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"Soyou went tolive on the islands, " Valoree prompted

"Imet a man ontheship to Port Royale His name was William GilchristHe looked very much like John and he eet to meHe fell in love with me I did not love him back Still, I allowed him to convince at sea"

"Did you find no happiness with him? "

"Of a sort, " shethose first years of ourarcane We both worked hard and prospered It was one of the wealthiest plantationsonPort Royale But as years afteryear passedwith no children" - she shook her head - "he started to drink and let things slideHe began to refuse to allowmeto help out, or make decisions when hewas ’indisposed’I knew the plantation was failing, butit wasn’t untilhedied thatI found out just how bad things were There was verylittle left that was not owedBythe tihfor a ticket on aship homeand notlady onthe ship, a fellow passenger who had not been away froossip and happenings Sheknew quite a bit about this famyself, I was able to learn of ht the older daughterhadmarried some lord froerhad run off with some stable ladQuite a familyfor scandal, she had joked The older one had barely escaped a scandal herself, ruone to live inthe country

Eight months after that she returned with the heir When I asked herasscandalous about that, shesaid the tonhad been all atwitter Thechildwas etobeanewborn It had looked at leastsix months old"

"And you realizedit was yourson, " Valoreemurmured quietly

But Meg shook her head "Nay Not right away Yousee, she was so sketchy ondetails And she did not know the name of the lord Besides, you ht of Blancheas mysavior I wouldnot have believed not until I saw it for myself"

"Whichyou did? "

"Aye AsI told youbefore, I hiredahack whenI arrivedin Londonto takeme toan inn ButI didnot stop to lookin a shop

We passed by John’s parents’ town house on the way I atching thehouse, of course, curious toknow if he lived there still, or if his parentsdidIsaw e - "

"And then you realized!"

Meg sive , perhaps, or soe She stopped outside of a dressot out to follow her inside As I entered, a shop girl rushed forward to greet Blanche, addressing her as Lady Beecham That is when I realized I siirlspotted ht Blancheturned tolookatbackto mewithequal shock Then I turned and stuone"

"Aye SoI started to run Ijustwantedto getaway"

"And you ended up by the docks, where Bull found you, "

Valoreefinished

Megnoddedwith a sigh"Aye, and his offer of awarelater, where Icould ponderooda way to end aped at her "Ponder yourmemories? You still love him? "

"Aye Foolish, perhaps, but I always felt there was so

He hadcourtedether I could not believe all of his feelings were feigned"

"They were not"

Both wolanced sharply toward the door at that announcement It was open now, and Lady Beecham filledthe entrancewithher considerablebulk

"He loved you terribly Rightup until theverydayhe died, "

she said sadly Then, "Meg, Ihave done youso s I cannoteven count them And in the end I thinkI ht when you caloriously happy I wanted that for ot it Ididn’t even really plan what I did that night It simply popped into my head, wholly conceived, as if the devil hiownin himtocollect you from our room, Itold hied into your costume andmask, and slid out of the house

"I had been by the stables earlier thatnight to check onmy horse When I was there, I had seen thatthe stablemaster was drunk tothe point ofnear oblivionWhen Ireturned, he was not much better When John arrived, it was to find a woht was you in the stable ht that he would simplyturn and walk away But he didn’t Hepulledanto beat hiht he would beat him to death Iran back to the balland sent a couple of men out tothe stables to stophie into my own clothes

"I just stayed out of the way after that to see ould happen next I was afraidyou would talk to hiave you the cut direct the next uilty about my impulsive actions, but that convinced htI toldto put up even a bit of afight forhi interrupted sharply atthe criticism

"He wouldnot even look at me, letalone speak tome"

"Hoould you know? You never tried to talk to him!"

Blanche snapped back with resentment "I would have cornered hisank back ontoher crate looking uncertain as Blanche continued "Instead, you avoided hi if he showed up at anyyou attended"

"It hurtto see him Iwas so ashae instead of slinking awaylike a naughty puppy, thingswould have turned out differently After the first couple of weeks, he stopped trying to avoid you He was actually stalking you from ball to ball I suspect he would have accepted any lieyou chose totellhim, simply to keep you near hi bither lips, tears rushing from her eyesinrivulets