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"Any work I could get my hands on" He looked away She had no idea what kind of work a fourteen-year-old child would do, but she suspected that this ht not want to ad a common laborer "But I knehat I wanted I’ve always knohat I wanted, ever since I left"

"You wanted to be a duke’s right-hand man?" she asked dubiously

"This?" He looked down, as if surprised to see himself, and then shook his head "No I’ve never aspired to serve anyone But it’s as good a way as any to meet those involved in business And theto have my own empire I intend to be the richest coal land This is just the first step in getting there" He grinned at her "Did I shock you? I know I’ devotion to the man I serve"

"I have no fondness for that particularat her He shouldn’t be doing that He shouldn’t be doing any of this Her hands tingled where his had so recently touched her Her breath caught with the norht word There was nothing ordinary about being seated next to her ene about life in the ht of the Wolf of Cler Yet Mr Marshall was sitting in the rain feeding her sandwiches Maybe this was soy on his part It seemed unlikely It would have ry

Her heart beat hard, half fear, half exciteht, had brought Clere of i Without hi

She could steal hiht rob the duke of someone so valuable--put her in sympathy with Mr Marshall He didn’t want to be her enemy Well, he didn’t have to be

Serena took a deep breath

"I was never good at devotion overness, I saved e one," she added, as he cocked his head in puzzleht myself how to extract the essence of the lavender plant I was going to e them in dainty boxes and sell them at a tremendous profit to ladies who did not know any better"

His eyebroitched upward "Ambitious," he remarked

"Why do it, then?" she asked him "Why drive me away, if not out of loyalty to the duke?"

He hesitated a beat before answering "As it is," he finally said, "I have grantedat her with a steadfast, earnest look Her heart fluttered He couldn’t mean her It was too soon--they scarcely knew one another And yet the way he was looking at her…

"Oh?" she heard herself answer

He gave her a wicked smile and leaned an inch closer She felt as if she were the only person in the world--as if the rain and cold had disappeared in the blaze of his eyes

"I am devoted to me," he said "My fortune rises and falls with the duke’s I do not wish to see your life in ruins, but I will not give up my chance to be soetting cold" He gestured

She took a sip The liquid had cooled With the edge off her appetite, she became aware that the tea was not perfect She could taste a faintly htly bitter

But there was nothing tepid about the attraction between them She could steal hi his arms, and that moment of warmth passed "Miss Barton," he said, slowly and distinctly, "do not ive you fifty pounds, and we’ll manufacture a reference for you so that you may obtain another position"