Page 77 of What's an Earl Gotta Do?
Anne ducked her head as she settled onto his shoulder, trying to conceal her disappointment. “Then it’s impossible.”
They lapsed into silence for a moment, then Michael said, “Do you remember the famine three years ago?”
Anne shuddered. “The Ladies’ Society was overrun with applications. It was terrible, Michael—snow on the fields in May, frosts in June and flooding in July. The fields were so waterlogged, nothing would grow. People were literally starving by the thousands.”
“I’m the one who broke it,” Michael said quietly.
Anne startled in his arms. “You… you what?”
“Not entirely, of course,” Michael said, still staring at the ceiling. “From everything I’ve heard, it was still awful. But it would have been ten times worse had I not been running all over Canada at William Pitt’s behest, buying up as much wheat as I could and arranging to have it shipped here.”
Anne swallowed. It was jarring how much she had missed, how little she knew of Michael’s life over the last four years. “I-I didn’t know that.”
“There were also commissions from the army and the Royal Navy.” He grinned ruefully. “I got a letter of thanks from Lord Nelson the first time I sent the Royal Navy a shipload of mast poles. But breaking the famine, that’s the assignment I’m most proud of.” Michael looked at her then, his eyes urgent. “I know you’re doing important work here, Anne. I’ve seen for myself what a difference you’re making. But please don’t imagine that going back to Canada is some lark for me. I’m doing important work there, too. It’s why Lord Hobart wants me to be Governor General one day.”
“Gov-Governor General!” Anne exclaimed, sitting up. “Of Canada?”
He nodded. “It wouldn’t be for some years, but I’m already on the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. And I’m to begin formally training so that whenever Sir Robert Milnes steps down, I’ll be ready.”
“Oh, my goodness, Michael. I… I had no idea.” Suddenly she was blinking back tears. “I’m so very proud of you.”
He pulled her back down to rest upon his shoulder. “That is why it’s important for me to go back to Canada. Not just so I can have some frontier adventure.”
Anne brushed at a tear that was threatening to slip loose. “I understand, Michael. But surely you must see that however much we might wish to marry, our futures are incompatible. You need to find someone else, someone who can go with you to Canada.”
He shook his head. “No, Anne. There’s no one else for me. I’ve loved you since I was fourteen years old. And that will never change. I didn’t stop loving you when you married someone else. I didn’t stop loving you when you were on the other side of the world. I didn’t stop loving you when I couldn’t bear to open your letters because I was terrified they would be filled with tales of how happy another man was making you. I still loved you with every fiber of my miserable, wretched, broken heart.” He gave her a sad smile. “I don’t think we Cranfield men have it in us to love more than one woman in a lifetime. Just look at my father—fourteen years since my mother’s death, and she’s still the only woman in the world for him. And that’s exactly how I feel about you. So please, don’t suggest I find someone else. There’s no one else for me but you. And there never will be.”
Anne’s heart was pounding from the force of Michael’s declaration, the sincerity in his eyes. “But Michael, what are we going to do? It’s impossible,” she said, unable to conceal a note of despair in her voice.
“I refuse to accept that. I won’t be parted from you. Ever.” He lay back to stare at the ceiling again. “There is a solution. And I’m going to find it.”
“You mean you’re going to try to wear me down,” Anne said, a trifle annoyed, “until I give up my dream, and you get everything you want?”
“No.” He huffed. “As if that would even work.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know.” He yawned, pulling the duvet up to cover them. “But I’ll figure it out.”
Anne wasn’t convinced, but she was exhausted and comfortable enough snuggled up with Michael that she didn’t have long to dwell on their problems, because she found herself drifting into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 28
The first thing they did the following morning was send a note to Mr. Branton detailing what Arnold Price had told them about the misappropriated funds at the R.M.A.
Well, Michael reflected with a wolfish grin, strictly speaking that was the second thing they did the following morning. He felt his cock stirring as he fondly recalled the first thing they’d done.
Michael dispatched another note to Cranfield House requesting a fresh set of clothes be sent over. After an informal breakfast in Anne’s rooms, he dressed and headed home, as Anne had a full day ahead of her. All Michael had to fill his day was another visit to the tailor, although Anne had promised to dine with him that evening.
It was a fine, sunny morning, and Michael opted to walk home. He always thought best when he was moving, and he needed to think if he was going to come up with a solution to his and Anne’s predicament. He was quite lost in thought as he bounded up the steps to Cranfield House, so that he gave a start when the front door burst open.
Out flew his father.
“Michael!” the marquess boomed. “There you are, son.”
Michael grinned. “Father!” He jogged up the last few steps, and they both came to a halt.
The first thing Michael noticed was that he was now taller than his father, by a good four inches. Of course, he had known this would be the case, but it was one thing to know something like that theoretically, and another to experience the strange sensation of looking down upon the man to whom he had always looked up. It was also jarring to witness the effects of the passing of four years in an instant. His father still looked robust, but he had probably shrunk an inch. He also had a lot more grey in his hair than Michael remembered, and more creases around his eyes to go with it.
