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“And I will offer them as long as you need them,Your Grace.” The butler bowed to her, the motion practiced over and over until it was smooth and flawless. “I shall leave you to enjoy your walk. Please do not hesitate to call for us if you need anything.”

She thanked him again before he left her standing in the garden with Snowdrop and the gravity of her thoughts.

Your Grace.Tomorrow, she was going to become a duchess.TheDuchess of Wolverton.

“Ah, My Lady. How fortunate that I came upon you today!”

She turned around to find Lord Colton strolling casually towards her—well, as casually as the man could manage. He was still dressed quite formally for the country, as if he almost expected a ball to be sprung upon him at any given moment.

From behind her, Snowdrop let out a low growl, baring his tiny, sharp teeth at the intruding stranger. Scarlett noted how he recoiled from the puppy with an expression that looked strangely like disgust.

“Erm… that thing does not bite, does it?” he asked her.

“Thatthingis called Snowdrop, and I suppose hedoesbite,” she responded with a saccharine smile. “Otherwise, what good are those teeth of his?”

“Wolverton could have fetched you a purebred Pomeranian,” he muttered. “Instead of this…this…”

She leveled a glare at him with an intensity that might have done her betrothed proud. “I chose Snowdrop, My Lord. His Grace had nothing to do with him.”

“Ah… I see. Interesting choice of companion, I daresay.”

And I daresay that this conversation is quickly losing its meaning.

“Did you seek my company merely to disparage my dog, Lord Colton?” she demanded.

“Oh, heavens,no, Lady Scarlett. I merely wished to offer you my best wishes in advance.”

“Oh.”

The man was being rather gracious for one who had lost the quest for her hand.

“Well, I do apologize for… for everything that transpired between us,” she said weakly.

She could be gracious, too, and as odious as he might seem at times, Lord Colton behaved with exceeding grace and forbearance in the matter of their messy betrothal.

His practiced smile set her nerves on edge for some reason. “Think nothing of it, My Lady. I did say that I would forgive youalmostanything.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. How odd that he should use it again. That word.Almost.Lord Colton had first used it at the ball. Why did he keep emphasizing it as though it was supposed to meansomething?

But it was not like she cared anymore.

She offered him another practiced smile. One that would make a duchess proud.

“Thank you all the same, Lord Colton,” she told him, as courteously as she could manage. “I should return inside now. Mama must be looking for me.”

She did not wait for his reply. Snowdrop was already snarling at the Marquess. It would cause quite a stir if her dog attacked him after yet another attempt at securing her hand in marriage.

“I know he is not our first choice, Snow,” she murmured. “But sometimes, you really have to give a man a way out.”

Snowdrop, however, continued to growl all the way back to her bedchamber, as if he was a young child grumbling at having been made to wash his hands before supper.

Poor Lord Colton. It seemed that neither a scrappy puppy nor a full-grown Wolf liked him.

Hudson watched the scene from his window, feeling his blood run cold in his veins despite the warm afternoon sunlight streaming in. He shifted the glass in his hand a little before taking a drink. He seemed to be drinking more than usual, with very little to show for it except a raging headache when he woke up.

“Working up the nerve to walk down the aisle, eh?” he heard Ethan remark jokingly from behind him.

He quashed the urge to hurl the liquor in his friend’s face. Of late, Sinclair seemed to have made it his life’s mission to provoke him as much as humanly possible.