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“You do What are you afraid of? I proe”

He laughed, and then groaned, but whether from pain or sheer frustration Marietta didn’t know She pretended it was from the former, and murmured solicitously as she followed them outside to the coach, and helped to make him comfortable inside There were an array of cushions and bolsters that so, which she tucked around him fussily while he stared at her with haunted eyes

“For pity’s sake,” he whimpered, “leave me alone”

“You should have stayed in bed, Max I did warn you but you wouldn’t listen”

He fixed her with a look, his eyes bright through the screen of his dark lashes Marietta had often heard the saying if looks could kill, but she had never really understood its true —until now

“You ht does not alleviate my present condition,” he said “Why couldn’t one of my servants have accompanied me home? Where is Pomeroy?”

“I don’t knohere Pomeroy is Perhaps he was busy”

Max didn’t bother to answer that, instead he closed his eyes with grim determination, and kept them shut

Marietta sainst the soft squabs as the coach set off It was very selfish of her, but perhaps Max’s injury would work to her advantage If she could win a promise from him while he was in a weakened state so much the better for her plans

As they traversed the streets of London, Marietta realized that she had no idea where Max lived The question had never co so stiffly opposite her, and was so obviously in pain, that she did not speak after all

I know hardly anything about him

The thought gave her pause Although she felt a strange sense of recognition for Max, a feeling of faers When she acknowledged it, she felt afraid Aphrodite had put Max forward as the man to practice upon, and it had see breath, re herself that she didn’t have to do this She could change her mind

Well, couldn’t she?

And what then? Live her life in the shadows? Marietta knew she couldn’t bear that—it would not be living at all As a courtesan she would have a full life, and yet be free of the fear of being eain Her heart would be protected Safe The ive her a chance to enjoy herself in ways that were ht be a stranger, but he was no more so than the men she must learn to please if she became a courtesan

Satisfied by her self-persuasion, at least for the moment, Marietta relaxed Only to be shaken by a sudden crash outside the coach Their driver shouted and swerved, and the wheels lurched violently Marietta gripped the leather strap and looked out of thein tiths of wood spread across the roadway Their coach driver must have run over the timber, but he was luckier, or cleverer, than so