To Save a Love - Alexa Aston Page 0,4
palm.
Dez looked down and saw a gold band studded with diamonds. He raised his gaze to her, confused.
“What is this?”
“Our mother’s wedding band,” Dalinda confided. “Don’t ask how I came to possess it. But I thought it would be perfect to have Mama there on your wedding day and with you and Anna as you start your marriage.”
He wrapped her in a tight hug. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you.”
Chapter Two
Anna rose, nerves making her entire body tremble. She moved silently, washing and dressing in traveling clothes, which were easier to don versus her everyday gowns meant for the Season. She wound the lone braid she had slept in around and around, pinning it up as best she could. She had never been very good at doing her own hair. From now on, she would be solely responsible for it.
For everything.
Was she doing the right thing, running away with Dez?
Her heart screamed yes—but her mind still had doubts. Not only was she unsuitable to obtain any kind of job but she would be costing Dez his entire future. No university education. No long, worthwhile career in the army. Who knew what Dez was capable of? Did he know how to swing a hammer? Make a cabinet? Haul goods? She had seen him handle tack and groom his horse. Perhaps he could work in a stable. Or at Tattersall’s. Dez certainly knew a good deal about horseflesh.
But would the Earl of Torrington allow Tattersall’s to hire his rebellious son, where all of Torrington’s friends went at one point or another. Most likely, he’d wish Dez banished from London for disobeying him and wedding Anna.
As for her father, she didn’t want to imagine his reaction when he found her gone. He had always despised the fact that she and Jessa were females. Especially now, when her father counted upon receiving a goodly amount from Lord Needham in a reverse dowry, it would be unthinkable for him to lose the easy money he thought he could make from selling her into marriage with the viscount. That’s why she and Dez needed to escape London as soon as possible, wedding and consummating their union.
Anna smiled. That would be what she lived for. She had always lived for Dez. To see a smile on his handsome face. To make him laugh. To listen to him talk about anything and everything. She had loved Desmond Bretton since before she could even remember. He was a part of her earliest memories. When he had finally kissed her last summer by the lake, it had been as a dream come true. They both knew, however, that their fathers controlled their destinies and had parted with the understanding that they would always care for one another but would need to go off and lead separate lives, wishing the best for one another.
Until yesterday. When Dez offered marriage. And Anna had been too weak to turn him down. She wanted Dez with a passion she could barely conceal. She wanted to kiss him. Hold him. Touch him. Have him touch her. They would be very poor but she hoped they could both find some kind of work. She was excellent at needlepoint. Perhaps she might become a seamstress. Wouldn’t it be ironic if she became a modiste and designed and sewed gowns for daughters of Polite Society who made their come-outs?
Bending, she retrieved the small valise she’d packed and slipped under her bed last night, not wanting her maid or anyone else to see it. She tiptoed across the room and out into the carpeted hall, where her steps were silent. Making her way downstairs, she crossed the foyer. A footman sat by the door, sound asleep. She didn’t want to wake him and have her plans discovered before she could even leave the house.
Instead, she went to the left and entered her father’s study. Pulling the curtain aside, she unlatched the window and pushed it open. She leaned out the window and placed her valise on the ground. Suddenly, Dez was there.
“Front door guarded?” he asked quietly and Anna nodded.
His hands captured her waist and he lifted her over the sill and to the ground before leaning in and pulling the window closed. She hoped it would stay shut. She didn’t feel any wind which might blow it open and alert others that something was amiss.
Dez picked up her valise and one of his own. “Come. I have a hansom cab waiting for us around the corner. Don’t