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“Well?” she prodded, peering at his rather closed-off look. “Theremustbe something I can offer in return?—”

“There is hardly anything, My Lady.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Everybody wants something, I assure you.”

“And you want to get out of this betrothal your family has arranged for you?”

She nodded avidly. “More than anything, Your Grace.” She sighed, and her shoulders dropped the slightest bit. “I… I do not want to waste my life away. I love my mother—I truly do. I just do not believe that this is the life for me.”

Her heart sank when he continued to glare frostily at her. He truly was as unrelenting as a stony facade. Or a craggy peak far beyond the reach of mere mortals such as herself.

But then she saw it—the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Was it what she thought it was? Scarlett held her breath and her jubilation at bay. Itwasa smile!

Even stony facadesmusthave a crack somewhere!

“Have you ever felt trapped, Your Grace?” she asked him softly, glancing up at him prettily.

“Yes,” he snapped testily. “I have. By a little lady who falsely claimed before her entire family that I ruined her!”

Almost immediately, that crack sealed shut, and she found herself once more staring at the granite of a man before her. She really should have known better than to try to appeal to the Wolf.

“I see,” she murmured. She bit her trembling lower lip and blinked away the tears of frustration that scalded her eyes.

She wasnotgoing to cry in front of him. That would be the worst thing she could do, and it would hardly move the man at all.

“Well, you do have the right to be angry,” she told him. “And I can understand that you would not be inclined to help me when I heaped false accusations on your head.”

She sighed and straightened her drooping shoulders, smiling bitterly as she looked away from him.

He had been her last shot, but she did not blame him for not wanting to help her at all. It was simply her great misfortune to be betrothed to a man she regarded with the same warmth as she did a toothache.

“I shall go to my mother and explain to her,” she muttered. “We shall not bother you anymore, Your Grace. Thank you for at least hearing me out.”

I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry.

Outside, she could hear the thunder rumbling, but it was not quite as loud as the sound of her world starting to crumble all around her.

Maybe when she was back home and confined to her chambers, she could let loose all the tears she had to cry—but not in Wolverton Estate. Not in front of the Wolf.

Scarlett moved to the door when she felt a gentle hand tilt her chin up, and she could scarcely control her irritation. What now? Did he want to see just how much his refusal had crushed her?

Even if shehadused softness to appeal to other gentlemen in the past, the man before her deserved none of it.

“You should not look so dejected, My Lady,” he told her, his low voice almost a purr that soothed her frayed emotions despite herself. “It does not match your spirit.”

Scarlett thankfully managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

“Well, at least there is something you find admirable about me,” she groused.

He let out a slight huff that sounded like stifled laughter.

“You caused me a lot of trouble, but I understand your resolve…” he trailed off when a knock sounded at the door. “What now?”

Scarlett cringed inwardly. It must be her mama. After all, it had been well past the ten minutes she had allotted them. Perhaps she had come after them.

However, the woman who pushed the door open wasnother mama and wasnotthe slightest bit incensed.