Anna held her hand out as Mary examined her fingers. "It's rather plain."

"Lord Wuthering's a man of very plain tastes in general." Matthew pointed around them. "Ostentatious behavior was the hallmark of the former Lady Wuthering. He's a frugal man and it's how he's survived with the fortune he has."

"And it translated to his selection of the next Lady Wuthering it would seem." The tiny circle paused, Mary immediately scowling at the man who entered the room, pushing a palm to his perfectly laid hair. "But I guess she's just grateful he even noticed her to begin with."

"I'm sure you're not so rude as to make those kinds of comments and not leave us with a name." Mary folded her arms over her chest, half protecting Anna with her taller frame. "I don't doubt Lord Wuthering'll rather see the back of you once he knows how you spoke about his bride-to-be."

"I'm his cousin, Thomas Barrow, and he's always preferred the back of me."

"Not like the backs of other men that you prefer?" Mary risked and Matthew choked on his drink as Mr. Barrow's face contorted with an ugly purple color. "I see I've struck a nerve."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Just as you don't know what you're talking about." Mary put a hand on Anna's shoulder, "Come Anna, I've some suggestions for your wedding dinner."

Anna only risked one look back at the man with ice-cold eyes before muttered to Mary. "That's John's cousin?"

"I've never met him face-to-face but he's living up to his rather horrible reputation." Mary shuddered, "What a horrible man."

"There might be a reason."

"There's always a reason but that doesn't mean it's a good one." Mary sat down at a table, pulling out a small notebook. "Now I made a list I wanted you to see."

"Did you?"

Mary's hand on her chest echoed the depth of affront to her voice. "I never jest about the meals I plan." She opened the book, "Now, I know you want to invite some of the locals so I made a record of appropriate vegetarian meals you can also serve your expatriate guests."

Anna sat in awe as Mary explained each detail on her plan, from the meals to potential individual servings for those pickier guests they could not avoid inviting. Each passing page daunted Anna until the details steadily ironed out under Mary's steady stream of speech. At the end, when Mary finally paused long enough to breathe, Anna could only blink.

"So? What do you think?"

"I don't even have words." Anna flailed her hand, laughing a bit with relief and nerves. "You've thought of everything."

"That's what you do when you're the wife of an Ambassorial attaché." Mary closed her notebook and tucked it away. "Speaking of whom, he's waiting for me over there and we're all wondering where your Lord Wuthering's gotten off to. Dinner usually begins now."

"That is odd." Anna stood, frowning to herself and moving from the table. "I'll go find him."

"Please tell him we're all famished and the purpose of these gatherings is to entertain us, not to let us entertain ourselves. Who knows what kind of trouble we might find for ourselves in those circumstances."

"I'll keep that in mind." Anna left the room, watching Mary make her way back to Matthew and engaging a few others in conversation.

She set her hand on the bannister to ascend the circling stairs when someone's hand landed on hers. Anna did not even have time to try and smile before her face fell to shock. The same man from earlier, Thomas, held her hand tightly in his.

"Excuse me." She tried to move but he held fast, coming beside her to tower his imposing frame over hers on the stairs.

"I think not." He looked her over, "What does my cousin see in you?"

"You could ask him yourself." Anna risked but Thomas only snorted.

"Don't think I didn't do my due diligence before I came here." He finally released her hand, taking the stair higher than her to block Anna's ascent. "I heard all about the new teacher who captured on my cousin's Indian estate."

"I'd be curious who's spreading rumors so far afield."

"Other than the number of eligible and noble women he jilted or refused in favor of someone as common and unremarkable as yourself?" Thomas waited but Anna did not respond. "They all thought something must be different about him and passed about the rumor that, perhaps, he and I shared more than our grandparents in common."

"He's not-"

"A man with no heirs from a ten year marriage to a woman who, by all accounts, was fertile." Thomas sniggered, "Never with his child, mind you, and she did her best to use the most ancient of remedies to cure the most ancient of female ailments but that didn't stop anyone wondering. Why would a woman, like the recently deceased Lady Wuthering, need to seek another partner if her husband was satisfactory?"

"Perhaps because she was as vile and repugnant as yourself." Anna swallowed, the fingers of her hand still wrapping the bannister tightening to dig into the wood. "She never loved him."

"And I doubt someone with nothing to offer a marriage like the one my cousin proposes doesn't love him either." Thomas's head revolved about the room. "But he does have quite the opulent setting in which to entertain, does he not?"

"Are you suggesting that I'm only marrying your cousin for his wealth?"

"What other reason could there be?"

"One I doubt very much a man like you would understand." Anna sipped past him, gaining a few steps before turning to face him. "And the reason I love your cousin, in terms you might comprehend, is that he's nothing like you."

"He's everything like me, Ms. Smith." Thomas edged closer and Anna took a higher step. "He's the same blood and I promise you, you'll soon seek comfort elsewhere, just like Vera did."

"How can you be so cruel?"

"How can you be so naïve?" Thomas threw his hand toward their surroundings. "You think something like this is built on charity?"

"It's built on hard work and earnest effort."

"It's built on the backs of an industry run by people no better than slaves."

"And you'd change that?" Anna took her turn to snort, "For all the things you've thought of me thus far, ignorant wouldn't have been one of the titles I'd have chosen."

"You're saying you're not?"

"I'm saying," Anna risked a step lower to put she and Thomas's faces on the same eye line, "That you're nothing but a conniving, oily, ungrateful, wasteful man who fears the living he'll lose when he's no longer set to inherit the title or the benefits of such."

"You think you can give my cousin a child? You think you'll give him a son?"

"That's none of your concern." Both turned their heads as John descended, his mother holding to his arm. "I apologize that you both took the time to come and find us but my mother had a fall and she needed my help."

"Are you alright?" Anna put her hand out to the Dowager but the other woman only smiled and patted at the appendage.

"I'm old dear. This is what happens when age creeps on you and makes a home before you're ready for it."

"Aunt-"

"I don't want to hear whatever you're about to regurgitate from your father." The Dowager reset her sash over her shoulder. "I'm old, not ignorant, and I'm hungry so unless you're offering to lead me to dinner I'd suggest you kept quiet."

Thomas's jaw clapped shut and he stood to the side as John and his mother descended the steps. But when Anna went to follow them he stepped in her way again. "He'll realize his mistake and I'll be there when he does."

"I think it's you who's making the mistake." Anna tightened her jaw. "Now let me by."

"You can't tell me that old cripple pretends to want to make you happy."

"I'm sure he'll make me very happy, as I intend to do with him." Anna paused, investigating Thomas's face. "If only you had someone to make you happy in return. Then you might not feel so low."

He did not answer her as Anna continued down the stairs and joined the procession for the dining room.

Anna kept herself occupied with watching John and his mother throughout dinner, ignoring the burning sensation at the side of her neck from the scowl Thomas kept focused on her. Instead she noted the way the Dowager's hand shook slightly with each raise of her spoon to her mouth. Or the tremor in her jaw. And especially the twinge of fear at the corners of John's eyes.

The other guests continued as always, a few of them proposing toasts to John and Anna as they wished them well. Each toast reddened Anna's cheeks a bit and John raised his obligatory glass but the Dowager could barely manage to lift hers at all and Thomas never raised his. But as the evening wound to a close John tried to excuse himself early to escort his mother up but Anna stood up, taking her hand and putting one on John's arm.

"Let me." When he tried to murmur his protest Anna only smiled. "I know the way."

His fingers gripped over hers on his arm, squeezing just long enough to send a rush to her system but not so long as to end the conversation with Mr. Napier about agricultural aims for India. Anna took the Dowager by the hand and they commenced the slow walk toward the stairs. Each step measured and paced for the woman sighing and drawing ever more rasping breaths.

At the bottom of the stairs she tugged on Anna's sleeve, chuckling to herself. "One morning you wake up and find that you're old."

Anna frowned, "I don't understand."

"The young never do. You've no concept of the lives I've lived, the people I've met, or the things I've done because your life feels so full already. You can't fathom fitting anything else in there." The Dowager laughed, starting the stairs with a firm hand to the bannister that slid up with each halting step. "When I was your age I never could've imagined what would happen to me."

"You mean marriage?"

"Any of it." She sighed, "I lost John's father so young and there I was trying to raise a son, act for him in a way that would keep the vultures like Thomas's father away, and still keep alive the memory of one of the best men I've ever loved for the best man I've ever known."

"Sounds rather exhausting."

"It's why my old bones complain at my age." The Dowager mounted another step, "And then, when John married that woman… It makes a mother's heart shatter to watch the once bright, if cocky, boy turn into a cowed and struggling man."

Anna did not speak, only keeping herself abreast with the Dowager to operate as her crutch. They reached the top of the stairs and started down the corridor. Each step seemed more labored than the last and Anna slowed their pace to help the Dowager regain her breath.

"You, on the other hand, have to fight for all this." The Dowager waved her hand toward the walls about them. "He'll fight for you but they'll learn how to snipe when he's not looking because he can't always be there."

"What's your advice?"

"Don't give them any reason to doubt how much you love him." She shrugged, pausing to fill her shuddering lungs as Anna held tightly to her arm so the Dowager would not topple to the floor. "Or to doubt that you're strong enough to be here."

"Am I?"

"Any woman who crosses the ocean with only her son and a will to survive is strong enough for the vipers sharpening their fangs to catch you."

They entered the Dowager's room and her lady's maid appeared from the corner in a moment, rushing over to her side. "Milady, are you alright?"

"It's just age, Anjana, nothing more or less." The Dowager nodded to two chairs sitting by an empty fireplace. "Ten minutes, please, and then I'll take whatever you give me to help ease the ache in these old bones."

Anjana looked at Anna, "She's a stubborn one, our Duchess, but she's worth the trouble."

"I quite agree." Anna smiled at the Hindu woman. "You seem her match."

"No one's a match for me." The Dowager smiled, taking Anjana's hand and grasping it tightly. "She's almost my blood."

Anna frowned, "I don't understand."

"She's like my mother." Anjana returned the grip of the Dowager. "She cares for me and I for her. It's how it works here. We are bound by our ties."

Anna turned to the Dowager, "Then you're-"

"Anjana's got little ones at home, orphaned by the death of her husband in a failed uprising. They were about to be outcast, subjects to the elements and the merciless soldiers of both sides, when they came here." The Dowager smiled, "You've met her son, Arjuna."

"He's a wonderful boy." Anna faced Anjana, "His English is coming along well and-"

"He speaks highly of you as well Ms. Smith." Anjana stopped herself, "Or should I call you Lady Wuthering?"

"I've not married yet so I'm still Ms. Smith." Anna took a breath, "But I'm keeping you both up and that's not very ladylike."

"Before you go," The Dowager craned in her chair and Anjana caught her eye, moving to a cupboard and withdrawing a box. "I want to make sure you have this."

"Oh no," Anna waved her hand, trying to escape the gift but the Dowager seized her hand and placed it on the box. "Whatever it is…"

"Is now yours, with Anjana as my witness." The Dowager settled in her chair. "I don't want there to be any confusion as to what you'll wear when you marry as far as jewelry. And it might not be of much comfort to you but she never wore those."

Anna opened the box and almost dropped it in surprise. Only the swift movements of Anjana saved the box spilling its contents over the rug. Again Anna shook her head and tried to refuse.

"These are far too grand for me."

"But not as part of the dowry of the future Lady Wuthering." With Anjana's help, the Dowager removed her cornet and placed it in Anna's hair. "You may not come with a title of your own, but you will be Lady John Wuthering and there's a dignity to that. A dignity to how you won his heart fair and square. Never doubt that."

Anna tucked the box to her chest and then edged her fingers slowly over the tiara in her hair, the warmth of the Dowager still echoed in the metal. Their eyes met and the Dowager nodded. "He's told me his plan for your son and I couldn't agree more."

"He shouldn't have-"

"It's his way and he's overjoyed about the idea of having a son with you."

"James isn't his son."

"My dear," The Dowager clasped her hand over Anna's, pulling it from her exploration of the tiara. "There's more than one way to be a parent. I'm a mother to Anjana and she's a daughter to me. John's my son and you're my daughter as far as I'm concerned. These are things that have no direct proof but in papers that never matter."

She took their joined hands and laid them at Anna's heart. "What matters is what we feel for one another. That's where the true family holds dear. That's what matters most. Never forget that because it's what'll make what you have with him all the more valuable."

Anna nodded, "I can try."

"I think you'll succeed." The Dowager turned to Anjana, "I'm at your mercy and that of my tired body."

"I'll leave you then." Anna nodded at Anjana and then leaned forward as the Dowager waved a hand to lay a kiss on Anna's cheek. "Thank you."

"It's the least I can do with my future daughter."

Anna could not speak, only nodding her head and trying to blink away her tears. The Dowager smiled and then surrendered to Anjana's guiding hands as Anna slunk out of the door. It closed with a soft snap and Anna turned to leave the corridor when she impacted with John's chest.

They stared at one another a moment before Jon offered his arm for Anna to take. She went to shift the box to her other arm and John raised his other arm for her. Both tried to match the opposing hold and then giggled when they could not synchronize with one another. Finally John took the box in his right hand and then tucked her right hand in the crook of his left elbow.

The walk down the corridor to the head of the stairs was a quiet one but when Anna went to descend John stopped her. She frowned, opening her mouth to speak, but John laid a finger over her lips. Anna could only trail behind him as they walked down the corridor toward another room.

Both slipped into the room, shadows forged of secrecy and silence, and kept it as their agreed mode to make no sound. John set the box gently on a table near the door and then trailed his fingers over the tiara before it rested on top of the box. Then his fingers set a pattern over her face, following the lines as if he would paint her with just the tips of them. She sighed into his hold and could only turn her face to him when his lips descended.

But he did not kiss her yet. Instead he started to memorize her with delicate kisses and flicks of his tongue as he guided her back over a rug. For the moment it took for her shoes to catch John paused and Anna's heart beat so loudly she wondered how no one heard it. Instead of retreating, John got down on his knees and circled her ankle with a delicate hand.

Anna lifted her leg, putting a hand on his shoulder to keep her balance as he removed it with a series of buttons and latches. Each one loosed left her foot free and soon Anna gasped at the feel of his lips kissing through her stockings. His hands skimmed over the material, catching on the tight weave to find her garters. Those John only tugged lightly before rolling the first stocking down her leg.

If not for her hand on his shoulder, Anna wondered if she would have fallen to the floor. Especially when his motions repeated on her other leg to leave her skin prickling with anticipation under her dress. John's hands skimmed over the dress, ruffling the fabric to break the silence between them, and then cupped her face to finally draw her lips to his.

She gave herself over to it immediately, her own hands shifting from a clutch at his jacket to slide around his neck. Anna leaned into him, the crunch of her dress only distracting her a moment. But it enough of a moment to have John laying kisses to her ear. There he paused, his breath echoing in the hollow there.

"Do you remember what I promised you Anna?" His hands moved to find the buttons on her dress and brought them apart with a delicacy she did not believe those large hands could manage. "When I told you there was more to have?"

Anna could only nod, the breath she could barely get into her lungs proving insufficient to give any strength to words. All she could comprehend was the steady thump of her heart in her chest and the rush of blood in her ears. The whisper of his fingers continuing over her skin lit the roiling sensation from a sparking ember to a rising inferno.

"Then you'll remember this part." He paused, "Unless you want me to stop."

"No." Anna's fingers gained strength, clutching into his jacket.

He did not say anything else, lips joining hers again. The motions were as soft as they had ever been, his hands holding her so gently she could have been floating. Each motion he made left her weaker in his arms, falling farther into his grasp as he exposed each piece of her skin to his touch.

Her dress bunched at the floor and John helped her step clear of it to lay her back on the bed. Her arms could not find the edges of it as she sank into the mattress and laid there as John divested himself of his clothes. In the dark of the room, Anna could not see him but his weight depressed the bed near her and she tried to wrap herself closer to him. But John put a firm hand to her shoulder and set her back.

"This is about you." John whispered to her, the only sound allowing her to locate him in the dark.

Her hand went to his cheek, pulling him close enough to kiss, and she tasted him as fully as she could. His hands continued to remove her clothes until she could finally run her skin against his. Each section a mystery she tried to find and connect but John continued to stop her at every turn as he continued fulfilling his promise to kiss each inch of her.

She gripped at the mattress, the feathers and stuffing inside shifting under her tugging fingers, and bit down on the sounds rising from her throat. With every shift and gasp and sigh she let escape, John continued to caress or kiss or suck until Anna could barely fill her lungs. And when he finally returned to her, kissing her lips with as much gentle care as he showed the whole evening, Anna could barely raise her hands to hold at his neck.

"Do you want me to finish it for you Anna?" She nodded against him but John did not move. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She breathed and adjusted to allow John to move.

John, however, made no movement in that direction. "Will it be painful for you?"

Anna stopped, the cold trickling through her blood threatening the fire that raged through her. "You know I'm not-"

"You are." He insisted, his hands now smoothing over her skin and warming any part of her that turned cold. "Whatever that bastard took from you it wasn't that. That is yours to give only as you will."

"But he-"

John kissed Anna, his hand delving into her hair, scattering the curls there. When he pulled back Anna, with the weak light from the moon peeking through the slats in the windows, saw the glint in his eyes. "You're perfect."

"Then please continue." Anna risked a leg sliding over his and John moved closer so the conjoined scorch of their meeting skin settled where her body already wept for him. "I can't bear it any longer without you."

"Will your memories darken?"

Anna carded her fingers in his hair to hold him in place so he could see her eyes as well. "Not when you're here."

With a thrust, John seated himself inside her and Anna whimpered. John waited a moment, sliding to the edge before slipping forward again to reach deeper. The steady rocking motion soon put John as deeply inside her as he could go and they both paused. Neither moved, their chests pressing against one another as they tried to breathe, and tremors shook their muscles to vibrate and quiver where they joined as intimately as they could.

Anna lifted her hips and brought one of her legs up to wrap over his hip. Instinct rolled her body and she could almost smile to herself at the groan John allowed to escape him. But when he pulled to the edge and drove back inside her all jest was gone. They moved with one another, gripping and pulling to try and find a rhythm that suited them both.

Sweaty limbs, only worsened by the humidity, slipped and slid over one another to stick and catch when they responded to each other. Anna clawed at his shoulders and side, seeking purchase as sensations she remember from his months of teasing her buried her. John's hips shuffled and gyrated against her while strangled noises at the back of his throat gave way to grunts when his speed increased.

It was only when Anna hung on the edge, not knowing how to fall over on her own, that they finally synchronized. John's lips found her breasts, his hands returned to where her nerves cried for attention, and she found a secure hold at the back of his scalp. With the promised cry, Anna gave over to the burst of color behind her eyes and John followed her with the last stutters of his body.

They settled, John resting his head next to hers and trying to adjust so she did not bear his weight. Anna moved and they knocked knees against one another, dissolving into chuckles as they figured out how to lie facing one another. John's finger brushed an escaped strand of Anna's hair back and he smiled at her.

She returned the expression, kissing his knuckles and then tucking his hand between hers. "That was beautiful."

"Then you don't mind me having my way with you?" John's voice echoed the grin she traced there with a finger before she tipped forward to kiss him.

"Never." Anna stretched, a pull at muscles giving her a wince she was glad the darkness hid. "I could never regret this."

"I hope not." John took her left hand, kissing at the engagement ring there before intertwining their fingers. "You're everything I've ever wanted."

"So are you." Anna moved closer to him, resting her head between his and the pillow. "This… This is more than I could ever have dreamed having."

"You're my dream." John kissed the top of her head.

"Why'd you say that?" Anna played with his fingers, bringing theirs apart and back together again.

"Because, with you, I'm who I was always meant to be."

"I like that." Anna snuggled to him, her arm over his waist. "We'll have a scandal if we're discovered together in the morning."

"And you'll have a very confused little boy."

"James!" Anna went to rise but John pulled her back. "He's all alone."

"Anjana invited him to stay with Arjuna tonight." John soothed, "He'll be fine until morning."

Anna finally nodded, settling again. "I can't believe I forgot about him."

"That's why I'm here." John smiled against her cheek. "So you'll never have to remember it all on your own again… Lady Wuthering."

"Not yet." Anna warned but succumbed to John's kisses.