Page 127 of If the Slipper Fits
Anna swallowed over the hard lump lodged in her throat. “I thought I’d never see it again. I assumed it could not possibly be one and the same. I also couldn’t comprehend why you would give me such a precious stone, period.”
“Well, now you know. It was your mother's, and was always meant to be yours. Regardless of how we leave things today, the ruby belongs to you. May I continue?”
Anna nodded.
“I was not at all certain what to do next. My man-of-affairs notified me you’d registered with that perfectly dreadful agency in a seedy part of town.”
Anna opened her arms wide. “I chose it as the look of the agency told me the agents might not go to the trouble of verifying my falsified references.”
Lady Wentworth smiled her cunning smile. “You are nothing if not resourceful.” She spread her hands wide. “You know the rest. I conspired to hire you.”
“After you got me un-hired from another household.” Anna held up her hand when the older woman opened her mouth, presumably to defend her actions. “I understand. Clearly I inherited my resourcefulness from you.”
A brief, comfortable silence passed, until the momentousness of their conversation seemingly overtook both of them again.
Anna met the older lady’s eyes. “Why not simply tell me the truth? Why, after my father passed, did you not seek me out and introduce yourself? Surely that would have been easier than relying on investigators, solicitors, and agencies.”
Her shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh. “I feared you would turn me away as your mother had for what I had done. I decided to settle for some relationship rather than risk your hatred and banishment.”
Frowning, Anna rose and paced to the window. “I confess, what you’ve shared is almost more than I can take in.”
“I understand.” She rose. “I’ll take my leave now if that is what you wish, and stay out of your life.”
She turned to face her. “You think I mean to cut you from my life,now? After all you’ve done for me and all you’ve gone through yourself? You suffered for the choice you made so many years ago, and, though your apologies fell on deaf ears, watched over me still.”
She gave a self-derisive snort. “I did a bang-up job, did I not? Allowing that horrid man to get his hooks in you.”
“I got myself into that mess, but you managed to rescue me nonetheless. First getting me out of London safely, later secreting me out of Femsworth Manor, and now, garnering Bolton’s promise to release me from my sham of a marriage.”
Hope lit her eyes. “What are you saying, Anna?”
“You’re my grandmother, my only living relative, and perhaps the only person in the world who cares if I live or die.” She paused. “Aside from Caden.”
The sparkle of unshed tears shone in Lady Wentworth’s eyes. “The gift of of claiming you as my granddaughter is more than I ever thought possible. What now?”
Anna crossed back to the sofa. “I don’t know, exactly.” She took the older woman’s hands in hers and sent her a cautious smile. “But I want to find out.”
“I want nothing more in the world.” She looked down at their clasped hands. “Anna, I said some rash things concerning the status of yours and Caden’s relationship.”
Anna released her hands and arched a brow. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“I thought, if I could arrange a meet betweenyou and Caden—”
“—Youarrangedthat?”
“Well, why else would I subject myself to a house party?” She shuddered with dramatic zeal. “He was the only male from your past you’d ever taken an interest in as far as I and my sources could tell. Too, I knew he and his family had the wherewithal to protect you from Bolton should anything happen to me. But now…”
A sudden feeling of falling off a cliff upended her stomach. She did not want to hear what the woman would say next.
“…I could retract my previous statement. You could come home with me. If you want me to, that is. Anna, what do you want me to do?”
***
Caden paced the edge of the portico and glared up at the stalled morning sun, refusing to budge an inch in the cloud-dappled blue sky. Rain would be preferable to this infernal good weather.
His stomach growled, mocking his decision to eschew the breakfast hall while Anna and Lady W—hergrandmother—talked. His need to be alone, to calm his growing disquiet, had won out over hunger.
He gripped the stone balustrade ’til his fingers turned white, and stared out at the thick glade of forest before him.
