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Paget had been there, too Eating ht frame He had no idea where she put it, but she matched him bite for bite She’d always been there A pered to Jah hiet for hiether, froo His first year in India ruined hilad she and Jamie had found each other He siain

Days like the ones he spent at his side her in the library or helping her in the garden His grandfather had spent his final years there Owen could still recall his large, callused hand ru the hair on his head as he played with his toy soldiers before the fireplace If he closed his eyes, he could still hear the old Scot’s brogue That’s hts, he continued to scan thehere any ri battle cries, wielding a pistol or a rifle or plunging his blade into an enemy than here A sad testah he knew he could never recapture the innocence froed to return to his mother’s town house in London and find the peace and contentht his eye A brown-haired head bobbing aht cast the hair into burnished ut twisted in annoyance He knew that hair A contrast to the other occasions he’d viewed it--a sopping wet on But he knew it Anna

What was she doing out of bed? Bewildered, he tracked her in the crowd Even dressed in a deep red goith a single blue ribbon pulling back the top half of her hair from her face, she looked fresh and clean And in Luca’s arms

He scowled Before he could consider his actions, he wastheir wares before hi with disapproval the way she laughed at sos waiting to be auctioned

He stopped beside the rareeted tersely

She turned her head at the sound of his voice

"Oh, hello, Mr Crawford Fine day for a fair, is it not?"

He ground his teeth, certain he heard snideness in her co up and about fro as I was carried Luca here graciously offered to let et a bit of fresh air"

Owen eyed the brute’s hands on her One of his large paws cupped her beneath the legs, holding her carefully at her splinted leg The other rapped around her back

"If you insist on leaving your bed--"

"Mirela said it would be fine" Her bright brown eyes sparked defiantly

He ignored her interruption "You should be in a cart and not carried about You could still jostle your leg"

"I’ood hands with Luca" She smiled at Owen as if he were a child and she the tolerant parent The littleit

Luca adjusted her in his arainst her back for Owen’s liking His own hands opened and closed at his sides

Anna stared at hi with innocence

Luca looked bored "Co contest is about to start"

Oatched as they strolled away, Anna’s head bobbing aht will do her soain, Mirela appeared at his side with no warning He looked down at her, a surge of resent smile curved her wrinkled lips "Should have taken her about the fair yourself"

He crossed his arht of Luca and Anna as they beca spectacle

"I have no wish to carry her around the fair"

Mirela gave a low, cackling laugh and walked away, leaving hiht as a scrawny boy of no more than ten years was declared the winner of the contest and presented a ribbon Hispie fro every bit as proud as the boy himself

Luca’s voice rumbled beside her ear "What would you like to see next, Anna?"

She glanced around, eyeing the happy chaos, in the guise of deciding where to go next, but it was just a ruse She was really looking for Owen He’d looked decidedly unhappy to see her up and about, which only puzzled her Why should he care if soh to escort her around the fair? It was no i a cart in her direction, a decidedly resolute look in his eyes, his handsome features i the handles, he rounded the cart and walked toward her "In you go"

Annalise blinked and looked froestured at it "This is far safer for your leg than being carried about"

She opened her mouth to insist she was fine, but before she had the chance, Luca was lowering her to the blanket-lined cart She pressed her lips shut, feeling very much like a child An invalid A bitter taste filled herher independence so deposited in a cart with no thought to her wishes, no care for what she wanted, it rankled