“Thank you,” she said softly.

“But you are worried about Anne,” he said with a resigned sigh.

“I am.” She moved toward him carefully, uncertain as to how to proceed. “With everything going on since she ran away, I hadn’t been able to pursue the topic, or perhaps I was too afraid to. Perhaps I hoped she would simply reappear and I wouldn’t be forced to seek answers. Whatever the reason, today I realized I had to press the subject, and what I discovered leaves me more nervous than ever.”

His eyes widened. “What you discovered? What does that mean?”

She wrinkled her brow at his sharper tone. “Juliana and I spoke to her maid, that is all. We thought Nora might know something about this man Anne has linked herself to.”

He took a long step toward her, his eyes wild for a moment. “And what did she say? What do you know about him and his motives?”

She caught her breath. This reaction was not what she had expected, given how little he had seemed to care for Anne. He’d made no attempt to find her that Thomasina knew about. And yet this topic was obviously upsetting to him.

“Nothing,” she said slowly. “Nora said he met her at the assembly we all attended at the beginning of our time in Harcourt, but little else.”

His jaw relaxed a fraction and he nodded. “I see. Don’t you think, though, that it would have been better to leave talking to the maid to your father? Or even me?”

“Why?” she asked. “Nora is terrified of my father, and for good reason since he would sack her without reference. And she doesn’t know you. Nora knows Juliana and me. We were the best ones to open the door.”

Jasper was silent for what felt like forever. “I suppose you’re right. And I shouldn’t have expected that you would simply forget Anne’s troubles. You couldn’t. I know how deeply you care for her.”

“But it was for naught anyway. There seems to be nothing to tell.” She shook her head. “And I cannot stop thinking that my sister could be in true danger. I-I feel it.”

He was frustrated by this subject, that was clear. But he also seemed less angry than he had when she first entered the room.

“I think I understand that,” he said slowly. “I was not as close to my brother as you are to your sisters. Perhaps because we did not share a mother, perhaps because our temperaments were so diametrically opposed. Perhaps a dozen other hurts and reasons over the decades kept us from such a strong relationship.”

He sighed and her lips parted. This was a glimpse of answers to the questions she’d had in the gallery not half an hour before.

“I’m sorry you weren’t close. It is one of the great joys of my life to be so bonded with Anne and Juliana,” she said.

“I can see that. Feel it.” He shrugged. “Either way, I still worried about Solomon even though we weren’t always brotherly. Your attachment to Anne is far greater, so I must think your emotions about her disappearance are also more intense.”