Michael somehow managed to survive yet another visit to the tailor and arrived at the Sunderland ball smartly attired in his new evening kit.
His thoughts were consumed with Anne. Although his attempted proposal had been by any reasonable measure a complete, total, and unmitigated disaster, he couldn’t help but smile when he thought of it. After all, he’d gotten to hold her, to savor the feel of her sweet weight on top of him, to enjoy the way she trembled in his arms.
And he’d come within a hairsbreadth of kissing her. Again. But unlike that picnic all those years ago, this time she hadn’t been terrified.
He’d seen desire in her eyes. She had wrapped her arms around his neck, craned her lips toward his. Had they not been interrupted she’d have kissed him back.
And when he asked her to marry him tonight, she was going to say yes.
He spotted Anne in the foyer and hastened to her side.
“Good evening, Anne,” he said, raising her hand to his lips.
“Good evening, Michael.”
“May I have the first dance?”
“Oh, dear.” She retrieved a dance card from her reticule. “I already promised it to someone.”
Michael was alarmed to see that her dance card was completely full. “Don’t worry,” Anne said, “I already put you down for two. See?”
He was somewhat mollified to see that the supper dance and the final dance of the evening were his. Still, that left four dances before he would have any meaningful time with her.
“Wait a minute,” Michael said, pulling the dance card from Anne’s grasp. “You’re not dancing the first with Alexander Fitzroy, are you?”
“Indeed, I am.”
“He almost knocked you over!”
Anne shook her head. “That was an accident.”
“And Augustus Mapplethorpe.”
“What’s wrong with Augustus Mapplethorpe?”
Michael stared at her incredulously. “Does his breath still smell of pickled cod?”
“Um… well…” She cleared her throat. “I’m sure it will hardly be noticeable.”
Michael rolled his eyes. “I’m sure it won’t. And then it’s Gladstone. You don’t want to dance with him, either.”
“Am I truly dancing with Lord Gladstone?” Anne asked, snatching her dance card back. “And Lord Scudamore,” she whispered, then fell silent, staring blankly across the ballroom.
“I know Gladstone from school. He’s as dumb as a box of rocks. And his estate is on the brink of insolvency.”
Anne was gazing across the foyer, lost in thought. “So it is.”
“Scudamore’s estate is bankrupt, too,” Michael noted.
This seemed to snap Anne from her trance. “It was four years ago when you left, but it’s not anymore. He’s performed quite the feat turning it around.”
“Has he, now? You should still avoid him. When we were at Eton, he was one of those fellows who delighted in torturing the younger boys. Not me,” Michael added as Anne’s eyes crinkled with concern. “I was under your brothers’ protection. But he once tied Clotworthy Elphinstone to a tree deep in the woods and left him out there overnight. The squirrels got to him. Have you never wondered why he only has the one eyebrow?”
Anne was busy scanning the crowd. “Help me, Michael. You have the superior vantage point. I need to find my mother, and… I don’t suppose you know Mr. Samuel Branton?”
“I do not. But Anne—”
“He’s a Black gentleman, a bit taller than me, with close-cropped hair and impeccable tailoring.”
Did she really think he, of all people, would recognize impeccable tailoring? “Anne! Did you hear anything I just said about Scudamore?”
She spared him a brief glance. “Of course I heard you. And yes, that does sound despicable. But isn’t that sort of thing fairly common at Eton?”
“Not to the extent Scudamore took it. He used to whip any boy who didn’t perform the task he assigned them ‘correctly,’ and I mean hard enough to leave welts. Those who didn’t have someone to look out for them used to spend all day outside, just to avoid him. If it was a downpour, they would huddle under a bridge rather than risk encountering him in Long Chamber.”
She squeezed his forearm, craning her neck, and nodded toward the doors. “Is that Mama who just came in? With the scarlet ostrich feather?”
“Anne!” Michael stepped in front of her. This earned him a frown. “The point is these men are unsuitable. You don’t want to dance with a great bully, nor someone whose estate is insolvent.”
“I will admit that Lord Scudamore’s schoolboy behavior sounds regrettable. But people can change. Today he is hailed as a paragon of charity and virtue. Why, just last month he organized a subscription sermon for the Ladies’ Society that brought in forty-seven pounds. And as to someone whose estate is insolvent”—she gave a dark laugh—“I have to marry someone, Michael.”
He blinked at her. “I should like to know what you mean by that.”
She was back to scanning the crowd. “Papa structured my marriage contract with Lord Wynters such that, if we didn’t have any children, my dowry reverted back to him. Now he’s re-dowered me, which means I come with thirty-five thousand pounds. It gives me hope that I might get a proposal or two.”
“You are not marrying any of these scoundrels,” Michael said, biting back the words, the only man you’re going to marry is me.
Anne looked up at him, exasperated. “It’s no use pretending that my dowry won’t serve as an inducement.”
He took both of her hands in his. “Your dowry is not your greatest inducement. Only a fool wouldn’t want to marry you. Anne, I—” He glanced around. The foyer was packed; not exactly the romantic prospect he had envisioned for his proposal.
He drew in a slow breath. It wasn’t as if Anne was going to accept someone else in the next hour. He could be patient. His opportunity would come. Soon.
He held her gaze. “You deserve a husband who understands your worth. Which has nothing to do with your dowry. You deserve someone who’ll treat you like a queen, who will dedicate his life to making you happy. And I’m going to be honest, Anne, I know those first few men on your dance card, and not a one of them is worthy of you.”
Her annoyance melted away. “What a kind thing to say. But I must be practical, Michael. Not that I think he’s truly interested in me, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge Lord Scudamore based on his youthful foibles. After all, you’re the one who once walked around all morning with a bladder of cherry brandy in your mouth so you could pop it and make Harrington think you were bleeding.”
“You know full well I only did that because he wouldn’t stop stealing up behind me, grabbing my waistband, and yanking my trousers up to my ears.”
Anne shook her head. “Your shirt was soaked with it. I’ve never seen him in such a frenzy. He thought he’d killed you.”
“Yes, well, the point is, he never tried that maneuver again now did he?”
“Then there was the time you drizzled Mrs. McGillicutty’s Tincture of Aphrodite over everything in his trunk. Edward said he went around Eton for a week smelling of apricot and orange blossom.”
Michael groaned. This was the problem with falling in love with someone who knew everything about you. They knew… everything about you. “Harrington deserved that one, too. And he later agreed it was hilarious. But still, there’s a difference between a childish prank and cruelty.”
“I don’t disagree. My point is merely that we have all done regrettable things in our youth that don’t necessarily have any bearing on who we are as adults. And I’ve got to be realistic. My dowry is an inducement. If I should receive a proposal from some man whose debts are not too great and who is otherwise suitable—”
He squeezed her hands. “Say no. You’ll receive a better offer. I promise you will.”
Anne bit her lip. “I don’t know, Michael. I might have to settle for a fortune hunter. I might not get another offer, and you know how much I want to have children—”
“You won’t have to settle,” he said quietly. “Trust me.”
She sighed. “I’ll think on it. Oh!” Anne was looking through the doors leading to the ballroom. “There’s Mama. Over by the refreshment table.” She pressed Michael’s hand and slipped away.
He was watching her weave nimbly through the crowd when someone slung an arm around his shoulder. “Morsley! By gad, it is you!”
It proved to be Andrew Tomlinson, an old friend from Eton.
Michael sighed. Well, he had done his best. Hoping Anne would heed his warning, he turned to greet his friend.