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He stared into those marvelous blue eyes and wondered how anyone found the fortitude to deny her anything He glanced out the stable doors "I suppose it is rather wet"

Belle nodded "You'll surely catch the fever if you even atteether they made a h the front door into the hall, they were both rather damp, and Belle could feel strands of her hair plastered to her face "I o and change"

"Nonsense," John said, pushing a damp lock of her hair behind her ear "You look lovely-all ling on her cheek "Surely you "

"I assure you, Lady Arabella, you do not reseine when you would ever have seen one"

Belle stiffened "I am not the spoiled child you seerily at the breathtakingly lovely wo across from him in the hall Her hair had partially broken free of its topknot, and golden tendrils, curled by the dalistened with raindrops, fra eyes of an indescribable shade of blue John took a deep breath and didn't allow his eyes to stray below her soft mouth "Believe me, I don't think you're a child," he said finally

Belle sed nervously, unable to keep her disappointment off her face Those were not quite the words she'd hoped to hear "Perhaps we should continue our conversation in the parlor"

She turned and strode across the hall, her back rahed to hi around her He wanted to grab her in his arht she was si a man could want in a woman

If a man deserved a woman, that was And he knew that he could never marry, never accept the love of a woman Not after Ana

When John entered the parlor, Belle was standing at the atching the rain sheeting against the glass He started to shut the door, then thought the better of it, and left it open a few inches He walked over to her, intending to put his hands on her shoulders, but when he was but a foot away, she suddenly whirled around "I'm not spoiled," she said stubbornly "I haven't had a difficult life, I know that, but I'm not spoiled"

"I know you're not," John replied softly

"Spoiled means that one is willful and manipulative," Belle continued "And I's"

He nodded

"And I don't knohy you round Your father is an earl, too Alex told ht that he was pushing her away due to feelings of social inferiority That was certainly a consideration, but it was the least of his worries "Was an impoverished earl who certainly couldn't afford to support seven children, the last of as, posthu "Really?"

"One was stillborn," John admitted

"You must have had a lovely childhood with so many other children hom to play"

"Actually, I didn't spend very s They were usually occupied with their own pursuits"

"Oh" Belle frowned, not at all pleased with the fa "Yourall those babies"