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She felt shaken by Max

Yes, he ry Yes, he was moody, and it wasn’t fair that he was so physically attractive When he had held her in his arhtened her, because the last time she had felt like that it had ended in disaster Marietta sympathized with his predicaers, and soon they would go their oays and live their own lives

She found coain

When they reached the outskirts of London, Mr Keith found Marietta a hackney cab to take her ho at her, but his sone, and it occurred to her that soon he would have forgotten she existed With a little shrug, she ignored him too, and turned her face for home

“It was no accident Miss Greentree being with us, was it, Ian?”

Ian Keith glanced at Max, taking in his obvious bad humor

“The truth, if you please,” Max added, his dark eyebrows drawing down at the corners to mimic the shape of his mouth

Ian sighed “I don’t knohy you’re co Any other man would have been more than happy to while away a few hours in the coht…I hoped she would drive away your dark mood”

“Did you? I suppose she did have a certain naïve charer—”

“Max you’re twenty-nine!”

“I feel like one hundred and twenty-nine I’ve seen girls like that before, Ian Too many of them” He sounded pompous and he knew it, but it seemed important to convince Ian that he had no interest in Miss Greentree Because if he couldn’t convince Ian, how on earth was he going to convince himself?

“I take it you’re not hanging out for a wife then?” Ian said curiously “Not that I’ Miss Greentree is the woman to share the nuptials with you, but I have wondered”

“If I want a woo to Aphrodite’s and find one there, and as for the rest…My servants cook my meals and launder my clothes, and I have you for a friend” The draas back in his voice, to show he didn’t care “A ould be an added burden, especially nohen I have no future”

Ian shook his head “It isn’t the end of the world, Max Even if you can’t persuade your father to change his mind, or break your cousin’s hold on your inheritance, you still have a lot to be grateful for Remember, you have your mother’s estate in Cornwall, and your house in London Admit it, you’re hardly destitute, Max!”

Max’s expression grew bleak “You have a very simplistic view of the world, my friend My mother leftdown And the house in London isn’t s to Harold now My father has sent his man of business to tell me to leave by the end of theYou see I can’t pay h enerous, I cannot…I do not expect him to support me”