Page 31 of Winterset

“I am not likely to meet up with a murderer, either,” Anna shot back.

“I just want you to be safe!” His voice rose in anger.

“It is no concern of yours!” Anna cried. “There is nothing between us!”

His chin came up a little, as if she had hit him, and there was a flash of hurt in his eyes before they turned blank and cold. “You do not need to remind me that I have no connection to you,” he told her, his words clipped. “No right to protect you. You have made that amply clear. I can only wonder at my own stupidity that I even care about your safety.”

Anna had seen the wounded look that had touched his eyes, quickly repressed, and regret pierced her. “Reed…” She took a step toward him, instinctively reached toward him. “I am sorry.”

He stepped back, out of her reach. “No. Do not apologize. No doubt I overreached myself.”

“I never wanted to hurt you,” Anna continued in a low voice.

“Fortunately, I no longer love you, so you cannot hurt me,” Reed told her, and the lack of emotion in his face confirmed his words. “I did not ask you to be careful because I was trying to assume some right over you. I was concerned, as I would be concerned about any young woman who might come into a killer’s path. I apologize if my concern offended you.”

“No, Reed, it—” Anna stopped. She looked down at her hands. It was ridiculous, she told herself, to feel so rebuffed. After all, there was nothing between them. She had just told him so a moment before. It was foolish of her to feel hurt by his abrupt words. Of course he did not love her. It had been three years. She did not want him to love her still. It was best to just leave the matter alone.

“I will take my leave now,” Reed went on. “Kindly give my regards to your brother.”

“Of course.”

Anna stood, watching him walk across the room, her heart heavy within her chest.

At the door, he stopped and turned and delivered his parting blow, “It did not seem that you believed there was ‘nothing between us’ last night when you were in my arms.”

He turned and walked out the door. Anna sank down into her chair, her legs suddenly trembling too much to hold her up. She clasped her hands together in her lap and stared down at them. It shamed her to think how readily she had given in to passion last night. Reed could certainly be forgiven for thinking that she was a woman of easy virtue—to claim that she did not care for him, yet to practically swoon at his kisses.

She was still sitting in the same position a few moments later when Kit came strolling back into the room. “I saw Lord Moreland on his way out,” he said cheerfully, his voice dying as he took in Anna’s posture. “Oh, Anna…”

He strode across the room and squatted down beside her chair. “Don’t worry. I know what you were thinking when Felton said that about the claws, but I am sure that you are wrong.”

“Am I?” Anna looked at her brother. She glanced out the window of the drawing room toward the massive upthrust of Craydon Tor. “He could not have done such a thing. Surely not.”

“Of course not.”

“But if anyone knew…”

“No one does. No one will.” He slipped his hand around hers and squeezed it reassuringly.

“No doubt you are right,” she said.

“Of course I am. Now, promise me you will stop thinking about this murder.”

Anna summoned up a smile for him. “All right. I will.”

Despite her words, Anna could not keep from glancing out the window again. What if they were wrong?

CHAPTER EIGHT

Anna discovered that her promise to her brother turned out to be one more easily made than kept. She could not banish thoughts of what had happened to Estelle from her mind any more than she could stop thinking about Reed and the words they had exchanged that afternoon.

It seemed to her that she should do something, find out something, about what had happened to Estelle. She knew, as Kit had pointed out, that she could not have kept the girl from coming to harm, but still, she could not help but feel responsible for Estelle. She could not simply sit back and wash her hands of the matter. It was her duty to do what she could to help bring the girl’s murderer to justice. And besides…there was the suspicion, the horrible thought that had sprung up in her mind at the doctor’s words. She could not rest until her mind was easy on that score.

She had little idea how to go about tracking down the killer, but there was one area that she knew she could explore—the identity of the man whom Estelle had been sneaking out to meet at nights.

Therefore, that evening, when she was seated in front of her vanity, as Penny took Anna’s hair down from its pins and was brushing it out, Anna looked into the mirror, catching her maid’s eyes in the glass.

“Penny…?”