Page 36 of A Virgin to Tempt the Duke

Anna looked at Frederick briefly.

“Thomas has known about the situation from nearly the beginning,” Frederick said. “He has assisted in making certain enquiries, some of which required connections I did not have. He has my complete confidence and, I believe, has earned a degree of yours.”

“Frederick does not use the wordcompletecarelessly,” Rachel offered, from her end of the sofa, which was true enough.

Anna looked at Thomas for a moment with the quiet, unrushed assessment he had come to recognize as her way of reading people. Then she said, “Thank you, my lord. For what you have done.”

“It wanted doing,” Thomas said simply. “Now. I have some thoughts about how the next few weeks should look, and I think we ought to discuss them before we go any further.”

He reached for the cup Rachel had poured for him. He was not, Frederick noticed, making light of it. He had the instinct to know when to keep humor holstered, which Frederick always admired in his closest friend.

“You’ve been in London for a day,” Thomas said to Frederick. “Which means that the ton knows you’re here. And they’ll wonder when you’ll next show up.” He turned his cup in the saucer.

“What are you suggesting?” Rachel interjected.

“I am suggesting,” Thomas said, “that the wisest thing you can do, the two of you, is to appear in company. Selectively, and soon. An evening here, an afternoon there. You were in Derbyshire, now you are in London, as people sometimes are. Nothing more remarkable than that.” He looked at Anna. “Except for you of course, it is best you stay put.”

“That will not be a problem,” Anna replied.

Rachel straightened slightly. “How can I enjoy myself in polite society while my best friend’s situation is unresolved?”

“I am suggesting it will look considerably more suspicious you do not,” Thomas said, not unkindly. “And that it removes ammunition from anyone who might otherwise wonder what is being hidden. You are doing her a favor by going out, Rachel.”

Rachel looked at Frederick. He looked back.

“He is not wrong,” Frederick said.

“He may not be wrong and still be suggesting something inadvisable. I cannot leave my friend?—”

“Rachel.” Anna set down her cup. Her voice was quiet and clear. “He’s right.”

Rachel turned to her.

“Think of it plainly,” Anna said. “Youare in London.Youare still out. If you are seen nowhere and do nothing while we are here, people will wonder, and wondering leads to questions, and questions lead to exactly the attention we cannot afford right now…” She paused. “Your future is not decided. And I will not have it said that I was the reason you disappeared from the world.”

“Anna…”

“I am not afraid of a little solitude,” Anna said, with the directness she sometimes produced when she had moved past consideration and arrived at a conclusion. “I am considerably less afraid of that than I was of a wedding I did not know I was having.” She looked at Thomas. “Which events were you considering?”

Thomas, to his credit, did not look triumphant. “The Clarkes have a musicale at the end of the week. Quiet, respectable, very little of Lord Birchall’s usual set. A short appearance. Nothing that requires more than an hour.”

“That would do for Rachel,” Anna said.

Rachel was quiet for a moment. She looked at her hands and then at the fire and then, finally, at Anna with an expression that was concession and concern in equal measure. “Fine.”

“Good.” Thomas set down his cup. He did not drag it out. He stood to go with the ease of a man who had achieved the thing hecame to achieve and saw no reason to linger unnecessarily. “I’ll send word tomorrow about the particulars.”

He shook Frederick’s hand, and kissed Rachel’s cheek again, and then he turned to Anna. He took her hand. He bowed over it. His lips just brushed her knuckle, in the manner that was correct and conventional and not, Frederick told himself, anything that needed an opinion from him.

“It was my very great pleasure, Miss Cartwell,” Thomas said. “You have faced an extraordinary set of circumstances with more composure than most people manage in ordinary ones. I hope the outcome is swift, and I have every confidence that it will be.” He looked up at her. “A lady of your quality deserves considerably better than what Birchall has put you through. I intend to see that you get it, in what small part I may play.”

Anna blushed, and she looked briefly down at her hand.

“You are very kind, my lord,” she said, her cheeks a dewy pink. “Thank you.”

“My friend.” Frederick appeared at Thomas’s elbow. “I’ll see you out.”

“Of course.”