Page 71 of The Trouble with Anna

Anna twisted to look behind her. “Shouldn’t we stay? We can’t abandon your grandmother to those people.”

“She’s fine. She’s an army in Dowager form. She could obliterate them both with a well-timed word.”

Speaking of people to obliterate, a certain prince came to mind. Perhaps in a dungeon, on a particularly gruesome rack. Then there was that fat-wit Hartley—

Anna gave a slight tug on Julian’s elbow, but he ignored her.

—that fat-wit Hartley, up to his neck in a vat of boiling—

“Take me back to the ball. Please.”

The faint quiver in Anna’s voice caught Julian’s attention as nothing else could. “You’re shaking, damn it. Are you all right?”

“Of course I am. They caught me by surprise, that’s all. I ought to get back to the dancing—I’m sure I’m engaged to someone for the next set.” Anna fumbled for her poor, neglected dance card.

Julian put his hand over hers, absorbed the faint trembles with the warmth of his palm. It pleased him absurdly to comfort her, even so slightly. She was still alarmingly pale, though, even for Anna, whose skin made milk look flushed.

He shot her a crooked smile. “Your dance card? Why try for propriety now, my renegade, when you’ve ignored it so magnificently all evening?”

Her eyebrows snapped together and she gave the hallway a frown. “I swear I remember something about dark corridors and how I must not allow gentlemen to lure me down them. Julian, where are you taking me?”

“For a rest. In Lord Maltraver’s study.”

God help us both.

He hustled her up a short flight of stairs and pushed the wide door open.

“Right.” Anna took a deep, shuddering breath and straightened her spine as if girding herself for battle. But when she raised her eyes to his at last, they were as black as bruises. “I don’t need a rest. I’m ready to go back.”

Oh, damn.

He was in trouble now.

One hint of bravery from her—one hint that sheneededto be brave—and his chest exploded. He wanted to bash things for her. He wanted to throw his cape over a damned puddle to spare her slippers.

As if Anna cared two bits about slippers.

What she cared about was crowded balls filled with jeering people, and she needed his help. Even if she refused to admit it.

Julian raised an eyebrow and issued a challenge. “Gran was right. You don’t trust yourself to be alone with me.”

“Rubbish!” She marched straight into the room, and Julian had to smother a grin. Such a dependable little warrior. Anna always found her courage when she had someone to fight.

He followed her in. “I apologize if being around me makes you nervous.”

Anna lifted her chin in an attempt at haughtiness. “In truth, I have very little reaction to you one way or another.”

There was no fire lit in the study, but it wasn’t quite dark either. Light from the lanterns swaying in the garden below poured through the large windows, glowing like dark amber. Julian leaned back against the desk and stretched his long legs, while Anna crossed the room to the point farthest from him.

“If you’re not nervous, why have you fled to the windows?”

Color flooded back into her cheeks. “I haven’t fled! I only wanted to look outside.”

“I don’t recommend it. Not unless you’d like to be spotted and set the Ton to speculating.”

Anna scuttled back to the middle of the room. “Surely they can’t see me?”

“No. But they can make out your silhouette and they’ll wonder.”

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