Daniel was the last to go, but before he got out of sight, Rafe called out to him. “What are you really doing here? If it’s to see me, going upstairs is not the way to do that.”
Pink swathed Daniel’s cheeks. “I forgot something. I’ll be back down shortly.” He ran upstairs, leaving Rafe and Anne alone.
“Have you any idea what’s going on?” she asked.
“No.” He again thought of what John had said. Rafe took in the nicely set table, the biscuits, the tea. Could they be trying to play the role of matchmaker?
“Would you care for tea?” Anne asked, picking up the pot.
“Yes, please.”
She poured their tea and then added sugar to hers. “Sugar?” At his nod, she finished his cup.
He picked it up and took a tentative sip to gauge the warmth. Nicely hot, but perhaps the weakest tea he’d ever tasted.
Anne sampled hers and, judging from the movement of her eyebrows, had come to the same conclusion regarding the strength of the brew. “Well, it’s certainly not coffee.”
He laughed. “No, it is not.” He took another sip before setting his cup down.
Taking a biscuit from the plate, Anne nibbled a corner of the square. Again, she reacted, this time her eyes widened slightly and her lips puckered.
“Oh dear,” he murmured, plucking a biscuit to try. He took a small bite and recoiled at the amount of salt. “Perhaps not as sweet as one might expect.”
Anne set her biscuit on her saucer and used a napkin to dab her mouth. “Bless them for trying.”
“Now I know not to refer any of them for a baking apprenticeship.”
Giggling softly, Anne set her napkin on the table. “They went to a great deal of effort. I wonder why.”
Rafe had his suspicions but didn’t want to share them. He didn’t need any help when it came to trying to pair him with Anne. It was taking all his control not to couple with her, physically or otherwise.
Anne studied him, a smile curling her lips. “They care for you very much.”
“How do you know?”
She’d only been alone with them for a few minutes.
“They were exceptionally kind when I arrived, saying that any friend of yours was a friend of theirs and they were delighted to meet me.” Her brow creased. “Now that I think of it, they seemed to put extra emphasis on the word friend.”
“Hmmm.” That was all Rafe could think to say.
“That is how I introduced myself to Annie last week. But this tea for just the two of us is clearly a planned endeavor by the lot of them. You’ve no idea why?”
Rafe caught a flash of bright blond hair—belonging to Charlie—peeking around the wall of the staircase. “Charlie? Is there something you need?”
There was no response, but neither was there the telltale sound of feet ascending the stairs. Rafe tried again. “Charlie? Come out, please.”
A moment later, Charlie crept down the stairs and trudged to the table, guilt etched into his features. “Yes, sir?”
“Why are you spying on us?”
The boy was ten, with a sweet nature. Rafe had brought him to John last fall after Charlie’s mother had died.
“They sent me down to see what’s going on. Whether you were kissing yet or not.” Charlie made a face. “I didn’t want to come, but they said I was smallest, so it should be me.”
Anne’s brows shot up as she darted a look at Rafe. He would have laughed if he didn’t, in fact, want to kiss her so badly.
“Is that the point of this endeavor?” Rafe asked. “To get us to kiss?”
“Annie said you’d get married if you kissed.”
Hell. What if they’d already done more than that?
Anne put her hands in her lap. “And you all think we should get married?”
Charlie nodded vigorously. “Mr. Bowles needs someone to look after him the way he looks after all of us.”
Rafe stood. “All right, Charlie. Tell your friends this was very nice, but…Mrs. Dazzling and I are not getting married. Nor are we kissing.”
Exhaling loudly, Charlie started to turn toward the stairs. “They won’t like it when I tell them.”
Rafe went to the boy and touched his shoulder. “I appreciate your efforts very much. Please thank them for me, will you?”
“I will. Annie’s still going to be disappointed.” As he climbed back up the stairs, Rafe’s throat tightened.
“That was very sweet,” Anne said softly from just to his left.
He hadn’t realized she’d gotten up from the table. “Yes.”
“You have quite an extended family.”
Rafe blinked in surprise. He’d never thought of them like that. He helped children when he could. Some went on to find their way, and a few, like Daniel, even kept in touch. Others accepted his support for a time, then disappeared. Thankfully, there were fewer of those.
“Selina and I were alone. The man who cared for us, who claimed to be our uncle, wasn’t particularly kind.” Rafe would have given anything for an adult to take a genuine interest in him, beyond what use he could provide. There’d been one woman—a friend’s mother—but she’d struggled at the time, drinking too much gin and with too many children of her own. Still, she’d looked after him and Selina as much as she could. He’d kept in contact with her even after she’d stopped drinking and gotten married, and Selina had rekindled their relationship when she’d returned to London a few months prior.
Anne touched his sleeve, her fingers curling around his arm just below his elbow. “You don’t say much about your childhood. I know your sister went to school. Did you?”
“No. I was privately tutored.” The lie fell from his tongue, but he supposed it was perversely true. He just hadn’t been tutored in the same things he would have been as the son of an earl.
“How did that man come to care for you? What happened to him?”
Rafe brushed his hand through his hair, effectively dislodging her grasp. “I don’t like to discuss it. I don’t like questions.”
“I know. But I can’t
