Winterset by Candace Camp Page A

lap, and a sudden, awkward silence fell upon them.
    “Anna,” he said urgently, leaning forward, closing the short space between them.
    Anna looked up at him warily. He was much too close, and it was suddenly difficult for her to breathe.
    “What happened to us three years ago?” he asked, his voice a harsh whisper. “Was I so wrong in what I thought? Did you never feel for me what I believed you did?”
    “Please…” Anna whispered back, her voice choked. “No, do not ask….”
    “I loved you, and I thought you loved me. Was I so blind? So wrapped in conceit that I could not see what was right before my eyes?”
    “I beg of you, do not press me.” Anna’s eyes glittered with tears, and she looked away from him, certain that if she continued to look into his face, she would start to cry. “Why did you come back? Why did you insist on riding with me tonight? Can you not leave well enough alone?”
    “Because it isn’t well enough,” he grated back. “It was never so for me.” He reached out, wrapping his hand around her wrist, and Anna looked at him, her eyes wide and frightened, her heart pounding. “When you sent me away before, I was too hurt to question it. Too heartsore to do anything but crawl back to London and lick my wounds. But now…I return and find that you are still here, unmarried. A beautiful young woman, in the prime of your life, and no other man has captured your heart. Why is that?”
    “I choose not to marry,” Anna said, drawing herself up with dignity and pulling her arm out of his grasp. For an instant he retained his grip; then he let her go and sat back. “A woman does not have to marry, does she? I enjoy my life as it is.”
    “Your brother will marry someday. It is the way of things. And you will no longer be the mistress of Holcomb Manor. It is not a position many women would like. Most women would choose to have their own home, a husband and children….”
    “Clearly I am not most women,” Anna said lightly. “I hardly think I need to explain myself to you.”
    “No, I suppose you do not. Yet I cannot help but wonder, if you did not love me, that you have found no one else.”
    “Must one love a man?” Anna retorted. “There must be women who do not. And, may I remind you, if it is so strange that I have not married, then it is equally strange that you have not.”
    “Ah, but I was the one whose heart was broken. It takes time to be able to once again place one’s heart in the hands of a woman. You, on the other hand, were heart-whole.”
    There was a flash of pain in Anna’s eyes, quickly covered by her glance away, out into the dark night. “Perhaps I am heart-whole because I do not have it within me to love. Surely you must have thought of that.”
    “Yes, I have thought of it,” he agreed. “There was many a night when I was convinced of that very idea. But looking at you today with Con and Alex, I found it harder to believe. The warmth and compassion that was so evident in you…the kindness and gentleness. I cannot believe that you do not want children.”
    “Of course I want children!” Anna flashed back, her eyes snapping. She stopped, drawing a deep breath and pushing down the tumult of emotions that bubbled up in her at his words, thinking quickly of how to cover her slip. She went on in a calmer voice. “That does not mean that I will marry just to have them, any more than I would marry to have money or position.”
    “And that, I take it, is a slap in the face to me,” Reed said, settling back into the cushioned seat behind him. “Money and position being the only reasons you would have had for marrying me.”
    “I do not know why you insist on pursuing this,” Anna went on in a stifled voice. She hated the coldness that had come over his face and voice. “I never wanted to cause you pain. I still do not. Please, can you not just let it be?”
    “I guess I am as stubborn and contrary-minded as my brothers,” Reed replied dryly. “I am