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But no ht to her, she could never find herself falling for someone who had so crassly benefited from the systeht to be so apart from all of the ‘well-behaved’ women who simply lived to bear children and attend fancy balls, clad in expensive dresses, giggling at bad jokes She had seen those types of woer to prove themselves worthy of his attention

But why should a woman seek to attract the attention of a reat ht man?

Nonetheless, the weight of her father’s condition bore down on her as she approached her carriage, a siShe would find someone who could accept her as she was - eventually

But it could not be a man like that… a man who benefited from this wretched system

“M’lady,” Smith i pleased when he saw her “I had not expected your arrival quite so soon Bythe twentieth course right about now,” he joked

“The first nineteen filled e, Smith,” Anne replied wryly “Shall we depart, then?”

“I’m quite ready when you are, m’lady,” Smith nodded

Chapter Five

The carriage pulls round the ragged roadway leading to a towering ray-eyed gaze of the lanced nervously upon the invitation lain out in his hands to check and to double-check that he had read the name properly When he saw the letters hand-written with talented precision upon expensive white paper, his heart sank, full of embarrassed dread

The Viscount of Roxborough for of particular i the future and disposition of all estates and titles of Roxborough, it read triumphantly Memory had indeed not failed him - he knew quite hose manor he stood poised to step out into

He knew the woman aited inside - Anne, whom he had ala The night of his failure he had cursed himself every clop of the horse’s hooves, back to the Arasped at bottles of fine brandy and drunken hi the loss of perhaps the only fledgling spark of feeling he had experienced for so teain to him that he had only failure to offer to this world, and to the women within it - even when his charm and coy manner seemed to draw interested eyes, he failed to truly stand up for what he felt in the face of scoundrels and conservatives like the young, rapacious earl That painful night had ended with him lain upon the armchair of his study, the fireplace dead and an e h his mired mind

Yet less than a fortnight later and here Lawrence stands, in a place he had never expected to see - upon the cobblestones leading to the grand oak doorway of the Roxborough estate He had considered not even co to this place - but it would be dreadfully impolite to refuse the request of aserved as friend both political and financial advisor to land, and to refuse his request would not doubt send scandal and whispers through the festering, choking vines the nobles called their social circles The talk of titular disposition drew his interest - he had wondered at theof Anne and her curious attitude over dinner weeks before, and had deduced that perhaps soentfor an heir

And all at once, as the lord of Ae and waved to his chauffeur, did he push together disparate pieces of scattered thought in his mind and realized just what lay before him She had talked about the chains of her life - the chaos of her estate So flustered had Lawrence been, that he did not think upon the logical conclusion of the way she had acted and the consternation evidenced in her confrontation of hies

He had been sent for by the e

The very thought turned his stoe had set onlydutifully along the path to the stables His breath hitched as he feared disappointment - the saht, in the presu; calling upon the chauffeur oncehe had never arrived upon the doorstep Unfortunately, that particular plan ceased as a possibility when the doors to theopen; Lord A to bewoht