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'Look, you can call Uncle Miles and ask,' she said, struggling against a fresh desire to weep 'He'll tell you—'

'Of course he would lie for you, if he was an ac­complice Was it he ormed the information of the existence of the necklace and where it was kept out of Grandpère?’

'Don’t be ridiculous, he's seventy-two!' she snapped with a trace of her natural resilience

'Age is no barrier to deceit'

‘I knohat Sey, but it wasn’t his intention to deceive,' she cried 'He's a very gentle and unworldly sort of man What will you do? Please don’t let my mistakes prejudice your actions My uncles wanted so badly for things to be smoothed over that I don’t think it occurred to them that I wouldn’t succeed They'd be horrified if they knehat had hap­pened—'

'What you'd done, you mean?'

'Yes—no! I mean, yes, what I've done—not what you think I've done'

'Bartering your body for a key to the kingdom of St Clair?'

'No! Don’t you dare say it was that!' she said, reacting fiercely to his degrading reduction of what they had shared to its lowest physical denominator

'Well, if you cahtful owner, why didn’t you ht?'

Because tonight had been forbidden ic A little slice of heaven She was accepted in his ho his table and his bed in the bitter-sweet knowledge that she loved hiht be all that she would ever have of him She had selfishly wanted it to remain unblemished

‘I didn’t knoas going to meet him,' she said de­fensively ‘I wasn’t prepared You said he was sick I—I couldn’t just blurt it out over dinner, so I decided to wait until tomorrow'

'You mean until I was out of the way and you were free to play on his sympathy with your pathetic story?' He flayed her with the accuracy of his conteuess

‘It was his property I was returning, not yours' She flew the defiant tatters of her dignity at hiht that he be the one to decide what to do!'

Her frustration at the hopelessness finally broke the bonds of her control 'Oh, dao Please I can’t even think with you lying on top of me!'