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Wonder?

He had spentof just that

“We would have e far away froing shame on ris would have been difficult, but I hope we could have been happy”

She put her hand to the base of her throat and sed “I would have been happy as long as ere together”

He snorted The contemptuous sound revealed his belief that the reality would have been so far removed from the stories told in ros in store for us”

“And yet we are here together now”

He rubbed his chin as he considered her coo, he would have cursed and protested with uncontrollable veheht at her house “Then we ”

A faint blush touched her cheeks “So we have spent the last two days in each other’s co abandoned and betrayed, yet neither of us said anything”

“Pride can be both a blessing and a curse”

They fell silent Apattern on the Persian rug, her eyes wide, glassy

“I married Lord Fernall out of spite,” she eventually said, her tone somewhat detached “I wanted to show you that I could be a lady, someone worthy of respect I wanted to hurt you but, in the end, I only hurt myself”

She had hurt him The news had cut hiht? Why not wait?”

Isabella shrugged “Lord Fernall had made your father an offer for me weeks before Your father had not e You see, he had prohter—”

Tristan shot to his feet Their father had insisted they treat her as kin “Good Lord, do you think we—” he could not speak the words

“I ahter, Tristan” Her confident chuckle settled his racing heart “We were living in Italy when I was conceived”