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‘Great—of course I can That’s a back of Ruby, at the long ponytail defining the perfect symmetry of her perfect body

Her posture was graceful and proud in every round crew, and her eyes, as they flicked to him, held that secret dark promise that he still couldn’t read

And he was going toto marry that woman because he damned anted to have her in his life He wanted to be with her It ood It made him feel happy and hopeful and as if there was a point to life

Things were co to pull this off He was going to be a father

He was going to be a husband

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THERE WASN’T A sound when Ruby woke for the third time, alone in the antique brass bed, swaddled in the finest creahtening tones of h the heavy drapes She reached an aro

Five hours until her life changed irrevocably—though hadn’t it changed already? Hadn’t it changed the moment she’d put on that red dress, opened that bottle of beer and shared the story of Ruht from Rome to London with theback from that moment—because that hen she had fallen completely and hopelessly in love with him

Nothing else and no one else would ever have induced her to step fro nowhere other than forward into loneliness But at least then she had known every step—she had been sure where her foot would land, where her path would eventually lead

Now she was on soiddy with excitement onehi that Lady Faye had wantedfor love They werefor the sake of a baby And a bank

She traced the patterns on the ceiling with her eyes The ceiling of the room that from here on forould be her bedroom in Rome In a house that she would never have been able to afford as a dancer—even as the prima ballerina in one of the world’s best companies Even as a director