Page 67 (1/2)

"Don’t play withmore brilliantly than she had ever s you, Gabriel Spenser I’ you I’ant list by trying to leave, so she had to kiss hiainst the wall, and his fingers raked into her hair A while later there was a s that she was the only one in the world who had seen that particular s the sate"

"My house is in Ca "more than a few people would see you And they do not know Shakespeare as well as you do"

"Shakespeare’s heroine threatens to sing love songs in the ht It will ruin your scholarly reputation" She said it with relish

"I have no reputation"

"You have your own reputation," and she said it gently, because he so obviously needed to be told "That of a brilliant scholar and a hter and will do anything for her, even going against his own instincts and introducing hi of his existence"

"Shakespeare’s hero was not such a fool as I, to go where he should not have been welco both of thee of his hospitality to court you"

"Were you courting ht you wereyou," he said, reversing himself "I would never ruin your life in that fashion"

She put on a o back to my first plan"

"And that is?" he asked warily

"To en and I planned it quite carefully: she is to have an affaire with you, and I am to marry your brother"

He rowl

"If I have your assessment correctly, you think that I should marry an appropriate aristocrat, no? Why not Rafe? After all--" and her voice stilled--"if I can’t have you, Gabe, I don’t suppose I will care very much Rafe and I will have a wonderful time… do you suppose he has read Shakespeare?"

"At some point"

"Philosophers? Because I was very interested to read of the new ues that the Bodleian Library just acquired"

"We are negotiating to acquire a twelfth-century manuscript of the Discourses of Epictetus"

"Do you suppose that Rafe knows that?"

He shook his head

"Perhaps I can learn to talk about horses Did you know that I’ain

"I’m a paltry rider, and horses dislike e on Rafe’s and my happiness once ereman does when the water closes over his head

"Yes," she said Then she caht up to his body, and looked up at his face, his dear face "I will learn to kiss hi to say soue

She didn’t allow herself to smile Instead, she ran her hands up the muscled planes of his chest "I’ll learn to enjoy talk of horses and stables; I’ll forget that I was ever interested in Shakespeare and philosophy; I will learn to kiss Rafe the way you kisswhisper because his hands had closed on her waist