Page 111 of The Trouble with Anna

“You blackguard! Do you mean I sold Charon to you?”

“The things you’ve tried to hide from me would fill a book. A book I have read, luckily.”

“I agonized!” She ducked neatly into Charon’s stall. “I suffered tremendous guilt! And Imissedhim. It hurt to say good-bye to such a beauty.”

The gray pricked up his ears and she glowed up at him. “Yes, I’m talking about you. Aren’t you the most gorgeous creature?”

Charon gave a full body shiver under the stroke of her hand as she murmured at him, opening her fingers to let him nuzzle her palm. When she turned back to Julian, she glowed. “Thank you. He’s splendid.”

Splendid. Julian’s stomach fell.

Thehorsewas splendid.

Suddenly Julian wasn’t quite as enamored of his own cleverness.

My god, man, are you jealous of a horse?

Anna peeped at him. “Julian? You’ve gone all brooding.”

Julian gave a wry smile. “I’ve made a rare tactical error, you see. I don’t like to see you smitten with anyone but me.”

He had an impulse to catch her by the waist, lift her up to eye-level, and tell her that she made his chest ache. To kiss her until she was limp and her eyes went glassy.Say it!he urged himself.

Julian pulled her out of the stall and felt her breath catch as he pressed a fierce kiss on her forehead. “Anna, there’s something I must tell you.”

Her eyes met his, dark and full of hope. “Yes?”

“I—”

She waited.

“I—”

Julian’s throat closed up and his stomach lurched, leaving him shaky, uncertain, and exposed.

It wasn’t easy, this declaration stuff. It was damned unmanly! Worse, it was damned unnatural. Perhaps a declaration should wait until everything was more settled. Or until they were somewhere with less manure. On their wedding night, or after the birth of their first child. Now that he thought of it, there was something deeply romantic about deathbed declarations.

“Julian?” Anna prompted.

“I’m serious about a special license,” he said. “Won’t you consider it?”

She looked up and searched his face, those sharp eyes poking past the surface, as if she could see all the way down to his bones. The stable felt suddenly still and solemn, like a cathedral.

Anna laid her hand on his chest. “You look terribly unsettled, do you know that?” She spread her fingers wide, exploring. “Your heart is galloping.”

If only she knew.

“It’s trying to keep up with you.”

But she ignored his quip. “This isn’t easy for either of us, is it? We’re both so terribly mistrustful.” She dropped her eyes to his cravat, as if that could stop him from reading the expressions that flitted across her face. First sadness, which made him feel desperate and also inadequate, like a lone soldier trying to face down an army. Then her jaw firmed with determination, thoughhe wasn’t sure what that meant. Just as he’d begun to despair, her little mouth curved helplessly and her eyes went soft and warm.

She raised her gaze to meet his. “I suppose one of us will have to lead the way. Yes to a special license, plea—”

But she couldn’t complete the sentence, because Julian crushed her to his chest and kissed the wits right out of her.

CHAPTER43

THE SPECIAL LICENSE WAS MAGIC.

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