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After quietly bidding everyone a good night, she quietly left the room

As she trudged to her room, Amelia consoled herself with the fact that Sebastian was now as safe as anyone could be He had the security and physical protection of his brothers and Peter surrounding hiround She had told theive them a start in the search for information Without doubt, the family would move heaven and earth to help Sebastian search for the truth behind his kidnap, and attempted murder She would help the

Carefully closing the door behind her, A as the cooler air swept over her Snatching up the blanket from the bed, she wrapped it around herself and lay upon the bed, a picture of desolateshe wanted to do was cause the family to despise her While she could fully understand, and indeed admire Isobel for her family loyalty, the memory of that s thes stood between her and Sebastian, it was a bad ain, he had asked her to place her trust and faith in him What he had never done was trusted her to think for herself To make decisions based on what she wanted and needed Look at how high-handedly he had casually removed her from Glendowie, despite her protestations

Well, on that occasion, ed reluctantly The prospect of staying there alone had weighed heavily upon her But she also knew that as soon as Sebastian realised he had bedded a lady, albeit an outcast, he would push, prod and shove her into e She wanted him to love her as much as she loved him More importantly, she wanted him to marry her because he wanted to, not out of some misplaced sense of honour and duty Sleep came slowly, and when she did succumb, her dreams were filled with Sebastian

Later that night, Sebastian found hi her It had been several hours since she had pleaded a headache and taken refuge in her room, yet he could still see the rivulets of tears down her pale cheeks

Even through the gloo in her sleep His heart ached to reach out and hold her To give her the coed him to be cautious He had learned from her revelations earlier that she had soh Only nobody knehat Until she trusted hih to tell him, he couldn’t discount the possibility she knew Ballantyne faron

Until he had evidence otherwise, he couldn’t even discount the horrendous possibility she was even related to Ballantyne After all, why had he been going through Glendohen he jue? Why take him to Scotland? Until he knew Amelia’s links to Ballantyne for certain, he couldn’t allow hi affection for her

He had already developed deeper feelings for her than he had ever felt for any woreatly He wasn’t certain hoould deal with the possibility that she was in cohorts with Ballantyne

With a soft curse, he turned and quickly left the roohtly watch of the house

He had just returned to the downstairs parlour for the third tih the still night air

With a curse, Sebastian spun on his heel and took to the stairs, two at a time

“What is it?” Sebastian shouted towards Dominic, who appeared at the far end of the upper hallway, still tugging on his breeches

“I don’t know, but it was up here so to order Isobel out of bed Within moments they were joined by Peter and Edward

“Fire!” Peter shouted, tugging at Sebastian’s elbow as they raced towards Amelia’s bedroom

“A the door to her roorey wall of s blanket Blinking the stinging out of his eyes, Sebastian tried desperately to peer through the thick gloom towards the bed