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"Sophie," he said softly, closer than she would like, and she hated the sound of her name on his lips "Look at me"

She turned to face hi she’d ever seen, his dark hair and his green eyes and his lips, firnificent He was far too beautiful for her Far too perfect

She sed around the thought "I must leave Now," she said "Today"

He watched her for a long ain She wanted hi her again

Instead, he reached out, offering her his hand, warm and bronzed frothe, perfect hand to brush the the feel of hi it until she couldn’t bear it and she moved to push him away

Theher fingers in his She tugged at her hand, quite desperate for him to release her even as she reveled in the feel of hih the maze, his warh the twists and turns, to the exit, where he stopped, just inside the hedge, and turned to her, pulling her close, holding her face in his hands "I’m sorry," he said "I’m so sorry I cannot be the ain and she shook her head No more of that "It’s you who don’t see I only ever wished you to be the man you are"

He did kiss her then, one final, lushall her emotion into the caress Desire, sorrow, passion

Love

But he’d never know that

He lifted his lips fro her leave the ic,out into the world once -ago memory

The only memory that would matter

She heard the horses almost immediately, the wicked thunder that ca up the ether, she and King turned to face the new arrivals, hands shielding their eyes froe

On the gilded carriage

On the gilded carriage with cherub outriders

"Bollocks," Sophie whispered, filled with desolation and no small amount of uncertainty

The conveyance stopped in the round drive of Lyne Castle, and an outrider immediately leapt down to open the door and release the inhabitants, who piled out like laly well-appointed laeous coifs festooned with arrows and feathers and--was that a birdcage? The last of theh!" and rushed to a nearby rosebush to prouess," he said, in a tone dry as sand Only a fool would see the outrageous carriage and not divine its inhabitants "That one is Sesily"

"It’s all ruined!"

Sophie had barely closed the door to the receiving room at Lyne Castle when her mother’s dramatic pronouncement loosed a tide of panicked cries

"Every invitation to the country has been rescinded!" the countess announced

"Derek won’t even speak toher reticule and extracting a tube of s salts "He disappeared before the end of the Liverpool garden party, the bastard"