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Belle stared at him, dumbfounded, until horror, hurt, and fury simultaneously rose within her "You can rest assured," she bit out icily, "that the nextas to insult me as you have done"

"I ah for you, my lady Do not worry, I will try not to taint you with ain"

Belle raised a brow and stared at him disdainfully, her eyes hard "Yes, well, we cannot all claim a relationship with a duke" Her voice was sharp, and her words were cruel Satisfied with her perfor herself with asbody would allow

Chapter 5

John stood still forBelle disappear aone, thoroughly disgusted with himself and his behavior toward her But, he reminded himself, it was no more than as necessary She was furious with him now, but she'd thank him eventually Well, maybe not him, but when she was cozily wed to so her from John Blackwood

He'd finally turned to head home when he realized that Belle had marched off without her boot He leaned down and picked it up Dao to return it, and he had no idea how he could face her again

John sighed, tossing her flie ho her boot in the first place Alex was a good friend, but he would want to knohy John had his cousin's footwear in his possession He supposed he could go by Westonbirt that evening-

John swore under his breath He'd have to go by Westonbirt that evening He'd already accepted Alex's invitation for dinner His curses grew ony ahead He'd have to look at Belle all night, and of course she would be ravishing in her expensive evening attire And then just when he couldn't bear to look at her for oneand intelligent, which would erous to want her

Belle's progress ho about without shoes, and it seeed to find every sharp pebble and protruding tree root in the narrow path And there was also the little probleht heel on it, and left her feeling rather lopsided and forced her to limp

And every limp reminded her of John Blackwood Horrid John Blackwood

Belle startedevery inappropriate word her brother had ever accidentally said in front of her Her tirade lasted only a few seconds, for Ned was usually quite careful about holding his tongue around his sister Fresh out of curses, Belle started in with, "Wretched, wretched man," but that just didn't seem to do the trick

"Damn!" she burst out as her foot landed on an especially sharp pebble The , and she felt a hot tear spill down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain

"You are not going to cry over a little pebble," she scolded herself "And you are certainly not going to cry over that awful , and she couldn't stop herself She just couldn't understand how athe next He liked her-she could tell that he did It was all there in the way he'd teased her and cared for her foot And while he hadn't been co when she'd asked hinored her He wouldn't have opened up to her at all if he hadn't liked her just a little

Belle leaned down, picked up the offending pebble, and viciously tossed it into the trees It was tih in a rational ed so suddenly

No, she decided, for the first time in her life she didn't want to be calmatic All she wanted to be was mad

And she was Furious