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The two women hugged.

Victoria was then reminded of the deadline Stephen placed on her stay in Colborne House. One month. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more. She hadn’t told Dorothy about it. Didn’t have the heart to tell her.

“Dorothy, what if I have to leave? What if our time is coming to an end?”

“Don’t tell me that my son is driving you away?”

“No, I am not letting him do that,” Victoria lied.

Dorothy smiled at that.

“But I just wanted to know.”

“If our time is coming to an end, that will mean my last chance to feel alive.”

“Dorothy, you’ve got so many reasons to feel alive. Your daughter, your grandchild. And I am sure at some point, a poor girl will marry the Duke, and perhaps she will decide to continue his line.”

“Victoria!” Dorothy gasped.

They both broke out laughing till their cheeks ached, their hands on their aching bellies, almost exhausted.

“This,” Dorothy sighed. “This is what I mean. Harmless wickedness, living life to the fullest without thinking of propriety but fun.”

Victoria studied her friend. She wanted to reveal that she would have to part ways with her after a month because of Stephen’s stupid rules. But she was not leaving just now. She still had a month left. A month that she would make memorable. Starting from now.

“The weather is amazing.” She got up.

“It is. Garden walk?”

“I have something better in my mind.”

Dorothy’s eyes lit up with mischief. “And what about the rules?”

Victoria smiled a very devious smile.

CHAPTER6

Bending Rules

Stephen fled the dining room. Yes, he fled. He finally had the upper hand, and he was not going to let her have the last word. Plus, if she kept smiling that mocking, sardonic smile, she might actually shatter his patience, and not even he could tell what he would do. He was quite sure that he wouldn’t last a month without committing some kind of crime.

Victoria Crawford had to go!

He tried to concentrate on the ledgers, on reports and solving the thousand problems that came with managing a large fortune. And on top of that, he had to read legislation upon legislation for the House of Lords. And yet he couldn’t.

His thoughts drifted to her face when he proposed—or ratherdemanded—that she go back to her brother the moment he was back from India. Granted, he had been focusing more on the way her full lips moved, but he caught it. The flash of pure unhappiness at the idea of going back to her brother. He didn’t ask. He pretended he didn’t care.

Why should he care about things that made her feel bad? If anything, he should be congratulating her brother for getting under her skin.

“Damn it!” He leaned back in his chair.

The problem was that hedidcare. Whether they asked him or not, Victoria was under his care. But if she didn’t want to go back to her brother—and since there was no chance he would ever allow her to stay here—then the only other option for her was to marry.

His jaw clenched. The idea settled uncomfortably in his chest, though it was a solution that was both rational and intolerable. It was what Society would expect. So why did the very thought make something in his chest tighten?

Then again, finding a suitable, agreeable gentleman who would agree to marry a feral creature like her was very unlikely.

And how is any of this my problem?