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‘We’ve always said that’ Daisy stared at the roo For her perfect wedding

This hat she had alanted—she had just never knoould be standing by her side She had certainly never ireen eyes, too-long dark hair and a title dating back four centuries

Could she ies swirled round and round, memories of the last three weeks: tender moments, passionate moments—and that re pain shot through her temples; she swayed and he leapt forward, one ar her to a chair

Daisy rubbed her head, willing the pain away ‘I’ot to eat breakfast’

‘Come with me, there’s so I want to show you’

The knot in her stoht, food an impossibility until she spoke to hi that all this could be hers hurt?

‘I told you I had been doing a lot of thinking,’ he said as they stepped back into the courtyard The as still sharp but the sun had coolden stone of thein and out of the door, games in the courtyard, dens in the wood

If he could just convince her to stay

‘I’ve resigned from the university’

She came to an abrupt stop ‘You’ve what?’

‘Resigned I’ll still write, of course In fact, without my academic commitments I’ll have more time to write, more time to explore other periods, other stories’

‘Why?’

‘I’ into the past, you know that And I loved academia too Because it was safe, there were rules When I was a boy—’ he inhaled, steady against the rush of ht thing At school, as long as you worked hard, played hard and didn’t tell tales then life was easy I liked that It was safe compared to the turbulence of uess I never left school Straight to university and then on an acade was clear, easy I knew exactly what I had to do, as expected of me—until I inherited Hawksley

‘Until I met you’