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"My son is not dead," Lady Manston said, surprising Billie with her bluntness "I a to act as if he is"

"Well, no, of course not, but --"

"Besides," Lady Manston said, giving no indication that she had heard Billie speak, "Ghislaine is a dear, dear friend, and it would be i down at the sizable stack of invitations that had mysteriously appeared in the delicately scalloped porcelain dish resting atop Lady Manston’s writing table "How does she even know you’re here in London?"

Lady Manston shrugged as she perused the rest of her invitations "I expect she heard it froe had reached London two days before the ladies He’d ridden the whole way on horseback, lucky dog Since her arrival, however, she’d seen him precisely three times Once at supper, once at breakfast, and once in the drawing roo a book

He’d been perfectly polite, if a little distant She supposed this could be forgiven; as far as she could tell he was busy trying to obtain news of Edward, and she certainly did not want to distract hiht that "no consequences" would mean "Oh, I’m sorry, is that you on the sofa?"

She didn’t think that he had been unaffected by their kiss She didn’t have much – oh, very well, any – experience with e, and she knew that he had wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him

And she had Oh, how she had

She still did

Every ti was, it wasn’t the kiss she relived endlessly in her ht before it, when her heart beat like a hule with his The kiss had been ical, but the moment before, the split second when she knew…

She’d been transfor inside of her she had not even known existed, so wild and selfish And she wanted et it If ever there were a time to develop feminine wiles, this was probably it But she was entirely out of her element here in London She kne to act back in Kent Maybe she wasn’t her mother’s ideal version of womanhood, but when she was at home, at Aubrey or Crake, she kneho she was If she said so out of the ordinary it didn’t erton, and everyone knehat that meant

She knehat it meant

But here, in this formal town home, with its unfa to call, she was adrift She second-guessed every word

And now Lady Manston wanted to attend a ball?

"Ghislaine’s daughter is eighteen, I believe," Lady Manstonat the back "Maybe nineteen Certainly of an age to irl So pretty and genteel" Lady Manston looked up with a wide, devious sh ti for a wife"

"I’hted," Billie said diplo Ghislaine’s beautiful daughter with horns and a pitchfork

"And you shall attend as well"