Pere glared at him.“I will not.”
“Why not?Please?”
“No.I won’t betray that trust.Butyoucan ask her.”
“I will.”
“I don’t doubt it.And just know—if you ever hurt her, I’ll come after you.You may be my favorite brother, but Anna will be my favorite sister.She’ll pull rank.”
“Understood.”Henley paused and extended his hand.“And if I ever do, I give you permission to throttle me.”
Pere looked at his hand, then took it.“Don’t think I won’t remember this.”
“I know you will,” Henley said, smiling softly.“That’s how sure I am that you won’t ever need to.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The carriage rideto Skyline Park was rather tense.Henley gazed out the window while his mother and brother radiated tension by the straight posture of their shoulders and the silence that filled the small space between them all.Pere had chosen to take the Kinfields’ carriage to be with Anna—a choice Henley approved of since he hadn’t been able to find a quiet moment with her since learning about the morning’s events and decisions.If he had an option, he wouldn’t have chosen this carriage either, and if tensions were this high currently, it was only going to get worse when Edwin realized why Anna had refused his suit.
And that reason was sitting across from him.
Henley bit back a small grin, forcing himself to keep it all inside.
“You look like a bloody idiot like that, whatever can you be grinning about?”Edwin sulked.
“Apologies, it turned out to be a rather lovely day.I was appreciating it.”
“There’s nothing good about today.At least yet.”Edwin straightened his already strict posture, then jerked his hand away when their mother offered a tender pat.
“Don’t be a boor,” Lady Devon scolded.“Have you asked your sister to speak with her?”
Henley gave an inward nod as his mother’s words confirmed that Lady Devon knew of the rejection, at least in part.That explained the tension.
“She will not be an ally of mine,” Edwin replied tersely.
“Whyever not?”Lady Devon turned to face him, her tone offended.
“Because, Mother, she was the one that set up the conversation.Did I forget to mention that detail?”Edwin clipped, not looking at their mother, but turning his attention to the window.
“You didn’t include that detail, son,” Lady Devon remarked, then twisted her lips.“Something happened.It had to.You need… rather I’ll figure out what and we’ll—”
“You think she was seduced?”Edwin sneered.
Henley gripped his hands into tight fists, listening intently while pretending to look out the window.What in heaven’s name could his mother be implying so needlessly?A whisper of such a thing would ruin Lady Anna.After the scandal they all endured last year, wasn’t she sensitive to such things?Or was she so truly blinded by her love for one of her sons that she couldn’t imagine someone not fawning over his pursuit?
“Perhaps.”Lady Devon shrugged.“It would give reason.”
“I never even kissed her, and she, at least initially, was fully obsessed with me so I doubt anyone could undermine that so quickly.”
“Lord Hawthorne is present,” Lady Devon mentioned casually.“And a servant saw him entering the house late last night, but they didn’t mention a woman.Lady Anna—”
“It wasn’t her.It was another, I know.Leave it at that,” Edwin remarked.
Henley took a slow breath.He had nearly interrupted the conversation.It wasn’t her, because she was with me.
She was with him, and his mother was on the right track but in the wrong way.Anna had become disenchanted with Edwin because her affections were elsewhere with him.
Praise God, miracles happened still.
