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“May I speak to you, Aphrodite?”

“Of course!”

Marietta doubted Max could hear the her hts in front of hiallery With a puzzled smile, her mother followed

“Do you remember when you caan cautiously

“Of course I reain after so long…I will never forget”

“And do you knohat I thought when I saw you, Aphrodite?”

Aphrodite shook her head, clearly puzzled “No, Marietta, as it you thought?”

“You were so different, so exciting Greentree Manor had not seen anything as exotic as you since a circus leopard escaped onto the moors and it took twentyshe was beco a l

ittlea smile “I always intended to fall wildly in love, like Vivianna I suppose that hy I was so foolish as to run aith Gerard Jones, despite all the good advice I had to the contrary I was a silly little romantic, in love with the idea of love I know better now I know thata courtesan, like you, and I want you to help oal”

Aphrodite’s s to withdraw into herself Marietta waited, not knohat to expect, but hoping that her ht even be proud that one of her daughters wanted to follow in her silk-slippered footsteps

But as irew too ?”

The courtesan fixed Marietta with her dark gaze “I a but another romantic dream, mon petit puce The life of a courtesan is not romantic To survive in her world, to thrive in her world, a courtesan needs to be practical and clever and cold-hearted, just as I was a o, when I wondered whether the attack on poor Lord Roseby would be bad for business There is nothing of ro and must be…suppressed You see, Marietta, romance is love and a woman cannot be a courtesan and love only one h falling in love”

Marietta could not help but ask, “Have you ever fallen in love with just one man, Aphrodite?”

Herabout that smile that reminded Marietta of Vivianna when she looked at Oliver “Ah yes, I have loved, and it was love that finally led me to end my career”

Marietta wanted to ask ency