Page 13 of The Trouble with Anna

“Like hell you will!”

Julian wrapped the rope twice around his hand and gripped hard, bracing his feet against the wall of the well. He pulled slowly but with brutal force, until his neck corded and the great muscles of his back threatened to tear. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly.

Julian paused and grimaced, knowing she would hate what he said next. “Lady Anna, take off your skirt!”

A loud squeak ricocheted up the walls of the well, followed by complete silence.

“Lady Anna, I know you heard me.” He lowered his voice to its most lordly and commanding. “Take off your skirt!”

More silence.

“Damn it, I refuse to let you die of stubbornness. Either you remove your skirt, or I climb down there and remove it for you.”

“Oh, all r-right!” There was a bit of bad-natured splashing, and then a tug on the rope. “I’m ready!”

Julian braced his legs again and pulled and the rope began to move, rasping up over the stone inch by inch and taking strips of his palm with it. When the rope went cold, soaked through with dank water, Julian knew she was close. A slim hand, blue and trembling, groped its way over the lip of the well. Lady Anna found a hold and her dark head scraped up, followed by a shoulder. “Stop!” she called, and plastered herself to the lip of the well, clinging like a monkey. “I’ll wait here until—”

“No, you bloody well won’t!” Julian gave one last mighty heave and Lady Anna tumbled over the wall in a wet explosion of legs.

Wet, naked legs.

Julian skidded down to her in the dirt and wrapped his greatcoat around her, careful to keep his eyes up and his hands off, though it was impossible not to notice how shockingly smooth and lush her bare skin looked. It was as if her legs had been dipped in cream. Little water drops beaded on them, glistening across the long expanse of—

He jerked his eyes to her face. “Lady Anna, are you injured?”

She looked up, hair plastered to her head and a livid streak down the side of her face. “I’m c-c-cold. So c-cold.”

Julian reached into the greatcoat for the buttons of her riding jacket.

“My l-lord!” she said, and blushed fiery red, trying to fumble him away.

“Don’t be stupid.” His strong hands were implacable as he peeled off the soaked wool of her jacket, ignoring the peekaboo glimpses that her wet shirt afforded him. He tucked her more deeply into his coat and snapped the fabric closed beneath her chin, hauling her and the boy both hard against the warmth of his broad chest. “Hold on, my adventurers. Help is coming.”

The child burrowed into his side, but Lady Anna, with an odd little yelp, tried to scramble away, one of those creamy legs punching through the folds of the greatcoat before she yelped again and jerked it back in.

Christ. How did such a little thing have legs that long?

Julian clenched his teeth, clamped her to him, and rubbed the length of her back up and down, hard, willing his warmth into her. She was cold as an icicle and he was hot. Much too damn hot for his own ward.

“Where the devil are your men?”

It wasn’t long before a pack of grooms galloped around the corner. They wrapped the boy in blankets, but Julian held Lady Anna firmly against his side when she tried to scuttle away. “Of all the freakish starts! What the hell were you thinking when you climbed down into that well?”

Her head whipped up. “Henry was s-scared! I doubt he can swim! Should I have stood by and wr-wrung my h-hands?”

“You should have waited for me!”

“There was no time to w-wait!”

“Damn it, Lady Anna,Iam meant to do the rescuing!” Julian yelled, then froze.

Surely it was the stupidest thing he’d ever said in his life?

Lady Anna lifted her chin like a weapon, even as a drop of water gathered on the tip of her nose. Her lips were purple, she smelled strongly of rotten weeds, and she was dangerously cold, yet Julian was hit by the sudden, overwhelming need either to burst out laughing, or to wrap his arms around her tight.

He released her shoulders abruptly and stepped away.

“Forgive me, Lady Anna. You were magnificent and we both know it. I’m only shouting from the shock of it. Shall we start over?”

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