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“Miss Danvers.” His voice had dropped, low and warning, and he took a step closer, close enough that Anna had to tilt her chin to hold his gaze.

“I am not finished, Your Grace, and if you would only listen for once instead of assuming that your judgment is unquestionable in all–”

He lifted his hand and pressed his thumb, quite deliberately, against her lips.

Anna went still, the rest of her sentence dying somewhere in her throat. Heat rushed up her neck and into her cheeks, at mortifying speed and for one absurd moment she thought only of how close he stood, how she could feel the warmth of him even through the small space that remained between them.

Then, because she refused to be silenced so easily, she bit him.

Not hard – not really – but enough to make his eyes flare with surprise, and something else beneath it, something darker and unrecognizable.

“You bit me,” he said, sounding faintly incredulous.

“You put your hand on my mouth.”

“I was attempting to end an argument.”

“You were attempting to win one, which is an entirely different matter, and I do not appreciate being silenced simply because you dislike –”

He leaned in suddenly and nipped her lower lip.

In a moment of shock, Anna simply stood still as his teeth sank into her lip, before her body responded with a shiver that seemed to shake her from her head to her core. His hand came up to cradle her jaw as he backed her against the wall beside the door, and there was nothing careful in the way his mouth found hers again, before he soothed the sting of his bite with a slow, deliberate stroke of his tongue.

Anna's hands found the front of his coat, not to push him away, though some distant part of her insisted that was precisely what she ought to be doing, but to steady herself against the sudden, dizzying rush of sensation that swept through her, unbidden and entirely unwelcome.

It ended as abruptly as it began. Hudson pulled back, breathing rather less steadily than he had been moments earlier as something like alarm flickered across his features. Anna suspected those feelings were directed as much to her as they were to himself.

“I will see you in a week,” he stated gruffly and was gone before she could summon a single word in reply.

Anna remained pressed against the wall for a long moment after the door had closed, one hand rising to touch her own lips, as though she might still find some trace of him there. Her heart was still beating far too quickly, her thoughts scattered in a dozen directions at once, none of them sensible, none of them anything she could easily explain to herself, let alone to anyone else.

She thought of Edith, and the way she had described loving Cornelius – that yearning at every waking hour, the helplessness of it. Anna had scoffed, privately, at the melodrama of it, certain she would never feel anything so consuming for a man she barely knew. And yet here she stood, flushed and unsteady, replaying a single kiss as though it might unlock some secret about herself she had not yet had occasion to discover.

It meant nothing, she told herself firmly, straightening her skirts and smoothing her hair with hands that were not quite steady. It was merely proximity, and temper, and the strange, heightened circumstances of the past two days. Nothing more.

She was going to marry that man in a week's time.

“Heavens help me.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“Thank you for helping me with all of this, Phoebe. I know it is rather short notice.”

The drawing room had, in the space of a single afternoon, turned into a battlefield of lace samples, ribbon spools, and sheets that detailed the latest styles aristocratic women around the ton were wearing these days. Anna could hardly bring herself to look at it without her stomach turning over. She and her sister sat together on the settee, a heavy catalogue balanced between them, its pages full of illustrations of brides who looked far more composed than Anna presently felt.

Anna had arrived at her sister’s estate that morning armed with a list of practical concerns, and within half an hour, Phoebe had already predicted most of them and sent letters to half the relevant parties who could assist with Anna’s concerns before she had even finished her tea. And not for the first time, Anna appreciated just how fortunate she was to have older siblings who never hesitated to help her, regardless of the situation.

“It was my pleasure, darling. I am rather thrilled to be a part of your preparations, as you were a monumental part of mine. Additionally, Rebecca will be spending the afternoon with her father, so I know she will be cared for properly.” Phoebe Barton, Duchess of Montford and Anna’s older sister, smiled excitedly before pointing at the illustration of another wedding dress. “What do you think of this one? The sleeves are rather fetching, and it would not require nearly so much alteration as some of the others.”

Anna studied it for a moment, tilting her head to the side. “It is lovely. Though I confess I have not the faintest idea of what I ought to be looking for, beyond something that does not make me look as though I am attending my own funeral rather than my wedding.”

“That is an admirably low setup, and I believe we can clear it without much difficulty.” Phoebe nodded as she turned the page, considering another. “This one, perhaps? The neckline suits your stature far better than mine ever did.”

“I will have to trust your eye over my own in this matter entirely. You have always had a talent for these things that I simply do not possess, sister.” Anna sighed.

“I have had considerably more practice fussing over fabric than you have, that is all. Give it time, and you shall develop opinions of your own about hemlines and trim you never dreamed you would care about. Additionally, I have taken the liberty of speaking with the modiste. She will have something ready in time, though it will mean that you will have to have several fittings during the course of the week.” Phoebe smiled, marking the page with a slip of ribbon before setting the catalogue aside temporarily. “

“I am not sure what I would’ve done without your assistance. From the start, this whole thing frightened me and I considered handling it myself somehow, but… I knew you would know just what to do. Especially with how much of a short-notice affair this is. I appreciate you more than I can say,” Anna expressed with a deep feeling in her chest that felt like the sort that had been nested in her heart all morning.