Chapter 54

Everything had been going so well; the evening was not going to end like this. There had to be a way to stop it. She would

find Authur and beg him to take her home. She doubted that Archie would bother to ruin her if her husband was not there

to hear the story.

She searched the ballroom, the card room, and other surrounding rooms, but Authur was nowhere to be found. Time was running out. She must come up with another plan. You could meet him, suggested a small voice in her mind, and let him do his worst and be done. No one might be the wiser. It was what Lady Danbury would have done.

‘No.’ She said it aloud. She would not meet him, not to preserve any more secrets from her husband. She would die first.

If someone must die, why must it be you? said the matter- of-fact voice in her head. You are only a foolish girl, trapped in circumstances. But Lord Archie—he is the one who trapped you. He is evil. And while he lives, he will be a danger to,you, and to your husband, the man he longs to