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She atching him "How do you know this?"

He waved his hand "Everyone knows this--all the servants around here, in any event"

She nodded "Go on If this Wolf is to beabout hiht in a pittance--with a few ht have been brought around But the duke didn’t have a few months And so the Wolf focused on the duke’s most prominent creditor Everyone has secrets, and that creditor’s secret was that his money had been made in the slave trade years after it had been banned The Wolf made sure every sordid detail went to the papers The family was shunned And do you knohat the Wolf did then?"

She shook her head

He looked her in the eyes "He paid the debt," he said "Publicly Without once having to voice a threat, the Wolf ossips said, and he’d ruin you Startling, the nuree to easier terms of payment when their own future is on the line"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Miss Barton," he said quietly, "ho?"

She sucked in air But her expression did not change one iota at that confession

"You see how it is," Hugo said "I a someone is a messy, complicated business It is much less work to help you than to break you Letthat speech

"What do you want?" he asked

"I want him to pay" Her chin lifted She folded her hands--a daintydainty in the deternition" Her jaw squared "He wants me to stay silent Well, I want him to speak out To feel one-tenth of the censure that I have"

There was no chance of that No wonder Clero Any fornition would destroy the duke’s chances at reconciling with his duchess With so o’s own five hundred pounds…

"He’ll never do that," he said "I like you, Miss Barton I don’t wish to have you onhe’d laid across the bench and held it out to him

"Do your worst," she said "That is what you’re known for, is it not?"

He stared at the twig in her hand for a fewit back across the bench "I will," he said "If I have to I’d prefer not to"

THE INK FROM THE evening paper had stained Serena’s gloves black, but still she stood on the street corner, trying toher eyes

Rents for properties with se were close to fifteen pounds per annum, and with expenses calculated at almost twice that, plus sustenance and the cost of someone to stay with her…