Page 61 of The Language of Love

Annis’s soft voice shook him from his pointless mental dithering. “You can just drop me here, Henry.”

They were only a few streets away from her uncle’s house. It was a respectable enough area and the foot traffic was mostly menials or clerks hurrying to do their employer’s bidding before the workday was over.

Still, he did not like it.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure. If my aunt and uncle knew what I’ve been doing—”

“I understand,” he said. Although he suspected the Bowmans wouldn’t be so eager to scold their niece if they knew it was a wealthy, eligible earl she was spending her days with.

She cocked her head at him, her eyes imploring. “It’s not you personally, Henry, it’s my aunt, she—”

“Doesn’t like you to have any pleasure in your life?”

“Oh, she’s not so bad as that,” Annis demurred, but not with any conviction.

And so, Henry deposited her on a street corner, feeling like the world’s biggest cad as he looked down on her waifish form.

“I suppose I shan’t see you for another two weeks?” He said the words lightly, but he didn’t like to think of the days ahead if they didn’t contain her.

“Actually,” she said, grinning at him in a way that made it very difficult not to lift her back up into the carriage and kiss her breathless, “I believe I can get away the day after tomorrow.”

“Why, Miss Bowman,” he teased. “You mean you can slip the leash three times in almost as many days?”

“Events have, for once, conspired in our favor, Mr. Parker. My aunt and cousins are going with some friends to Richmond and will be gone all day.”

Henry, too, had accepted an invitation to go along on that jaunt. Well, now it seemed like poor Lord Rotherhithe was about to develop a sudden summer cold and have to bow out. And his loyal friend and employee would have to stay home to keep him company…

An answering smile curved his lips. “What time?”

“I could meet you at the same place—earlier, if you wish?”

“I’ll take as much of your time as you’ll give me, Annis.”

“Ten o’clock?”

“Excellent. I shall bring a picnic and we can explore the rest of that charming property at our leisure.”

“Oh, lovely!” Her eyes, which were always breathtaking, glowed with anticipation. “I shall see you tomorrow.”

He waited where he was and watched her walk away. Before she rounded the corner, she turned and gave him a slight, shy wave, and then she disappeared.

The churning sensation in his gut was more than unpleasant—it was painful.

Henry wasn’t sure how many more times he could watch her walk away from him.

Chapter 10

By the time Annis had lived through an evening at the theater with Mr. Norburg’s friends and his friends’ wives, and another drive in the park the following day, the only thing keeping her from falling into despair was the thought of seeing Henry today.

It wasn’t that the banker or his friends had been awful, but just that they’d just been so very… staid. The only topics of conversation were money, banking, servants—how lazy they were—country houses and how the wives all desperately wanted one, clothing and the best shops, the best being any shop that was expensive and frequented by peeresses.

Truly, it was no worse than an evening at a ton party, both of which were the sort of hollow, materialistic existence she had always avoided in the past.

Annis dreaded the thought of a future filled with such banal evenings, but Mr. Norburg was the only man interested in marrying her and beggars could not be choosers.

She smiled to herself at the idiom as she approached what she now thought of as their meeting place.