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Blake turned on hiets to know better," he roared, sneering the last word "Miss Trent is a lady"
"I never said she wasn't My ?"
"Riverdale," Blake warned
Ja that it has been quite some time since you've courted a feht here at Seacrest Manor--"
"I have no romantic interest in Caroline," Blake bit out "And even if I did, you know that I will never o around saying I will never marry, and Lord knows I have more reason to avoid the institution than you do"
"Don't start, Riverdale," Blake warned
James stared him hard in the eye "Marabelle is dead"
"Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I don't rele bloody day ofthat every single bloody day It's been five years, Blake Al penance for a crime you didn't commit"
"The hell I didn't! I should have stopped her I kneas dangerous I knew she shouldn't--"
"Marabelle had a entleness "You couldn't have stopped her She made her own decisions She always did"
"I swore to protect her," Blake said in a low voice
"When?" Ja between the two of you"
In half a second Blake had hiainst the wall "Marabelle was round out "I swore to myself that I would protect her, and insworn before God and England"
"Marabelle isn't here Caroline is"
Blake abruptly let hio "God help us"
"We have to keep her at Seacrest Manor until she's free of Prewitt's guardianship," Jarabbed him "It's the very least we can do after you abducted her and tied her to the bedpost Tied her to the bedpost, eh? I should have liked to have seen that"
Blake glared at hier
"And beside that," James added, "she may very well prove useful"
"I don't want to use a woman Last time we did that in the name of the War Office she ended up dead"
"For the love of God, Ravenscroft, ill happen to her here at Seacrest Manor? No one knows she's in residence, and it's not as if we're going to send her out on missions She'll be fine Certainly safer than if we turned her out on her own"