Gilbert and Lord Carmichael arrived just before full dawn. Both were still wearing their evening clothes as they stepped into Anna’s front parlor. Both appeared exhausted by their long night.

Only her betrothed smiled at her, and she rushed to meet him. Last night had been a grisly scene, so much worse than the last one. Anna couldn’t close her eyes without seeing that horrible, sharp blade run through Miss Lacy’s pretty pink striped muslin gown.

Gilbert took her hand in his and begged to know how she fared as he sank down at her side on the nearest settee meant for two.

“Better now that you have come,” she promised him. “And you?”

“No worse for wear I expect.” He kissed the back of her hand gently. “I’m sorry you had to see that again,” he whispered in a voice that wouldn’t carry far.

“The second time was worse because I knew Miss Lacy better than I did Miss Goldwell. She was nice to me, even if I wasn’t brave the way she was about finding a husband.”

He kissed the back of her hand again and squeezed her fingers firmly. “You’re brave in the ways that count to me.”

She looked across the room, where Carmichael and Father were talking amongst themselves in low tones. Father made a grab for Carmichael’s shoulder, but Carmichael shook off the touch. “I’m all right, sir. Let us sit and I will start from the beginning, so that Anna might hear what we say, too.”

Her father took a chair. “Yes, that would be appreciated. It seems you have been keeping secrets from me, young man.”

Gilbert gripped her hand a little more firmly and then laced their fingers together. She stared at their hands and smiled slightly. She felt infinitely better when he was near.

Carmichael cleared his throat, drawing Anna’s attention from Gilbert, and he winced. “I am sorry to have not been honest with you both, but you will see the situation is far worse than I ever wanted you to know. Angela Berry is dead, Anna. She died the night of her mother’s ball,” he told her with tears in his eyes.

“What? How?”

“She was murdered, in a kinder fashion than Miss Goldwell, and Miss Lacy last night.”

“I say! Is Miss Goldwell dead, too?” her father cut in, sounding very shocked.

“Yes, Father. Two weeks ago now it was,” Anna confirmed to spare Carmichael the confession. She’d never seen her tormentor so pale before or more upset. “I am so sorry about Angela, Carmichael. I know you were very fond of her.”

“I loved her,” he said simply. “We were to be married. I had already proposed, and we would have announced our intentions to our friends and family the night she died. She would be my wife today if someone had not struck her down.”

“Have you hidden the truth all this time?”

He nodded. “For good reason. I was at first suspected of killing her. I found her lying on the conservatory floor and rushed to lift her up. Her blood stained my clothes, and without proof I’d just found her, the initial investigator detained me for questioning. If not for Sorenson’s intervention, cool head and greater knowledge of investigation techniques, I might still be under a cloud of suspicion.”

“No!” she cried. Carmichael might be many unpleasant things, but killer could never be one of them. Anna knew the Berry conservatory well. It was out of the way. Angela had suggested it was the most romantic place she knew. Anna had spent many a happy afternoon there sipping tea and trying to talk Angela out of falling in love with Carmichael. She could imagine Carmichael rushing to pick her up had she fallen, too. “It wasn’t like her to leave her mother or her friends during an entertainment they were hosting.”

Angela had loved the noise and chaos of society just as much as Carmichael did. She had thrived on entertaining. It was Anna who slipped away to find a quiet corner when the crowd became too overwhelming.

“No, she was very good,” Carmichael said, voice cracking with the most dreadful pain, “but I have a terrible feeling she was lured away under the pretext of meeting someone.”

“She would only have slipped away to meet you,” Anna suggested. “She said once that she’d do anything if you would but ask. After all, your continued interest had pleased her mother to no end and made her life bearable at home at last.”

Carmichael licked his lips. “Our arrangement was her idea in the beginning. I grew to enjoy our time together very much. Our conspiracy against her mother’s matchmaking efforts was great fun. I wished to make it more.” Carmichael bowed his head, and then shook it. “Angela was too good to be stolen away like this,” he exclaimed suddenly. “So were the others. I will find who killed her, and them.”

Gilbert brushed his free hand over his eyes. Neither one must have slept, but she kept her attention trained on Carmichael.

“You hinted there were other deaths last night,” Father asked.

“Yes, sir. After Angela died, I recalled there had been other unexplained deaths. Sorenson looked into my suspicions, and now he and Bow Street believe they were victims of the very same killer.”

She looked at Gilbert in surprise. “How did you do that?”

“I have worked for Bow Street for a number of years.” He gestured to Carmichael. “I knew he was innocent of course, having been the recipient of his written confidences about his affection for Miss Berry for some time. His connection to the other victims is flimsy at best but it is the only lead we had to begin with.”

“What connection?”

“I had kissed them,” Carmichael confessed.

Anna gasped but Father did not seem shock by that admission. “You thought you were responsible?”

Carmichael looked away.

“Miss Lacy’s death breaks the connection to Carmichael,” Gilbert murmured. “He did not kiss her and so her death lacks that similarity to the other murders.”

“I see.” She looked at her betrothed more closely. He exuded confidence and familiarity in the detection of crime. He was far and away more secretive than she’d imagined. “This was the secret you kept from me?”

“I did not want you to be afraid.” He nodded. “All the deaths we’ve connected to this murderer have occurred on Fridays during a popular ball,” Gilbert murmured as he reclaimed Anna’s hand. “There are enough deaths spanning two seasons to justify a full investigation by Bow Street.”

She stared at Carmichael. No wonder he’d been so odd of late. “There has to be a reason the people around us are dying. These are my friends,” she cried.

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Carmichael snapped, raking his hand through his hair frantically. “Do you think I would not try to stop it if I knew how?”

“That’s why I must remain in London,” Gilbert said with deadly seriousness, drawing her attention. “I’ve had enough experience investigating crimes that Bow Street has put me in charge of the investigation.”

“They call him the Almighty’s bloodhound in his parish,” Carmichael remarked, moving to stand behind a single armchair. He gripped the back so tightly, Anna feared the wood would crack.

Gilbert grimaced. “London is a more complicated situation.”

Her father stood and poured himself a drink. Anna noticed his hands trembled as he set the decanter down. “So do you have any leads yet?”

“We are interviewing all parties involved with the victims,” Gilbert replied. “We’ve been at this for weeks now, and still have nothing but more bodies.”

Anna squeezed his hand tighter. “You’ll figure it out. I have faith in you. In both of you,” she said, including Lord Carmichael in her comment. He seemed quite upset over Angela, and she felt she owed him her compassion and support. “We were talking only last week about where Angela had disappeared to.”

“We?” both Gilbert and Lord Carmichael demanded.

“Myself and Portia Hayes are friends and confidants. We could not understand why Angela was not in London when you were obviously attending every ton event.”

Lord Carmichael pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Steady, Carmichael,” Gilbert cautioned. “Tears won’t bring her back.”

Lord Carmichael looked their way. “We’re going to need a wedding.”

“A wedding?” Anna asked.

Carmichael strolled close, staring at Gilbert. “She needs to be protected.”

Gilbert sighed.

Anna glanced between them. “Who does?”

“You,” Carmichael stated. “I want you and Sorenson to marry immediately. I need certainty that you are safe.”

Anna blushed and extracted her hand from her betrothed’s. “Carmichael, that is none of your business.”

“It is my business. You are my oldest friend, and I need Sorenson in his right mind. I can’t do this alone. Sorenson is always hovering over you as it is. Until Miss Lacy, the deaths have only been unmarried women in want of a husband that I have kissed.”

“You still worry you’re to blame?” She stared at Carmichael. “You kissed me once. I suppose that’s why you think I might be next.”

Anna’s father spluttered at her remark. She hadn’t blabbed to Father about Carmichael’s shocking behavior some years ago. She couldn’t look at her father now, or her betrothed.

Carmichael shrugged apologetically. “There was mistletoe hanging over your head and everyone else was doing it.”

When she risked a peek, Gilbert did not seem pleased by the news. He seemed to swell in place and become threatening. “When was this?”

“Many years ago,” Carmichael promised. “A peck on the lips.”

“I was fourteen, and Carmichael a pretentious eighteen years of age. I hated him for it. He only did it to spoil my memory of my first kiss, which should have been my future husband’s.”

Carmichael appeared abashed and mumbled out an apology. “Regardless of that, marrying Sorenson will put you firmly out of harm’s way.”

“Could put her out of harm’s way,” her betrothed cut in, correcting Carmichael. “There are no guarantees the killer has even considered her a target. I won’t coerce her to marry me. There are a few days left to make any decision about advancing the date precipitously. The killer only ever strikes on a Friday, usually at a well-attended ball or route. As long as Anna remains around people day and night, she should be quite safe.”

“And what about the others who slip away while your attention is fixed on Anna next Friday?”

Gilbert shifted a little. “Anna will always claim my attention. Marriage will not change that.”

Anna felt a burst of pleasure at his words. It was one thing to have him reveal his interest in private but quite another to hear it openly declared before her father and oldest…well, what exactly should she call Carmichael now? He’d been truly horrible to her as a child, but that was then.

“As a married woman, she could also keep an eye on her friends with us,” Carmichael suggested. “She would be a chaperone to them.”

“That could very well put her in danger,” Gilbert protested, voice rising.

He shook his head, seemingly unconvinced that she could help. But Anna decided there and then that she would help by removing herself from any danger. “We could marry, my lord, if it would free your time to catch Angela’s killer.”

“Anna,” Father cut in. “I think we gentlemen should talk in private now. Go to your room while we discuss what to do next.”

“No, Father. I will not cower and hide from this.” Anna smiled at her father, hoping he would one day understand. “I am marrying Gilbert, Papa.

“You said yourself that you needed time to get to know him.”

“But I know myself.”

Gilbert’s fingers tightened on hers but he was smiling now. “You don’t have to decide this today.”

Anna held his gaze, feeling the desire between them stir. A rushed wedding wouldn’t ordinarily be her first choice but she suspected she wouldn’t regret doing so. He made her feel things she’d never experienced before. He would make her feel more on her wedding night. “I do want to marry you, my lord.”

“You could get a special license,” Carmichael suggested.

“I could do that, yes.”

Anna studied her betrothed. Did he look a little pale all of a sudden? Marriage was a big step, for both of them. He had always sounded so certain about marrying her that for a moment, she worried he was the one now having doubts. Yet the way he continued to caress her hand spoke of affection. Perhaps he simply disliked the suggestion that they rush to the altar.

“We could certainly decide the details of the wedding,” she suggested.

“That should be enough for now.”

“I agree,” Anna said. “My friends will be surprised by the rush but they will help me.”

“Surprise them. Surprise everyone,” Carmichael declared suddenly. “Other people don’t matter when you love each other.”

Anna nearly choked over the mention of love but Carmichael wasn’t finished.

He squatted down before her and stole her hand from Gilbert. “I want your promise that you will remain at home with your father until the wedding day.”

The warmth she’d begun to feel for Carmichael diminished. “Despite everything that has happened, you have no right to tell me what I must do or not do,” she reminded him.

“You’ll do as I say and be sensible. I won’t have Sorenson fretting over your safety. There are other ladies in danger who need our help. Women like Angela Berry and Miss Lacy, who never deserved such deaths. I won’t have yours on my conscience, too.”

Anna’s irritation drained away in the face of his words. Carmichael was right about the marriage being a distraction, and he so obviously blamed himself about Angela and the other poor victims.

She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want anyone to worry over her, either. If Gilbert had come to care for her as much as Carmichael suggested, he would worry and not have his mind on the business of chasing down this horrible murderer. “I’ll stay at home,” she said meekly.

“Thank you, Anna,” Carmichael murmured. He stretched forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I couldn’t bear to lose you, too. You’re almost a sister to me.”

Anna scowled. “I hate to think how you’d behave toward a real sister when you were a boy. How you’ve convinced Lady Scott you’re an angel rather than a devil is one of life’s great mysteries.”

“My godmother knows that not all I say is strictly true. Some of my scandals are made up just to amuse her.” Carmichael barked out a laugh and drew back. “I should be going. I need sleep and there is still so much to do.”

“And I must go too, unfortunately,” Gilbert added as he gained his feet. “I may not be able to see you very much in the next few days.”

Anna chuckled softly and stood, too. “I think I can survive a little time apart from you without feeling abandoned.” Anna walked him to the door. “I will see you when I see you.”

“If I cannot come, I will send round a note before bedtime.” He kissed the back of her hand tenderly again, a habit Anna thought very sweet. “I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can, and we’ll talk again about setting a wedding date and everything else.”

Anna’s stomach flipped. She would be his wife soon…and all the duties and delights that entailed would begin sooner than she’d ever dreamed. She wet her lips and looked at his. Kisses and more to share with her handsome suitor. She wasn’t a fool to be afraid of marriage. She was looking forward to being alone with him again. “I’ll be waiting right here,” she told him. “I promise.”