Winterset (13 page)

Anna nodded. The way he had looked at her, she couldn’t help but think it was she to whom he wanted to talk. She would have liked very much to leave, but she could scarcely tell Kyria that she wanted to flee her brother.

“How are Con and Alex?” Anna asked, to make conversation.

“As rambunctious as ever. Of course, they are morbidly interested in this killing. They want to investigate, but Reed put his foot down about that. Told them they are not to leave the house and gardens without a groom along. So they have been having to create what deviltry they can within the confines of the house and yard. Of course, they are up to the task. They’ve tied a rope to the railing on the second-floor landing and have been climbing up and down it. It frightened a maid so badly she dropped a load of dishes, the first time Alex came swinging over the side.”

Anna chuckled. “I shall have to come and take them to Nick’s again to see the dog they found. They seemed to enjoy that last time.”

“Oh, my, yes, they revere your Mr. Perkins. They would love to go again, I’m sure. But only if you don’t mind—I wouldn’t want them to be a bother to you.”

“They are no bother,” Anna assured her. “I had an excessively good time with them both times we were out. They are lively, intelligent boys.”

Kyria smiled at her, pleased at her assessment. “I quite agree. Not everyone is so understanding, I’m afraid.” She looked past Anna at the Akins’ house. “Ah, there is Reed. I wonder what it is he’s wanting to say. He has been grim all day.”

His grimness was unabated, Anna thought, as she watched him approach the carriage. His face was set in stern lines; his gray eyes were unreadable.

“Miss Holcomb,” he said without preamble, “will you walk with me? I—I wish to speak to you.”

Dread gathered in Anna’s stomach. She had no desire to talk to him, but she could see no way out of it, not when she was sitting in his sister’s carriage. She glanced at Kyria. The other woman’s face was alight with curiosity, but she could see no sign that Kyria knew what Reed’s intent was.

“Of course,” Anna said, climbing down from the carriage. She took his hand to help her down the step, but withdrew it as soon as her feet were on the ground. She looked up at him, her chin lifted a little defiantly. He gestured toward the street in front of him, saying, “I would offer you my arm, but I have the feeling you would not take it.”

Anna swept past him, holding her skirt up a trifle to save it from the dirt of the road. When they were far enough away that their words could not be heard, she began crisply, feeling it was better to attack than to wait for whatever he intended, “Lord Moreland, if you intend to lecture me again, let me—”

“No, no, I assure you. I have no intention of lecturing. I—I did not mean to yesterday. I wanted to talk to you because I wanted to apologize for what I said to you. I was…unkind.”

Anna glanced at him, surprised.

“Please, do not look so amazed,” he said, half smiling. “You will make me think I must seem the veriest ogre.”

“No. I just—it is an awkward situation.”

“I was concerned for your safety. You are correct in saying that I have no right to be. Whatever I thought we once had, it is, of course, long over. I did not really mean to assume any rights. It is just that I—” He sighed and looked off into the distance. “I don’t know how to put this without you thinking that I have run mad. But I did not want you to think that I am arbitrarily meddling in your affairs.”

Anna looked at him, curious now. “What are you saying?”

“Not long ago, I—I dreamed about you.”

Anna felt a blush rising in her cheeks, and she looked down at the ground. She, too, had had dreams about Reed, ones that left her crying and bereft, and others that she awoke from in a hot daze of passion.

“It was not the first time—I will not pretend that,” Reed went on. “But it was the first time in a long time, and it was…different. It left me afraid.”

Anna glanced at him, startled. “Afraid? What do you mean?”

“I dreamed that you were in trouble, that you were calling out to me for help.” He looked at her ruefully. “I realize how absurd it sounds—to place so much importance on a dream. But it was a different sort of dream from any I have ever had. It was so vivid, so…intense. I could not help but feel that it meant something.”

“That I am in trouble?” Anna asked, still staring at him.

“Yes.” He turned to face her, his face set as if he were facing a firing squad.

“You dreamed this before you came to Winterset?”

He grimaced, his gaze flickering away from her. “Yes. It is why I even thought to come here. I did not know what was wrong. I could not write such gibberish to you. All I could think was to come here and see what was the matter.”

Anna’s heart warmed inside her chest. Despite the way she had hurt him, despite what he had said yesterday, when he had thought she was in danger, he had ridden to help her. Tears threatened to flood her eyes, and she glanced away to hide them.

“I am sure you are now convinced that I am mad,” Reed added, his voice rough. “No one but a fool would believe in dream portents. But I cannot help but believe it is true. I felt it so strongly. I cannot tell you why I was so sure, I can only say that I knew—without a doubt. There are things that cannot be explained away rationally. I have seen things, learned things, in the past few years that defy logic.”

“I do not think you are mad,” Anna said, looking up at him seriously.

“What?” He looked surprised, his brows rising slightly. “Then you believe that I was right?”

“I believe that you felt it. That you believe it. As to whether or not it is true—I do not know. I don’t know if I believe that dreams and…and visions are the truth. I do not know of any trouble that I am in. But the other day…” She hesitated. She had never told anyone about the “visions” that she had experienced all her life. Even after what Reed had told her, she felt a flutter of fear in her chest at the thought of exposing her oddity to him.

Finally she said, “The day when I met your brothers, when I was walking through the woods, I was suddenly struck by a—a feeling I can hardly describe. A feeling of pain and fear so sharp it made me nearly sick. And I was cold, so cold…. In my mind I saw the place where I was, but at night, and I felt this pain.”

“My God, Anna.” Instinctively Reed reached out and took her hand. “What was it?”

She shook her head, her fingers curling around his. “I do not know. There was nothing there, and in a moment it passed. I did not know what it meant. But that evening, when I heard that Estelle was missing, I thought of that moment in the woods, of what I had felt, and somehow I—I connected it with her.” Anna paused, collecting her thoughts, and looked down, realizing suddenly that Reed was holding her hand.

Hastily she let go of his hand, a blush starting on her cheeks. Reed glanced at her but said nothing about her gesture.

“I have no reason for thinking so,” she went on a little stiffly. “Her body was found somewhere far from there. The time when I felt it was not when she was found, and I doubt that it was when she was killed, either. I would think that happened the night before, when she went missing. I suppose, if the feeling actually meant anything, it was perhaps connected to that dog the twins found and what happened to him. But it was because of my ‘feeling’ in the woods that I had the servants look for her, that I could not quite believe she had simply left with a man.”

“And you were right.”

“I suppose. I did not know that that was what my…vision meant. I still do not. But I—I could not ignore it, either. As you said, I felt it meant something.”

Reed frowned. “I have no idea what either of our ‘omens’ means, but it worries me.”

Anna attempted a little laugh. “Yes, it rather concerns me, as well. I can tell you I would prefer not to feel that sensation again.”

“I, too, would rather you did not suffer it,” Reed agreed. He caught himself, then said, “I would not want anyone to feel it. But more than that, I am concerned about what will happen if this thing you felt, what I dreamed, are actually presaging something worse to come—something that will involve you.”

“Stop. You will frighten me.”

“I would like to,” Reed told her. “I want you to take a care for yourself.”

“I will. You need not worry about me.”

Reed looked as if he would like to say something else, but he merely sighed and glanced back to where his sister sat waiting for them in her carriage. “And, please, I beg you, do not let Kyria lead you into doing anything rash.”

Anna chuckled. “What an unkind thing to say about your own flesh and blood.”

“I say it because I know her,” he retorted, but he smiled. He turned back toward the vehicle, offering Anna his arm. She hesitated for a moment, then slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. It felt very comfortable, very natural, to walk with him this way. Indeed, she thought, it felt almost too good. She reminded herself that she must keep her guard up with Reed.

As they walked back to the carriage, Reed said, “I know that we have exchanged some harsh words. And the past makes it difficult. But I would like, if I could, to be a friend to you. I do not mean to try to rekindle what we—what I
thought
we once had. But I have been thinking about not selling the house and instead living here at least part of the year. I would like for the situation not to be…awkward.”

“I—I see.” So he
was
going to stay! Anna felt a little breathless at the thought.

“Can we put the past aside and agree to be—well, not friends, perhaps, but at least good acquaintances? People who are able to meet on occasion and to speak without drawing swords?”

“I do not wish to fight with you,” Anna replied carefully. She did not think it was possible for her to forget her past with Reed. Nor was she sure that she could be around him with any degree of equanimity. But she could scarcely explain to him that his presence made everything inside her start to tingle. “I would hope that we can be civil.”

“Good. I am glad to hear you say that.” They had by this time reached the carriage, and Reed extended his hand to help Anna up into it. He smiled up at his sister and Anna. “Now, if you ladies would allow me, I should be happy to escort you home.”

Reed was, Anna admitted, the perfect picture of the casual acquaintance as he rode beside them to her house. He talked to her and Kyria equally, his manner friendly but somewhat distant when he spoke to her. And she found it frankly irritating. She could not help but wonder how he found it so easy to act as if they had only recently met, as if nothing had ever passed between them, when she found herself tongue-tied and awkward. It was enough to make her wonder if only she had felt the surge of passion when they kissed the other night. Perhaps it was nothing but her own lack of experience that had made the moment seem so important, while Reed—more experienced—had merely found it a bit of passing pleasure.

The idea left her feeling perversely disgruntled when she arrived home. It was for that reason, perhaps, that her voice was sharper than she intended when she ran into her brother on the way up the stairs and he told her that he had just come back from riding.

“You went riding with Miss Farrington?” she asked.

Kit glanced at her, his eyebrow lifting. “Yes. Why?”

Anna sighed. “Kit…you paid a call on her yesterday, then there was the party, and now you go riding?”

His jaw tightened. “Yes. What of it? Are you keeping an account of my coming and goings?”

“No, of course not. But it scarcely seems wise—”

“Wise? No, perhaps it is not wise. I am not sure that I can be eternally wise. Mayhap you can always put your head above your heart, but I cannot!”

“Kit! Are you saying—are your feelings engaged?” Anna’s hand went unconsciously to her stomach, where a feeling of dread was coiling. “Are you coming to care her?”

He glanced around. “This is scarcely the time or place to discuss this.”

He started down the stairs, and Anna turned and followed him. In the hall below, she took his arm and steered him into the drawing room, closing the door behind them.

“All right,” she said, facing him. “Let us discuss it now. Are you…falling in love with Miss Farrington?”

“No. Perhaps. I do not know,” Kit said, flinging up his arms. “I like her. I like being around her. Is it so much to ask to spend some time with an attractive woman?”

“No, of course it is not too much.” Anna’s heart went out to her brother, and she took a step toward him, her face filled with sympathy. “It is exactly what you should have.”

“Yet it is exactly what I
cannot
have,” Kit snapped, and whirled away. “Don’t you think I know that it is impossible?”

“Oh, Kit…” Anna felt tears start in her eyes. “I am sorry. I should not have questioned you. I don’t mean to be overbearing. I am not your watchdog. It is just—I hate to see you get your heart broken,” she finished, her voice dropping almost to a whisper.

“Like yours was?” Kit asked, turning back to her.

Anna froze. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Come now, Anna. I am not a fool. It is pointless to try to pretend with me. I have known you for twenty-four years, you know. I may not have been here when it happened, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t figured it out. I saw the two of you dancing together the other night, and I also saw how you avoided him the rest of the evening.”