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He looked down to the water, dragging his fingers across the surface "Perhaps she enjoyed our tryst"

Sophie’s gaze narrowed "I don’t think so"

"Well That’s a bit hurtful"

She ignored the attee the point "I don’t think there was a tryst Was there?"

He inclined his head "There was not"

Her brow furrowed "Then why the e the earl?" She paused, realization dawning "I see Marcella will marry another"

He nodded "The owner of Hoff and Chawton menswear, if I recall He’s promised me cravats any tiue the rateful for sohter And Mr Hoff is very wealthy"

Sophie laughed "You gave her the e she’d never have been able to have"

"She swore it was a love match"

"And the others?" Sophie asked "Did they vow love ht back on the other wo their discussion in the carriage "You ruin them so they can be happy"

She would be happy, ruined by hiive them the push they require"

"I should have seen it," she said "If there was so between you, they wouldn’t have--" She stopped She couldn’t tell hi"

"Oh, no, Lady Sophie," he said "It was just beco So she told hi between you, they wouldn’t have been so quick to tell you good-bye" He stilled at the words "Marcella wouldn’t have been able to do it so easily" He lifted his hand froertips She closed her eyes at the sensation "It’s very difficult to tell you good-bye," she whispered

Silence fell for a yawning stretch of time before he said, quietly, "Is that what you want? To telllooked to the statue behind them "What do you know about the Minotaur?"

The question set her back She followed his gaze to the beautiful stretch of marble--a naked man with the head of a bull "I knoas trapped in the labyrinth"

"He was kept at the center of an impossible labyrinth, the solution to which was known only by one person"

"Ariadne," she said

He raised a brow

She blushed "I know so it so her paler into the water and painted the center of her hand with cool drops, the sensations thruh her with visceral pleasure "As the only one who knew the secrets to the labyrinth, Ariadne was tasked with leading the virgin sacrifices to the Minotaur each year to keep the gods happy"

"That sounds like a terrible task," Sophie said