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But he couldn’t As ic was sound

"You’renot entirely wrong," he forced hiardless of the laever, it all co I should trust apower to make all my decisions the way I would wish them to be made, when I would rather make them for myself" With a touch of honest bewildere is ement It’s about cos i to the ground before them "Which is why I could never feel them for a man if I were his property"

Well, hell

Her objections to ined He’d assumed she was a nonconformist She was a bloody insurrectionist

They had alether while Ivo and Justin had gone to fill their pails withabout?" Seraphina asked Gabriel

"So private," he said curtly

Phoebe leaned toward Seraphina and said sotto voce, "I think our brother htenarded Gabriel as if he were a particularly thrilling forave the his attention to Pandora’s htly and drew her aside for a last word "I’ll find out what the legal options are," he muttered "There may be some loophole that would allow ait held in trust or controlled by her husband"

To his annoyance, Pandora didn’t appear inize the enormity of the concession "There isn’t," she said flatly "But even if there were, I’d still be worse off than if I’d never married at all"

For the next hour, the subject of Pandora’s board garoup worked on the sandcastle They paused at intervals to drink thirstily fros of cold water and lemonade that had been sent down from the house Pandora threw herself into the project with enthusias with Justin, who had decided the castle atehouse with a drawbridge, and battle water orene the y for ten people Her face glowed beneath her battered straw hat, which she had ed to pry away from Ajax She eaty and covered with sand, a few escaped locks of hair trailing over her neck and back She played with the unselfconscious ease of a child, this wohts and a He’d never met a woman as so wholly and resolutely herself

What the devil was he going to do about her?

"I want to decorate the castle with shells and seaweed," Seraphina said

"You’ll irl’s castle," Justin protested

"Your herirl," Seraphina pointed out

Justin was clearly appalled by the suggestion "He’s not! He’s not a girl!"

Seeing his little cousin’s gathering outrage, Ivo intervened quickly "That crab is definitely male, sis"

"How do you know?" Seraphina asked

"Becausewell, he" Ivo paused, fu for an explanation

"Because," Pandora intervened, lowering her voice confidentially, "as ere planning the layout of the castle, the her roo for such a vice, but it certainly leaves no doubt as to his masculinity"

Justin stared at her raptly "What else did he say?" he demanded "What is his name? Does he like his castle? And the moat?"

Pandora launched into a detailed account of her conversation with the her that his name was Shelley, after the poet, whose works he ad flown to distant lands while clinging to the pink leg of a herring gull who had no taste for shellfish, preferring hazelnuts and bread crurated soul of an Elizabethan stage actor, had taken Shelley to see Ha the perforhted on the scenery and played the part of a castle gargoyle for the entire second act Shelley had enjoyed the experience but had no wish to pursue a theatrical career, as the hot stage lights had nearly fricasseed hi and listened, transported by the wonder and whiination Out of thin air, she created a fantasy world in which ani was possible He was charmed out of all reason as he watched her, this sandy, disheveled, storytellingto hi to do with hiling to adjust to a brand new ic by which he’d always lived had so Lady Pandora Ravenel was now the only acceptable outco, this infuriating uncertainty that he ht not end up with the one person he absolutely must be with