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"Trollop?"

"Yes" Anna blinked "I thought you knew Berthe was the one who…"

"Went throughoff the bench "Oh, I’loated over Jane being relegated to a governess

Her gaze drifted to her arht of Berthe, Marcus’s favorite ht to owns, twirling before her cheval irl would be dises in Marcus’s bed

"If I stay in this rooo mad"

Anna pulled back to look at her "What are you thinking of?"

Jane lifted her chin "They don’t ownpath up her chest "They may have confiscated my clothes and jewelry, but I’m not their prisoner Nor aht"

"They can prevent you froe," Anna pointed out

Jane paced "The lack of a carriage did not stop e" She glanced down at her gown "And a dress more suitable for my destination"

"Where are you going?"

It took only a moment for her to answer, and she realized that the answer had been there all along, a shadow hovering in the back of her oal perhaps from the start

"Vauxhall"

Chapter 12

People teemed Vauxhall, their voices a heavy thruh he stood outdoors, Seth craved air Air and space

He had decided almost instantly that Fiona Manchester would never do as his wife She could not look long upon his face Not an uncommon reaction, to be sure--especially from a lady He should have come to expect no less Call hiht of hiaze only a moment before her eyes trailed the line of his scar, then darted away as skittish as a bird

And that was another htest pressure Indeed, she reminded him of some delicate piece of crystal to be handled with utmost care Not the kind of woe of a full-bodied woold dress flashed in his head Now that was a wo And Jane, a voice whispered, unbidden, across his ainst her eeds was led and he closed the himself a fool Jane was not the sort of female to entertain an illicit affair For no other reason could he have walked away froh him, fierce as the tide However, he was the sort a man took to wife Only not him He h to marry into the Spencer clan

Fiona Manchester was the sort he should wed Theirs would be a e of politeness and formality--what he had claimed to want

The question at hand, he reminded himself, hether she could be trusted to care for Julianne That was all thatto be considered Not his personal desires

"Lord St Claire, are you not enjoying yourself?" Fiona Manchester asked, flicking hiesture, to be certain That she took pains to flirt with him, despite her obvious distaste, ed her

He opened his ht of another wo if the vision real or merely an extension of the dreaown of gold silk, she weaved arasp her arly, her neck craning as though she searched for so as the first tiain The golden diaht

Seth shook his head, telling himself she couldn’t be real Couldn’t be here

Still, he felt hi the startled Miss Manchester in midsentence as he advanced on his mystery woman with steadfast purpose The blood rushed his veins, filling his ears with a desperate teh the crush, other ht of this lone enchantress, and he knew she was no vision, but real Flesh and blood woht Even as he told hily to a woman whose face he had yet to see, whose nale cat honing in on its prey

She would not get away this tih to let her walk away from him