Lady Anne's Deception (The Changing Fortunes Series Book 4) by M. C. Beaton

hot brow.
    “Exactly. And while he is in power there is not much I can do. That position should have been mine. But the day will come… Forgive me, I go too fast. The fact is, this society of Miss Hammond’s needs money. With money we can start to gain power.”
    “But… the ball,” said Annie, weakly. “That is to raise money.”
    “All it will raise is interest in the movement,” he said dryly. “By the time all the arrangements are paid for out of the subscriptions, there will be little left.
    “And that is what has given me the courage to approach you. Lady Torrance, I beg you to contribute ten thousand pounds to the society.”
    “What?” said Annie, dizzily. She tugged her hand away. “My dear Mr. Shaw-Bufford, you must ask my husband.”
    “But you are a wealthy heiress. Surely you have money of your own?”
    “I don’t know,” said Annie, wretchedly. “All my husband told me was that he had made arrangements for me to draw money on his bank any time I wanted.”
    “Then it is probably your money. Your husband’s life-style, dear Lady Torrance, is… But I must not say more. It is
your
money, believe me. You are not his slave. You are an independent lady.”
    By this time Annie would have paid him double the amount to get rid of him, she felt so ill. “I—I must think,” she said. “When shall I give you the money?”
    “Well, I do not wish to rush you. Shall we say next Wednesday? I shall call for tea.”
    “Yes, yes,” said Annie. “Now I really must get back to my guests…”
    “Of course,” he said smoothly. He walked forward and held the door of the study open for her. “Perhaps you would be so good as to send Miss Hammond to me, Lady Torrance? That is, if she has finished speaking.”
    Annie nodded and went out. She entered the drawing room and gave Miss Hammond the chancellor’s message.
    It was only when Miss Hammond had left and Annie looked around the room through glazed and feverish eyes that she began to feel resentful. Mrs. Tommy Winton had taken over the role of hostess and was ordering the servants about as if she were in her own house. Nobody bothered to pay Annie the least attention.
    To add to that, thought Annie furiously, the chancellor was holding private meetings in her husband’s study and sending the lady of the house scurrying about on his errands like a servant girl.
    Well, he would stop it this instant!
    Annie marched in the direction of the study. But as she put her hand on the doorknob, the intensity of the two voices inside the room stopped her. She was also assailed by a feeling of giddiness and a pounding in her ears, so the voices from inside the room seemed as if they were rising and falling on the waves of the sea.
    “If I am caught, I shall at least be a martyr…” boomed Miss Hammond.
    Mr. Shaw-Bufford’s answer came out in a sort of hiss that nonetheless carried through the panels of the study door.
    “You will not be caught, Miss Hammond. Remember, my name must never be mentioned. Never!”
    And then the voices sank to a murmur.
    Annie turned wearily away. All at once she was too ill to cope. Let them stay till the coming of the Cocqeigrues for all she cared!

CHAPTER SIX
     
    “And where is my wife, may I ask?” said a pleasant, masculine voice from the doorway of the drawing room.
    Mrs. Winton had a mouthful of scone and strawberry jam and could only stare wildly at the Marquess of Torrance in dumb silence. Miss Hammond sailed forward like a tweedy galleon.
    “Annie must be somewhere around,” she said brightly.
    “Annie? You mean my wife, Lady Torrance?”
    “Yes. You must not think me presumptuous, my lord, but dear Annie simply begged me to call her by her Christian name.”
    The marquess leaned one broad shoulder against the doorway and smiled benignly at the room full of women.
    For some reason they all found themselves becoming ruffled and uncomfortable.
    Mrs. Winton succeeded in gulping down her scone. “Lady Torrance was here