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‘I will join you in a aze deliberately pleasant ‘Once Lord Lucian and I have said our farewells’

‘You are leaving your betrothed so soon, St Claire?’ Francis taunted

Lucian gave a stiff acknowledgeement requires me to be elsewhere, I am afraid’

‘Rued froer man eyed him scornfully

‘Rumour is an ass’

Lucian added no further explanation as the two , tense seconds Francis’s gaze was the first to drop Although that did not prevent Lucian fro he and his family had been under discussion by the ton Or the reason for it

It had been impossible for Lucian, after Waterloo, to return to the warmth of his family when he had felt so alienated from them by the bloodshed he had witnessed, the friends he had lost And the situation was hthts So instead he had emotionally distanced hi to hide as left of his emotions behind a façade of boredom and uninterest

His betrothal to Grace Hetherington seemed to have put an end to that façade…

The challenge hich the two men still viewed each other was intolerable, Grace decided frustratedly On the one hand there was Francis—a man who obviously had intentions towards her but in whom Grace had absolutely no interest On the other was Lord Lucian St Claire, a man who did not wish to marry her but to whom she so unhappily found herself betrothed Ludicrous probably hting over a particularly tasty bone!

Grace felt nothing but relief when her uncle, obviously losing all patience with his brother, took a firm hold of Francis’s arm and marched him into the inn, to close the door firuess at the unpleasantness of the conversation now taking place between the two brothers

‘Well, that was enlightening, was it not?’

Grace reidly tensed arly ‘Indeed, My Lord?’