Thomasina broke the seal, unfolded the paper and began to read.

Thomasina,

You will know soon enough and I’m sure you will tell the others in a way to make it easier for them. I never wished to marry Harcourt. That was Father’s idea to tame me, I think.

But I would have done it until I met Ellis. You do not know him, but he is everything I could have asked for in a husband. Or at least he is a better match than Harcourt. We are going to Gretna Green tonight to wed.

I’m sorry to have involved you with such subterfuge, but at least you can claim with a clear conscience that you knew nothing of my plans. I shall see you when I return, a married woman. Do try to square things with Father. I know he will despise me and you can soften him like no one else.

Anne

She read the note again. And again, trying to make sense of it all. She couldn’t, and she could hardly breathe as she stared at the words, written hastily and with so little regard for their dire consequences. Her hands shook and the sting of tears in her eyes was so powerful that she longed to collapse on the bed and dissolve into a cry that could make all this go away.

Only that wasn’t possible. Anne had done something reckless, as she was wont to do, and now there would be no escaping the consequences for anyone, especially not herself.

Thomasina clutched the letter to her chest and then spun on the door. She had to tell Juliana. Anne had been right that Thomasina was the one who could calm their father, but Juliana was the one who fixed things when they broke. Perhaps she would have a plan for all this. A way to manage what would soon be the unmanageable.

Thomasina threw open the door and raced into the hallway, but she had not made it three steps when she slammed into the very broad, very warm and very hard chest of the Earl of Harcourt.

Thomasina obviously wasn’t looking where she was going as she careened out of her sister’s chamber and into the hallway where Jasper was poised to knock on the door and demand answers for her lies to him that night. She hustled straight into him and he closed his arms around her to steady her so she wouldn’t fall.

She gasped, staring up at him with wide, teary eyes and trembling lower lip and his world stopped, just as it had on the terrace when they were in a similar position. There was no denying it now, just as there had not been then: he wanted Thomasina Shelley.

Fuck.

“I’m sorry, my lord,” she gasped, shrugging from his embrace and backing away. “I-I don’t know why you are here, but I will have to speak to you in a moment. Right now I must find Juliana. I must—I must!”