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CHAPTER ONE

THE room had fallen into a terrible silence No onewo the very air that surrounded them

Shaan had dropped into the nearest chair, her face turned chalk-white with shock Pressed between her knees and half-buried in the soft folds of pure white silk and delicate lace were her hands Ice-cold and nule sheet of notepaper Rafe had just grimly handed to her

‘Dear Shaan,’ it said Dear Shaan…

‘How could he do it?’ Her uncle’s harsh cry broke into the terrible silence, sounding hoarse and stricken and grievously bewildered

Nobody answered him Shaan couldn’t, and Rafe obviously wasn’t prepared to

He stood by the , effectively disconnected from it all now his part in the dirty deed was done, while out there, only a few short uests, all dressed in their best wedding finery, waiting for a bride and groo up

By now they would have begun to suspect that so, the fact that Piers and Rafe were not in their places by the altar enough to arouse suspicion alone Her aunt would be ju all over the place orry and Je foolish in her pretty pink dress, would be waiting just outside the church for a bride as no longer wanted

‘My God! He couldn’t have cut it any finer, could he?’ her uncle raked out angrily

‘No,’ Rafe decided to answer that one, though his voice sounded deeply constricted, as though he’d only just got the single syllable past his tensely locked throat

Shaan didn’t so much as move, her eyes—dark, dark brown under nor so black in her pale face that they seeinto the cold, dark recesses of her rab hold of her once the all-enco numbness of shock had worn off

Was Rafe in shock too? she found herself wondering She supposed he olden tan his skin alore And he was dressed for a wedding in a foroing to do anything quite so crass as this

Piers…

Her gaze dropped to her hands, where her fingers curled tightly around the single sheet of notepaper

‘I’m so sorry to have to do this…’

Her lips quivered, but not the rest of her—that was held in a kind of frozen stillness that barely allowed her enough roo had cleaved to everything else And her heart was pureat, throbbing pulses which wereher feel dizzy and sick and—

‘God—’ Her uncle broke into suddenat the—’

‘There’s no need,’ Rafe put in griht it—best,’ he finished inadequately, hating the situation Piers had thrust upon him so much that the words came out terse and clipped

Sure enough, and as if on cue, the sound of a car pulling up outside the smart London town house alerted them to the first horrified arrivals back from the church

Too soon, Shaan thought numbly I’m not ready for them I can’t face—

‘Shaan!’