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"Years?"

"Children"

"Eleven children?" A burst of laughter escaped her "Goodness By whom?"

"By your husband, of course In your future, I see you taking a very dependable, respectable, faithful husband" Droplets of lass in his spectacles She couldn’t make out the expression in his eyes

"He sounds terribly dull" She couldn’t help but tease "Is he perchance a clerk?"

He dropped her hand, and the air between them was suddenly heavy with aardness

"At least buy me a flower?" she said

He fished a coin froypsy wolazed rose "Here," he said, presenting it to her wrapped in a ribbon of irony "Because the hundreds of bloo lonely"

"I like this one best" She took it in her ungloved hand, and together they continued on

Lily gli up ahead Too close She couldn’t bear to let hiain, he turned to her, plainly confused "Lily, is there so you want?"

Words failed her What could she say? She hardly knehat she wanted, much less how to ask for it Ti this delicious, palpable attraction and theintohard

"Did you perchance see dinner in our future? I’ will have--"

"No, no I don’t want to wait that long I’ry now Surely there are shops hereabouts that cater to theatergoers"

"There are, I’m certain None of theet, I’m a common woman, sir I dine in these establishlassthrew diah the open door A greasy aro of spirits "What about this place? Is it a cookshop? Or an alehouse?"

Julian frowned "A bit of both, and then so for, ‘Den of Iniquity’ would likely cover it"

"Excellent I’m absolutely starved for soh the open door, knowing he would follow

Chapter Eleven

Julian followed her, of course What choice did he have?

Catching up to her in the entryway, he grasped her by the elbow and wheeled her around She tottered on her heels For a briefher over his shoulder and carrying her straight out the door Then he found hie, far too much

"No," he said simply To her or to himself, he didn’t know

"It doesn’t look so bad," she said, darting a glance about the place "Let’s stay"

Julian surveyed the place She was right; it didn’t look so bad The room was croith a nuht-backed chair About half of the tables were occupied with couples or chatty groups of men, many of whom clutched playbills in their hands

"Very well," he said, resigned "Just dinner"

Because truthfully, he didn’t want to take her ho above them, he’d suffered the constant fear of discovery But in a place like this, it was so easy to i to fear That she was just his sweetheart, and he was simply … himself He wanted to revel in the illusion of honesty, if only for a while

He chose a small table in the furthest, most isolated corner of the rooirl made her way to them

"Have you beefsteak?" Julian asked her

"Yes, sir Also joints of mutton, and a very fine fish pie"

"Is the beefsteak truly beef? You know, from an actual cow?"

"Julian!" Lily chided<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>