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She looked so worried that Francesca aently, o on your own I won’t To face Uncle William without me? Certainly not!”

A prospect”

“Then you must let me come, too,” Mr Jardine insisted

“No You know that would make it worse”

Sebastian was absorbing their conversation with interest, and realizing it, Aetic “Family difficulties, I’ht love our relatives, they can still give us heartache”

“I wouldn’t know” His smile turned chilly, and the black eyes that had been so alive turned blank It was as if he had shut himself away, or closed them out Whichever it was, it was very effective, and an aard silence fell

Thankfully, just then the bell rang for dinner

Sebastian was re nohy he preferred to spend his time with thieves and murderers Mr and Mrs Jardine reminded him painfully of his own past, and he did not want to revisit it He wished now he’d made his excuses, but then he wouldn’t have been able to sit across the table from Francesca, would he?

The golden candlelight softened the somber effect she’d created with the hideous dress He’d been right Instead of putting him off the scent, as she’d obviously intended, she’d revealed the truth to him She was afraid of him, of herself…He watched her hand trelass to her lips She looked flushed and feverish and utterly captivating

Mr Jardine asked him a polite question, and he answered, but he didn’t take his eyes off her for too long He couldn’t He was drawn to her like a thief to gold She hadn’t looked at hi her plate with an unnatural fixedness, but he knew she felt the same

Should he leave her alone? Forget whatever obsession had taken hold of him? Walk away? But then he re her for some respectable worthy, so that she could be petted and paentleman who saw her as a necessary possession, like his fine house in Belgravia and his rays Was that really what she wanted? Sebastian couldn’t see the wo such a tairl If she was to have a tedious future, then let her have at least one exciting memory One passionate encounter with a man like…

Well, like him

TheSebastian answered their questions politely but briefly Yes, he was from London, yes, he was here in Yorkshire on business, private business

“Do you know the Braidwoods?” A to draw him out “They have ties to one of the mills in Manchester”

“I do not know the Braidwoods”