Page 35 (1/2)

"She’s exquisite," she said "I would marry her, too"

He raised an eyebrow at the detachuessed that she was lusting after hi heat

"I wouldn’t ht just a trace, just the smallest trace, of the unlovely boy thrown over for his handsome friend "I need a mother for my children"

"Lisette loves children," Eleanor said,it "She truly loves them"

"I can tell And she does so much ith those orphans I believe that she wouldn’t be put off by illegitimacy"

"Absolutely not Lisette would never think twice about a person’s origins"

"She could teach them to care as little about society as she does," Leopold said "I asked her why she was never presented, for exahed She didn’t care"

"Lisette has never cared for convention It’s not in her nature to ko to soh rank"

"I’ve seen that in Quakers But never in a wo"

"Yes," Eleanor said, gathering her wrap "Lisette is definitely alluring" She was not going to say anything about Lisette’s inability to care for anything for very long Or, for that matter, about her betrothal

"Do you really er: she was faced once more by the Duke of Villiers

"Mean what?"

"That weof a…temporary state, perhaps to be dissolved by either of us"

"Of course," she said quickly "I a forward to Roland’s visit tomorrow"

"So he is Roland And I?"

"Villiers," she said

He didn’t like that His gray eyes turned cold, and she was glad that Roland had lad that she didn’t care too much

"You are the Duke of Villiers," she told hilare of his probably withered other people Those who cared more

But she was determined not to care--in fact, never to care that ain, she reminded herself "That’s not to say that I’ you"

"Then call me Leopold"

"Perhaps, if we decide toup "But I think that you are far more Villiers than you are Leopold My mother always calls my father by his title"

"And yet you refer to Roland by his first na her wrap around her breasts, even though Villiers had never given her the satisfaction of knowing that he was looking at them "Roland is a Roland," she said finally

"And I’m a Villiers?"

"Lisette is a Lisette," she pointed out "It’s a lovely, flirtatious nale"

He raised an eyebrow at that description "Remind me not to cross you Does your name suit you?"

"Oh, Eleanor," she said "I’m certainly an Eleanor" Or at least she was from her mother’s point of view

"Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and Queen of England," he said, sounding aain