Page 102 of If the Slipper Fits
“It’s a rather difficult conversation,” she finally said in all honesty.
“I see.” Eying Anna, she held her cup to her lips to sip.
Anna felt the lady's unwavering stare as she stirred the sugar cube into the steaming jasmine scented tea, watching it dissolve. She picked up her delicate cup and took a tentative sip of the smooth, hot liquid.
Across from her, Lady Kitty set her cup into its saucer soundlessly. “I see I shall have to come straight out with it. I fail to ascertain how you can be a widow and engaged to Caden while married to Lord Baron Bolton.”
Anna met the woman’s eyes and said the first thing that came to her. “The thing is, I thought I had killed him. I only just learned he survived.”
After a beat of silence, she said, “I think you’d better start at the beginning.”
***
“And that, my lady, is how I ended up here.”
Anna sat back in her chair, oddly relieved. It had taken over an hour, but she’d told the future Countess of Claybourne everything. She’d glossed over certain details, such as those concerning Lord Bolton’s attack on her person which precipitated her hitting him in the head.
As far as the intimacy shared by she and Caden, she’d left that out entirely.
Lady Thurgood had listened, quiet and attentive, throughout the long discourse, save for occasional murmurs of commiseration and concern. She regarded Anna with compassion filled eyes.
“You poor dear. You lost your father, and never had a moment to grieve.” Brows beetled, she rose and moved to the open window.
She gazed toward the waning sun on the horizon. “I can’t help but feel a certain affinity with you. I’m not sure what, if anything, Caden shared with you of my experience prior to marrying Zeke.”
Anna joined her. It felt good to stretch her legs and breathe in the balmy air. “He did not disclose any details. He mentioned a difficult time you’d been forced to navigate, which you managed with evident grace and courage. He can’t sing your praises enough.”
She chuckled. “I’m not so sure about the grace part. But yes, I underwent a difficult ordeal. Suffice it to say, with the earl’s help, and of course that of Zeke and Caden, I escaped marriage to my guardian, who we believe planned to marry me, then murder me.”
“Oh, my,” Anna murmured, pressing her hand to her heart. They did share a similar story.
“I ran for my life, on the cusp of the death of my beloved grandfather. I’d lost both my parents several years before that, and at the time, believed my brother dead, as well. So I know a bit about what you must have suffered—what you undoubtedly suffer, still.”
“I miss my father terribly. Both of my parents, really, though my mother has been gone for some time and the sting of loss is less acute.”
“I understand. No other family to speak of?”
Anna shook her head. “My father’s family relocated to New York. After losing both his parents to illness, he set sail, returning to England where he attended university, became a physician, and sometime thereafter, met my mother.
“Mother rarely spoke of her past. She told me enough for me to know she was an orphan, with no family to speak of. There was only ever the three of us.”
“I’m sure the two of them loved you very much. Your father probably remarried hoping his new wife would be a second mother to you. Howcouldshe contrive to sell you off to Lord Bolton?”
Anna screwed up her face. “I still can’t figure out what was in it for either of them. Caden believes there was some sort of financial motive, but I can’t figure how. Angelique swore father left us destitute. Even if she lied about that, whatever fortune he had would have gone to her.
"As for Lord Bolton, the shape of his home alone tells me he hasn’t the funds to pay Angelique a dowry for me. Whatever they stood to gain by having Lord Bolton marry me is a complete mystery. Frankly, I don’t care why. I just want to be free of both of them.”
Lady Thurgood nibbled the inside of her cheek. “I can understand your position. I, however, do care to know the why’s and wherefores.” She grinned at Anna. “I’m inquisitive by nature.”
Anna grinned back.
She cocked her head and tapped her chin with one graceful finger. “My guardian wanted to marry me to inherit my family’s title. Did your father hold any sort of honorific?”
“Oh, my, no.”
She arched a single, ebony brow. “It’s maddening, missing the puzzle pieces. There are, however, two things we know for certain. One, Bolton is still searching for you.”
“Yes.” Anna agreed. “And the other?”
