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Amy Greentree felt

as if she had been asleep for a very long time, and now she was about to wake up

“David?”

Startled, he stood up, knocking his pen and papers to the floor Amy had returned, and she had called hi she never normally did As she came toward him he noted that her face was pale but deteraze was fixed on his

“Amy?”

She placed her hand carefully upon his shoulder, and looked deep into his eyes Mr Jardine didn’t move—he couldn’t He wondered what she would see there in his eyes—love for her, certainly, and all the years of devotion and loyalty he had given to her But would she see the proed to make to her, and the life he wished to have with her?

Amy smiled, and she was so beautiful he blinked And then she leaned forward and touched her lips to his, the lightest of kisses

“This is for being you, David,” she whispered

The door closed gently behind her

David Jardine collapsed back into his chair like a ates of paradise

Chapter 18

Marietta reached up to uise covered the upper half of her face and it was surprising how difficult it was to tell her identity once she had it on Her red cloak with the fur hem swirled every time she moved, while underneath the cloak was a dress of the same vibrant red The color leaold and her eyes blazed like sapphires Aphrodite had fondly told her she looked like a princess—Marietta had dressed at the club—but she did not think she rese so insipid as a princess She was oddess; an idol to be worshipped

She s warmer, anticipation made her body alert and her heart beat faster Her senses responded to the clothing she earing—the softness of the velvet and fur, the silken luxury of her stockings, the tight push of her stays beneath her bosooas low, al in public and she wondered what Max would think

She glanced over her shoulder Aphrodite had sent Dobson with her to Vauxhall Gardens, and she saw hi a few paces behind her until she found Max safely Her lad of it Dobson looked dangerous and tough, standing amidst the croith his arms folded

Was Dobson the Jemmy her mother spoke of in her diary? The man she had loved and lost? Marietta did not kno the two of them had been reunited—the latter part of her ht Dobson particularly remarkable, but as she came to know him and witness her mother’s affection for hiray eyes lurked huence, and, whenever he looked at Aphrodite, a flood of warm affection Hmm, and desire He loved her, and she loved him