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“Yes, quite an extreme way He also went on to fatally wound his paramour’s husband in a duel after that He fled the country and never returned Then we have his grandson, who becaed Next carandfather who married this beauty”

We co wohty chin, she wears the kind of evening gown that would necessitate a dozen skirts underneath Her skin is pale, her dark hair pinned si The pearls at her throat and wrist and the jewelled fan she holds closed on her lap But theabout her is her violet eyes They seem to follow me as they move

“She is stunning” And kind of faaze slips to Isla’s profile They look like one another I wonder if she realises “Please don’t tell e”

Isla turns toa pattern?”

“What happened?” I ask,just a little

“She tried to divorce hirounds of cruelty and desertion, but the petition failed But she fell in love with another ether” She turns back to the painting with a sigh “He locked her in the castle’s highest tower And she threw herself fro after”

“Oh, my God That’s terrible”

“At least she didn’t see her son, row into such infamy He was indiscriminate in his affairs, from ladies of rank down to street sweepers Men and women alike By the time my father became the duke, the affairs of the estates were in a terrible mess”

I don’t say anything because this is a tale Chrissy had already told

“I see you’ve heard of hiain, she smiles properly this time

“There ood dukes of Dalforth? Dukes without notoriety”

“Oh, I’ their majority”

We walk a little farther along the hall, our voices echoing in the room more like a vast corridor

“Here he is Our illustrious father The man who left his only son to sort out three hundred years of purgatory”

The portrait features a man in his thirties, dressed in the uniforh-top boots and a scarlet jacket Fair-haired and pleasant-looking, he has a twinkle in his blue eyes I alre who ruined his children’s inheritance