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Prologue

London, 1833

Autumn

“I can't marry him I just can't” Madeline's stomach churned with revulsion as she watched Lord Clifton stroll the outside grounds with her father She didn't realize she had spoken aloud until her mother, Lady Matthews, replied

“You will learn to care for Lord Clifton,” she said crisply As always, her narrow face wore a dour, disapproving expression Having led her life with an attitude of self-sacrifice that approached martyrdom, she hters She stared at Madeline with cool brown eyes, her features elegant and pale All the Mattheomen shared the same colorless complexion except for Madeline, who tended to blush easily

“I expect that sorateful that such an excellent ed for you”

Madeline nearly choked on her resent up her cheeks, turning the her parents required—docile, quiet, obedient—but she could no longer contain her feelings “Grateful!” she exclai a man older than my father—”

“Only by a year or two,” Agnes interrupted

“—who shares none of my interests and thinks of me only as a broodmare—”

“Madeline!” Agnes exclaiar choice of words is beneath you”

“But it's true,” Madeline said, striving to keep her voice cale Everyone knows he wants sons, and I'll be expected to produce them I'll be buried in the country for the rest of my life, or at least until he dies, and then I'll be too old to enjoy my freedom”

“That is enough,” her mother said tautly “Apparently you must be reminded of a few facts, Madeline It is a wife's place to share her husband's interests, not the other way around Certainly Lord Clifton is not to blame if he doesn't happen to enjoy frivolous pursuits such as novel-reading or reat political influence, and I expect you to address hie, you will cos That is a woman's only course to happiness”

Madeline twisted her fingers together and stared unhappily out theat Lord Clifton's bulky figure “Perhaps it would be easier for me to accept the betrothal if you had allowed me to have at least one season I've never danced at a ball, or attended a dinner party or soirée Instead, I've had to stay at school while all my friends have come out Even my own sisters were presented at court—”

“They were not so fortunate as you,” Agnes replied, her back as straight as a fireplace poker “You will be spared all the anxiety and inconvenience of the season, as you have already been betrothed to the land”

“Those are your words for hi as her father and Lord Clifton entered the room “Not mine”

Like any other girl of eighteen, she had fantasized aboutman ould fall madly in love with her Lord Clifton was as far froet He was ajowls With his deeply furrowed face, balding head, and

If only Clifton had a sense of hu that she could find reinative Rituals guided his life: the entertainments of the hunt and the racetrack, the concerns of estate ement, the occasional speech at the House of Lords Worse still, he had an unabashed disdain for ered for

Seeing her from across the room, Clifton approached her with a thick-lipped sleamed with moisture Madeline hated the way he looked at her, as if she were a thing to be possessed Inexperienced she , healthy, and presumably fertile As his wife, she would exist in a nancy until Clifton was satisfied with the nu of her heart, mind, or soul

“My dear Miss Matthews,” he said in a deep, croaking voice, “you grow lovelier every time I see you”

He even sounded like a frog, Madeline thought, struggling to contain a slightly hysterical laugh His clammy hand enclosed hers, and he raised it to his lips She closed her eyes and steeled herself against a shiver of disgust as she felt his bloated lips brush the back of her wrist Mistaking her reaction as one of arded her with a deepening smile

He asked her to walk outside with him, and her objections were swiftly overcoreement They were determined to have a man of Clifton's means and influence in the family Whatever Lord Clifton wanted, he could have

Reluctantly taking her fiancé's ararden, a forerows, tidily sanded paths, and boxed-in flower beds “Enjoying your holiday from school?” Lord Clifton asked, his sray-white path

Madeline kept her gaze on the ground before them “Yes, thank you, my lord”

“No doubt you have a desire to leave the academy, as your companions have done,” Clifton reer than the other girls, at my request”

“Your request?” Madeline repeated, startled that he had such influence over them “But why—”

“I felt it would be good for you, my dear,” he said with a self-important smile “You needed polish and discipline A perfect fruit must be allowed to ripen Now you are not so impetuous as you were then, hmm? As I intended, you have learned patience”

Hardly, Madeline wanted to snap at him, but somehow she kept her lips claid confine Ladies had nearly driven her inative nature the tieable Two years ago, she had been too timid and easily led to have objected if her parents married her to Clifton Noever, the words “patience” and “obedience” didn't belong in her vocabulary

“I have brought soift you've been anticipating, I am certain” He drew her to a stone bench and sat with her, his soft body pressing against her side Madeline waited wordlessly, finally ent uncle with a mischievous niece “It's in ht side of his broool coat “Why don't you fish it out, like the clever kitten you are?”

Clifton had never spoken to her that way before They had been carefully chaperoned on previous occasions “I appreciate your kindness, but it isn't necessary for you to give htly folded, fingers knitted together

“I insist” He waggled his coat pocket at her “Fetch your present, Madeline”

Stiffly she reached into the pocket, locating a tiny circlet Her heart thudded in a sickening rhyth fashioned in a braided pattern, adorned with a tiny, dark sapphire The sye as Clifton's wife

“It has been in enerations,” Lord Clifton remarked “My mother wore it until the day she died Does it please you?”

“It is attractive,” Madeline said dully, loathing the object

Taking the ring froer It was far too loose, and she had to close her hand into a fist to keep it fro off “Now you may thank me for it, my pet” His heavy arainst his short, barrelled chest He had a foul, stale s Obviously Lord Clifton believed frequent baths to be an unnecessary indulgence