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Jules said, pale, “And so you toiled as a housemaid all this time without telling me because you knew I would be against it. Anna.” That came out as a groan. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking very practically. You had debts. We needed money.”

Jules sank to the ground next to her and covered his eyes. “Yes. But not like this. My own sister as a common maid. A Vallière! What would Maman and Papa have said? How low we have sunk.”

He covered his face in his hands and wept.

St John, who had retreated strategically to stand by the window, folded his arms and glanced at the ceiling.

Anna patted his shoulder but then lost patience. “Yes. Well. It happened. It was necessary, and if I had to do it again, I would.”

“I have been a terrible brother to you.”

“Agreed.” That remark came from St John.

Jules looked up, his eyes red, and he jabbed a finger at him. “And you. Where do you come in? What do you have to do with my sister?”

“Jules. You shouldn’t speak like this. St John was nothing but kind to me, from the very first moment we met until now.” A memory rose of her in the parlour of the seminary, of the first moment she’d seen St John, kneeling on the ground, barking up the fireplace. St John must have been sharing the very same memory, because a faint smile played about his lips as he looked at her. Anna drew in a big breath. “Except I deceived him grossly.”

“How?”

Anna told him how it came about that she had played Miss Hilversham, how she had been coerced into the role by Miss Grace and Phoebe.

St John groaned. “Ah. Phoebe. So, you are saying that girl knew who you were all along?”

Anna nodded.

“Still. You should have refused to go along with it,” Jules insisted.

“Yes, and normally I would have. Until he made an offer that was absolutely irresistible.” She glanced sideways at St John, who smirked. And after Jules learned the amount he still owed her, Jules, too, fell silent.

“Well, seen in that light, for that amount I would’ve done it too.” Jules shook his head in amazement. “Absolutely. He still owes you the amount, correct?”

“Of course not—” Anna began, but St John cut in.

“Correct.”

Jules’s mien brightened immediately. “Capital. So, you played Miss Hilversham all summer. A reasonable thing to do under the circumstances.”

St John snorted.

“It was going rather well, and the plan was to return to the seminary with Phoebe and to return to my old position. Except then, you know what happened.”

“I went and ruined it all.” Jules’s shoulders dropped. “Anna. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t know. In the end, it was for the best.” She looked up, directly at St John. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice had fallen to a whisper. “For everything.”

He shook his head. “How worried you must have been all this time. You should have confided in me,” he said gruffly. “Did you have so little faith in me?” He took her hands in his.

“I’d got myself so deeply into the deception that I did not know my way out any more.” She hung her head. “Can you forgive me?”

“There is nothing to forgive,” he replied gruffly.

She rubbed her eyebrow. “And thank you for having helped me—us—save face by making that an—announcement.” She stammered. “Naturally you need not consider yourself bound to any of it.”

He lifted her chin with one finger. “Look at me, Anna.”

She lifted her gaze and met his.