Page 52 of The Language of Love

“Have a seat, Annis.” Her uncle gestured to a chair in front of his desk.

Her Uncle Thomas reminded Annis of her father in a lot of ways, but without her father’s spark. Just like Benjamin Bowman, her uncle was tall, with a shock of white hair that would have once been pale blond. Annis supposed he would have been handsome when he was a younger man, but his shoulders were stooped, a natural enough process that had no doubt been expedited by years laboring under the yoke of an abrasive and brittle wife.

Uncle Thomas spent most of his time either at his club or with his mistress. Annis was not supposed to know about her uncle’s long-time mistress, but the servants were so accustomed to her presence that they hardly noticed when she was in the kitchen or laundry or stables for some errand or other.

And so she heard all kinds of fascinating tidbits.

After what Annis had done with Mr. Leech—or rather what he’d done to her, since she’d been so inexperienced that she’d simply laid there—she found it difficult to imagine her staid uncle doing any of that with her Aunt Agnes. But he must have done that at least three times because there was Percy, Sus—

“Annis?”

Her face heated as she looked up from her scandalous musings. “Yes, Uncle?”

“As you might have guessed, Mr. Norburg has asked my permission to court you.” Her uncle smiled at her; it was the vaguely embarrassed smile of a man who knew he’d abdicated his duty regarding his niece to his wife but could not stir himself to remedy the situation.

Annis looked down at her hands, which lay palm up in her lap, like the bellies of two dead fish.

“Annis?”

She met his apologetic gaze. “Please tell Mr. Norburg that I look with favor on his courtship.” It was a hideous lie, but what other choice did she have?

Henry’s face sprang up in her mind and she instantly shoved it away. Henry was a clerk—hardly the sort of man to have almost twelve-thousand pounds to spare. Even if he did like her enough to offer her marriage, how could she choose her own happiness over her grandmother’s safety and future? Besides, one ride in the park did not equal courtship.

No, her decision was excruciating, but clear: Mr. Norburg was the man she would have to marry.

She looked up to find her Uncle Thomas’s concerned eyes on her.

“You will see him this evening, of course, but he asked that you reserve the day after tomorrow for him. He’d like to take you for a ride in Hyde Park.”

Thank God he didn’t want tomorrow!

“Of course, Uncle.”

“Well then,” he said, clearly ready to be finished. “I shan’t be at dinner tonight, so I will wish you an excellent evening at the theater.”

Annis felt sick inside, but she managed a slight smile. “Thank you, Uncle.”