She could not possibly have been more appealing.
Around the room they went, several times more, and Grif discovered, in the course of making ridiculous conversation that afternoon, that Anna was well-read on a variety of subjects, and her opinions ventured far outside the usual debutante’s reply of paying no attention to this or that important event. She did pay attention to the world around her, and she seemed to have many different interests, which made her far more interesting in comparison.
“Thank you,” she said, after his thorough examination of the rituals of the Season, from which she was still unable to catch her breath from laughing. “I believe I do understand what you mean about smiling and laughter and will endeavor to do more of it.” She pulled her hand from his, and still laughing, walked around to the divan where she’d laid her pelisse.
“But…” Grif said, watching as she picked it up. “What are ye doing, then?”
“Oh! I really must be on my way. We’ve a tea we’re to attend,” she said as she put one arm in the coat.
“But we’ve no’ finished our lesson yet!” he exclaimed, feeling oddly perturbed that she would deign to end their lesson so soon.
She laughed, put her other arm into the coat. “If I didn’t know better, sir, I would think you desired me to stay!”
Grif shoved his hands in his pockets. “No. Of course no’,” he muttered.
She smiled, fastened her pelisse, and picked up her bonnet. “Shall you call on Lucy tomorrow? It’s been three days now, and I am certain she’s wondering why you haven’t called.”
Lucy? The last thing on his mind at the moment was Lucy.
She paused in what she was doing and looked at him. “Shall I see you on the morrow?”
This agreement was beginning to grate for reasons Grif did not really understand, had him feeling a bit rudderless, and he scowled. “How can I know ye actually have what ye say it is ye have, Anna?”
She blinked as she fit the bonnet on her head. “Because I gave you one of the rubies.”
“Aye, that ye did, but for all I know, ye’ve gone and sold the blasted thing.”
She laughed roundly at that. “Of course I haven’t! First, where could I possibly sell something as hideous as that, and second, why should I? I’m certainly not in need of money. And third, as long as I have it, you will do what I ask, isn’t that so?”
Grif glared at her, his lighthearted feelings for her having suddenly evaporated.
Anna smiled, tied her bonnet in a bow beneath her chin. “Very well, then. On the morrow, you will call on Lucy, and perhaps we might meet in Hyde Park afterward, at Rotten Row. Lady Worthall makes me terribly anxious. She’d ruin me if she saw me coming here unescorted.”
“What a tragedy that would be,” Grif drawled, and got a dark frown for it.
Seventeen
A nna wasn’t certain if she was imagining it or not that Grif had seemed rather perturbed when she took her leave, instead of being entirely happy to be done with her, as was typical.
But she had no time to dwell on it, for today the family was calling en masse on the Lockharts for tea.
She arrived home in just the nick of time; her family was gathered in the drawing room, waiting for her as she came breathlessly through the doors, a smile on her face.
“Darling, where have you been?” her mother cried. “We shouldn’t want to keep the Lockharts waiting!”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I was detained at the milliner,” she said quickly, and fussed with the buttons of her pelisse to avoid her mother’s gaze.
“The milliner?” Lucy asked, her voice full of suspicion. “I had no idea you were interested in millinery! Honestly, I always thought quite the opposite.”
“I’m as interested in millinery as any young woman.” Anna lied.
“What does it matter?” Father politely interjected before Lucy could question her further. “She’s here now, and I do think we must be going or be late. Shall we?” He gestured for the ladies to quickly precede him out the door.