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“I areat deal of money,” he said

“That doesn’t matter”

He slad you feel that way, because while we shan’t want for anything, nor e live like your brothers and sisters”

“I don’t need all that,” she said quickly And she didn’t Or at least she hoped she didn’t But she knen to the tips of her toes, that she didn’t need anything as much as she needed him

He looked slightly grateful, and also, maybe, just a little bit uncomfortable “It’ll probably be even worse once I inherit the title,” he added “I think the baron is trying to fix it so that he can beggar rave”

“Are you trying to talk ain?”

“Oh, no,” he said “You’re most definitely stuck with ive you the world” He held out the paper “Starting with this”

She took the sheet into her hands and looked down It was a drawing, of her

Her eyes widened with surprise “Did you do this?” she asked

He nodded “I’m not well trained, but I can—”

“It’s very good,” she said, cutting him off He would never find his way into history as a faood one, and she rather thought he’d captured so that she’d not seen in any of the portraits of her her family had commissioned

“I have been thinking about Isabella,” he said, leaning against the edge of his desk “And I re There was a princess, and an evil prince, and”—he smiled ruefully—“a diamond bracelet”

Hyacinth had been watching his face, mesmerized by the warmth in his eyes, but at this she looked quickly back down at the drawing There, on her wrist, was a diamond bracelet

“I’ like what she actually hid,” he said, “but it is how I reive to you, if only I could”

“Gareth, I—” And she felt tears, welling in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks “It is the ift I have ever received”