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Jemma leaped from her chair "Time to dress!"

He rose "Perhaps…we could invite Villiers?"

"Villiers? But he’s--"

"Alone Servants, but--"

The Elijah she fell in love with all those years ago, appearing in such an unexpected way "If we invite Villiers, the gossips will be overjoyed," she observed "No one will believe he’s dying They will think I’ an affaire with him under your very nose"

"When I think of hi, I almost wish you were"

For a moment Jemma couldn’t breathe Then: "That certainly establishesin his chair and looked up "Whaa--" And realized "I didn’t h heart-wringing for the day "It will serve you right," she said "I’ll nurse hiossips right"

There was soh it looked…"I shall stoop to looking in keyholes," he said gravely

"And ould you do that?"

He took a step toward her "You are my duchess, Jemma"

"I have been so for years"

He tipped up her chin "You kissed ht"

"Ain a whisper

"Kisses are like a claim of possession, don’t you think?"

They were so close that she could feel the ware he was compared to her How different his body was from hers He didn’t wait for her to come up with a clever riposte He simply bent his head and kissed her breathless

"Possession," he repeated, his voice a little deeper than normal

And left the room

Chapter 37

Fletch was afraid to turn around It felt as if a spell had been cast over the room, a sweet, sleepy spell of privacy The snoas like the brarew around the princess’s palace--the one who slept for one hundred years If only they had one hundred years, without servants, without Poppy’s

The ere steaan to twirl and fly on the other side of thePerhaps the stor bed together

He could just see the gold of Poppy’s hair reflected in the , and the curve of one shoulder She’d sat doith her back to him, of course Her hair fell in lu out behind It fell below her waist in the back

The innkeeper had left soine that it would work on that tar Still, he picked up a basin and scooped so to pour this over your head"

Poppy clasped her arhter around her chest and nodded

He let it fall down slowly Artistically He poured a little to the right so that her cheainst her shoulder blade, and then ran down her back Moved to the left so that he could see the delicate pink of her skin through her che