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“We could be both,” he said and colored up

She hugged hiirl will be so lucky one day to have you as a husband, but not I”

He pulled a face, obviously taking exception to this “Why not you?”

“Because, I have already told you, we are friends—no, fully

He released a long, heavy sigh “Aye, true, though a man could do worse than to have you as his bride, and besides that, ould go on very well together”

She laughed and offered, “I fancy you would need more than friendship, dear Scott”

He colored up again and fu, “What’s to do then?”

She linked her ar toward the woodland path that would take them to the stables “I don’t know yet, Scotty-lad, I just don’t know, but I do know this: I won’t be taken against my will to Swindon”

“Egad, no,” her friend agreed

~ Two ~

GLEN ASHTON, PRESENT Duke of So, landed in the open field that would take hiht his large black gelding to a gentle stop

Lady Daphne Waverly, the duke’s sister, stood at the large panoramicand watched her brother He sat his horse well—a natural born to the saddle, she thought

He was the very broth of a man at nine and twenty He was tall, athletic in build, handsohed over the facts because she wished she could see him suitably matched and happy, if only he would cooperate

She watched hi around his uncovered head, and sighed again as she wondered how many hearts he had disappointed when he would not come up to scratch and offer for the hands he had kissed

She knew he had never wanted to be the duke His cousins had been in line before him, but they had both been killed at Waterloo … and now their uncle had passed on and the dukedom had come to Glen