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“Thank you,” said the duke with punctilious politeness masking his growing fury.

He repaired from there to St. James Street and entered the club. He found Lannister at the gaming tables, of course. He approached the man and, leaning down, said quietly in his ear, “May I have a word with you in private?”

Lannister looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. He pursed his lips a moment and then threw down his hand. “Gentlemen, if you will excuse me?”

He rose to protests and grunts from the other men and followed Robert to a small antechamber. Shutting the door, Robert rounded on him.

“I’ll thank you to stay away from my affianced wife!”

Lannister smiled, which irritated Robert even further. “You have excellent sources, Your Grace. But I believe you are overreacting. It was only a walk in the park, and her maid and footman were in attendance. All the proprieties were observed.”

“Was it an assignation?”

“If you’re asking whether Miss Watson was a party to planning it, no. I simply laid in wait for her, since I knew it was her habit to walk in the park at that hour.”

“What possible reason could you have for doing so?”

“That, Your Grace, is my business.”

“If it concerns my fiancée, it is my damned business!”

“You needn’t concern yourself; I’ve retired from the lists. I made one last bid; she turned me down.” He looked down ruefully at his boot. “A pity, but there it is.”

Robert felt as if he would explode. “You have the temerity to stand there and tell me that you made Sarah an offer after she became engaged to me?”

“Yes, well, if you’d seen her face this morning you might understand. She looked dashed unhappy. I’m a scoundrel, I’ll be the first to admit it, but even I draw the line at entrapment.”

“Entrapment! It is no such thing!”

“What do you call it then? Forcing a woman to accept your suit when she has already rejected it?”

“She told you that?”

“Of course not, she is not that vulgar. I guessed. The fact is that she is unhappy but resigned to her lot. Many would fail utterly to understand her discontent. After all, she is to be a duchess—that should be enough to make her happy, shouldn’t it?

Except she is not in the least little bit worldly and doesn’t care about your coronet. ”

“I’m aware of that!” said Robert stiffly.

“Are you? Do you also know that she is a warm, vital, loving creature, with a soft heart and caring nature?”

“She has many estimable qualities, yes.”

“By God, you don’t deserve her if that’s the best you can do!” Lannister flung away from him in disgust.

Robert struggled with himself for a moment and finally admitted, “You may be right. But in the circumstances, there was no choice but to offer her the protection of my name, and frankly, it was what I desired in any case.”

“But not what she desired! You’re such a self-satisfied, self-centered, sanctimonious prick!”

“If we’re to exchange insults, my lord, I think I can construct a longer list of your faults than mine!”

Lannister looked at him with contempt and shook his head. “You’re missing the point!”

“No, I’m not. I’m simply a different stamp of man to you. For which I will not apologize. Your question is ‘Do I care for Sarah?’ Of course I do. As I do for every member of my family and my household. Her happiness and safety will become my chief concern.”

“She’s not one of your assets, man, she’s a woman! With thoughts and feelings and aspirations and desires of her own.”

“I know that.”

“Do you? Then bloody well show it.” He stared at Robert for a minute. “My God, you don’t know how, do you? You’ve got a stick so far up your arse it’s protruding through the top of your head!”

“I think this conversation has gone far enough. Stay away from my wife in future or I’ll demand satisfaction.”

“You can try! I’m accounted quite a good shot myself, Your Grace.”

Lannister opened the door and left, and Robert slumped into one of the overstuffed leather chairs in the room.

He was shaking, not from rage or fear, but a sudden and overwhelming self-loathing.

He felt sick with it, and the kind of shame invaded his gut that he hadn’t felt since he was a boy and his father had reprimanded him for cheating.

But this was far worse than that. Lannister, with a few well-chosen words, had ripped the ground from under him and torn his worldview to shreds.

The evidential fact that Lannister knew and understood far more about Sarah than he did gouged a painful hole in his chest. His description of her as a warm, vital, loving creature, with a soft heart and caring nature.

.. he felt the visceral reality of that strike home in his vitals.

He realized with a shock that he had been viewing Sarah as if through a veil. As if he were one step removed.

He had allowed himself to feel a burgeoning physical need for her, but for all his talk of wanting to find love, to love some mythical woman who didn’t exist outside his imagination, when confronted with a real woman, a woman of quality and kindness, who valued things that mattered, who gave herself to her family and her father’s parishioners with unstinting care, he remained frozen behind a shield.

How did this happen?

Somewhere along the line in becoming the duke, he had lost the ability to feel. Emrys was right, he had lost Robert the man.