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demanded Elizabeth. “Anne, read it aloud.”
    â€œAllow me,” Mr. Elliot insisted, and with looks only for the girl at his side, he started to read with feeling.
    Anne only heard the rain drumming against the long floor-length windows. She folded her hands in her lap, resisting theurge to pleat the fine white muslin of her gown under her fingers as she waited.
    Another knock on the front door was heard. Anne was trapped with Mr. Elliot; it was impossible to move. She listened. Voices were distinguished, a man’s deep tones. Elizabeth was talking, Anne could not be sure. The click of heels rapidly ascending the stone staircase heralded their visitor. And then all of a sudden Captain Wentworth was there waiting for her father. Anne felt the flicker of Frederick’s eyes upon hers for just a moment.
    When Sir Walter and Captain Wentworth left the room, it was impossible to avoid the enquiring looks of Elizabeth, Mrs. Clay, and Mr. Elliot, who had not missed Captain Wentworth’s request or the way he’d looked at Anne.
    â€œDo you know why the Captain wishes to speak to my father, Anne?” barked Elizabeth, her foot tapping impatiently. “He seemed very particular in his address.”
    Anne heard the hostility in her sister’s voice, and felt the charge of all that she implied. All three straightened in their seats; the only sound came from the ticking of the elegant clock on the mantelshelf.
    Anne dared to say the words she had only dreamed of uttering out loud. “We are to be married. Captain Wentworth and I are engaged.”
    â€œEngaged!” Elizabeth’s laugh tinkled like the little brass bell upon the Pembroke table at her side. “Anne, you always leap to the wildest imaginings. Besides, he’s already promised to another!”
    Anne noted the amused expressions of her accusers, glimpsed the spiteful gleam in their eyes.
    â€œWhy, you must know that he’s in love with one of the Musgrove girls,” continued Elizabeth. “What’s her name, that girlwho fell off the Cobb at Lyme? She laughs too much, and her hair is too outré for words. Anne, she is a good deal younger and prettier than you; it’s common knowledge that Captain Wentworth is to marry her!”
    For an instant, Anne’s old fears revived until sense finally prevailed. “You mean Louisa, I suppose, but I can assure you that there is no love in the case, whatever might formerly have been presumed.”
    As she calmly repeated her news, Anne watched their faces change from stupefied astonishment to a realisation of the truth. The air vibrated with seething emotion kept under regulation. Elizabeth’s face turned white with anger, her eyes narrowing as her mouth twitched with indignation, but not another word was spoken.
    Congratulation, she had not expected, but this silence, the sense of resentment, was unforeseen. In the next moment, Elizabeth turned away with cold unconcern to resume her conversation as if Anne did not exist. And when Mr. Elliot and Mrs. Clay exchanged glances, his disappointment etched plainly on his features, she could not bear it a moment longer. It was too much to stay in the room. Making her escape, Anne waited, listening to the murmur of voices coming from the library.
    â€œFrederick, is it true you are really here at last?”
mused Anne, hoping that all was going well behind the closed doors.
“There have been so many misunderstandings. The expectation that you were to marry Louisa truly broke my heart. But, in the end, your beautiful letter changed everything. Your heartfelt words I will treasure forever. ‘You pierce my soul,’ you declared; ‘I have loved none but you.’ After waiting for so long, I cannot believe I deserve such happiness.”
    After their marriage they planned to stay a while with Frederick’s brother and his wife in Shropshire. Just thinking of Edward Wentworth took Anne back to the time