just like that.

Acid burned in her stomach and she swallowed convulsively. Lucky for her she’d eaten nothing today. Any food would surely have come back up.

“Well,” Lady Kitty began, anticipation lighting her eyes, “What is it you wanted to share?”

Caden sent Anna a bland smile. “Would you like to do the honors, or shall I?”

Anna attempted a smile in return, but her cheeks trembled with the effort. “Y-you.”

She cursed the stammer in her voice and lifted her gaze to the one person who, she assumed, guessed what was coming. Her grandmother.

Lady Wentworth’s eyes held hers, compassion, encouragement, and love in their depths. Anna grasped the connection like a life line.

“You all understood, I’m certain, the grounds of Miss Masters’ and my recent betrothal.” He paused. “As she is no longer in danger of being absconded with by her previously held husband, the need for her to…to…” His words died a painfully slow death.

Anna could bear the concerned stares—or glare in Lord Thurgood’s case, aimed directly at her—no longer.

“We’ve decided to call of the fake engagement,” she blurted.

A deafening silence greeted her pronouncement. For a full two seconds .

“What of Lady Wentworth’s claim that my brother stole your virtue?” Zeke demanded, his glare bordering on menacing. The knuckles of his hands, gripping his wife’s seat back, had gone white.

To Anna’s great relief, Lady Wentworth answered on her own behalf.

“I spoke out of turn, out of concern for my granddaughter. I apologize. I withdraw my statement.”

“Withdraw?” Lady Kitty burst out. “You can’t simply withdraw your statement. Not if it’s true.”

The older lady sniffed and lied through her teeth—for Anna. “That’s just it. I made it up.”

“I see,” the earl said. He and Lady Lillian exchanged matching, disgruntled looks.

Lady Kitty’s eyes turned pleading. “But…Caden? Anna? Is this truly what the two of you wish?”

Unwilling to outright lie, Anna turned to Caden, brows lifted. In truth, she wondered how he might answer.

He tunneled a hand through his hair, still, evidently, at a loss for words.

Please, she thought. If you care for me, say so.

Abruptly, he slapped his hands on his thighs and rose. “It is what’s best for all involved. We discussed matters, and came to a mutually agreed upon decision that Anna is best off with her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Wentworth. They plan to depart immediately.”

Best for all involved? Bah. He wanted to rid himself of her, and his last statement made that glaringly obvious. Her cheeks throbbed with heat. She lowered her gaze to her hands, fisted in her lap

He made his way around to the back of the sofa, planting himself directly behind her. “Isn’t that right, Miss Masters? ”

She itched to shift around, to search his eyes for any sign he wanted her to stay. Absurd. He’d had ample opportunity to tell her he cared.

She stared straight ahead. “Of course.”

An odd crunching sound came from behind her, and she lost the battle with herself. She turned to look over her shoulder, and saw Caden crossing away from her, making for the door. What on earth?

“As for me,” he began, “I have much work ahead of me at the quarry. Now that all is resolved as concerns Miss Masters’ safety, I…” He broke off when he reached the threshold. Without turning around he said, “Lady Wentworth, Miss Masters, I wish you a safe journey and godspeed.”

With that, he left. He left.

***

It was well on night by the time Caden returned to Chissington Hall—by design. He could not chance witnessing Anna and Lady Wentworth’s egress. A quick check at the stables verified they had departed this afternoon, soon after he left for the quarry.

He had visited the quarry, where he made a cursory study of the newly arrived machinery. Afterward he rode an aimless path through the nearby village with a loose plan of searching out roads, rooftops, and buildings in need of repair. He barely took in what he saw.

In truth, he hadn’t left to satisfy any burning to desire to begin repurposing the quarry.

He left because he feared what foolish thing he might do if he stayed—such as staring after Anna’s carriage like a lovelorn fool, or worse, chasing after it, or much worse, begging her not to leave him, period .

He trudged up the broad front steps, more weary than he could remember feeling in a long, long time. God willing, the rest of the household had all long since retired.

The front door swung. He looked up, hoping to see George, the earl’s longstanding butler. No luck. Kitty pounced the moment he cleared the top step.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever return. What are you going to do, Caden?”

“Do?” He knew, of course, she referred to Anna and their broken engagement. Not that they'd ever been engaged, according to Anna.

“You can't simply let her leave.”

“And yet, that is precisely what I did.”

She threw up her hands. “So you did, like a man who could not care less. Are you saying you don't love her?”

It was like taking a punch to the gut. He pushed past her, hastening to the grand staircase, which he climbed two steps at a time. “I’m not discussing this.”

She didn’t say another word, and he didn’t look back. He knew what he’d see if he did. Disappointment, and worst of all, pity.

***

Caden awoke early. Too early. He couldn't not. He was exhausted, having had not nearly enough sleep, but, like yesterday, the morning sun shone into the bedroom like a beacon.

He muttered under his breath, and rolled onto his side, away from the offending glare.

Home, sweet, home .

Two days ago, one day following Anna's defection from his life--he rather liked that word to describe her rejection of all he had to offer—he moved into the cottage where Anna and her parents had once lived, the cottage he'd demanded Zeke sign over to him when negotiating his and Anna’s future.

He’d intended to give it to her as a wedding present, after renovating. It hadn't been lived in for years and thus lacked updated bedding, curtains, furnishings—basically all the things that made a place comfortably habitable.

After her defection, he decided to take up residence immediately.

He saw the dismal living arrangements as a sort of penance.

Believing for one second his so-called inherent charm coupled with her evident attraction for him might entice Anna to marry him after her safety was no longer threatened had been pure foolishness on his part.

Worse, his family knew he’d been a fool, and, he suspected, also knew he’d fallen for the chit. That realization above all else drove him from Chissington Hall as fast as his legs could carry him. He couldn’t bear the piteous glances his family cast his way when they thought he wasn’t looking.

If they knew what he meant to do today—what he had to do, because he couldn’t not—they’d really think him a candidate for bedlam. Perhaps he was.

He’d meant to sleep a bit longer, hoping a full night’s rest might enable him to put his best foot forward on his fool’s errand. Alas, further sleep eluded him.

He swung his legs over the edge of the lumpy mattress and noted the faint scent of freshly brewed coffee in the air, coming from downstairs. God bless Kitty who had insisted he accept the loan of a housekeeper and cook until he got his household up and running .

He splashed water on his face from the basin and reflected, not for the first time, on how dear was his brother's bride. The best thing that ever happened to Zeke, to their entire family, was Zeke finding and marrying Kitty.

Still, her too-keen insight, combined with her forthright tendency, sometimes made her insufferable. Like the day Anna left.

“Are you saying you don't love her ?” He could still hear her asking.

No, his insides screamed in reply, I love her more than life. I need her more than the air I breathe.

And it hurt like hell.

He dressed in plain white sleeves and clean trousers and trotted barefoot down the stairs. Hot black coffee and something to stave off hunger, then he’d do what he had to do.

At the base of the stairs, he caught the sound of distinctly feminine humming. His heart slammed into his ribs before he could school himself.

Not Anna. Anna had left him.

Still, that angel’s voice didn’t belong to cook. He made his way toward the kitchen, fairly certain of who he would find.