After Hunt broke off the engagement, Annie sought help from Ranelagh, who suggested to her that she should sue Hunt for breach of promise, but eventually Ranelagh's first cousin, Captain Thomas Thomson, fell in love with her. On 16 June 1862 Boyce saw her at the International Exhibition "looking as handsome as ever, walking with a young man, rather a swell". This was probably Thomson. They married on 23 July 1863 at St Pancras Church. Thomson then suggested that they threaten to give Annie's trunk full of letters from Hunt to the newspapers. This would embarrass Hunt's family and the Waugh's, his in-laws. Hunt's friends assumed that he bought back the letters.