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make life easier for everyone, particularly you. You shouldn’t go into battle without your heart.’

      He gave a shadow of his old heart-melting smile. ‘Precisely, but why are you willing to do this?’

      Sophie held out her hand. ‘You could do this on your own, Richard, but it is easier if you have someone who will stand shoulder to shoulder with you. Your parents are difficult people. Your father will bluster and thunder. Your mother may fly into hysterics. They both need to see that you are not on your own any more. They both failed you when you were a boy. You never failed them. You don’t have to put things right for them, but if you want to, I will be there at your side.’

      ‘Sophie!’

      ‘Your mother in particular needs to see that we stand together. That no one can drive a wedge between us. She needs to see that she is not losing a son, but gaining a daughter. And she is having no part in our marriage or the marriage of her daughter.’

      He stepped towards her. ‘What … what are you saying about our marriage, Sophie?’

      Sophie drew in her breath. This time he had to believe her. But even if he didn’t, she’d go on telling him until he believed.

      ‘I’m saying that I love you, Richard, and, even if your scheme doesn’t work and your parents behave badly, I will stand by you and make sure that Hannah’s match happens. She is my sister now. She doesn’t need to have her life ruined by selfish people who should just grow up. Just as you don’t deserve it, either.’ She stood up and held out her arms. ‘I learnt something today. Life is better when someone believes in you and I believe in you, Richard.’

      ‘You mean to stay married to me?’ He caught her hand in his.

      ‘Until my dying breath.’ Sophie bowed her head. She wanted to get the words right and explain. ‘I was angry and hurt last night because I didn’t understand what you were doing. You wrongly kept me in ignorance and, rather than asking, I leapt to conclusions. I don’t need protection from anyone, Richard, as long as I have you by my side. I don’t care what other people say about us as long as we please ourselves.’

      ‘Always.’ He folded her in his arms and put his head against hers. ‘You’ll always have me. I believe in you, Sophie.’

      ‘I know that now.’ She gave a little hiccupping laugh. ‘I never thought you’d come out to Corbridge or face Henri down. Some people might think it isn’t much, but I know you. I know what you have been through and what you believed might happen, but you still came and you were willing to fight for me. You fought for me when I tried to hide behind my experience with Sebastian. You showed me that it didn’t define me. I defined me.’

      He squeezed her hand. ‘I do love you, Sophie. I simply was afraid to say the words before. Until you came into my life, I didn’t know what happiness could be.’

      ‘And I was too afraid to see the signs of your love. They were there but, until I started trusting me, I didn’t think I was worthy of your love.’

      ‘I forced you into our marriage. I rushed you before you were ready.’ He put his hands on either side of her face. ‘I seduced you, ruthlessly and cynically seduced you because I had to be certain of you. Do you forgive me?’

      ‘Why, Richard? Why did you do it?’ Sophie whispered.

      ‘Because I needed you in my life, every part of my life. You complete my life and make me whole.’ There was a new humble note in Richard’s voice. ‘I wanted to make sure you could become the person you were meant to be and the only way to do that was to have you by my side. Or at least that was what I told myself. It wasn’t until you walked out that I knew I married you because I needed you in my life and for no other reason. You are necessary to me, Sophie, as necessary as breathing. Hopefully, some day, I will be necessary to you as well.’

      ‘You are already necessary.’ Sophie looked into his eyes. ‘Robert and Henri’s return was a fig leaf for my pride because I thought you would not ask me to marry you again. I remembered what you said on the night we met. I knew I loved you when you brought me the painting materials and then insisted I use them.’

      ‘You were very late to fall. I know I started to love you when you refused my invitation to waltz on the first night. Any other woman and I would have walked away, but with you, I knew I couldn’t. I wanted to be part of your life.’ He gave a crooked smile. ‘I took advantage of you in the carriage. I had promised I wouldn’t, but the temptation was far too great. I had to know you would be in my life and I played on your need to be seen to be good.’

      Sophie gave a throaty laugh. She had been so intent on assuming things that she had failed to consider the obvious. Richard married her because he wanted to. Not because society demanded it, but because he desired it. ‘I was easy to seduce. Love will do that to a woman.’

      He smoothed her hair back from her forehead. His eyes looked deeply into hers. Sophie wondered that she had missed the deep love which shone out. Now that she knew where to look, the love was clear to see. ‘If I had asked you to marry me without seduction, would you have done?’

      ‘Ask me. Ask me now and I will give you the answer I would have given then.’

      ‘Will you marry me, Sophie? Will you spend the rest of your life with me?’

      ‘Always.’ Sophie lifted her mouth to his. ‘I will always marry you. I will always stay at your side. Not because society demands, but because you are the keeper of my heart and I want to be there.’

Regency Seduction

      LUCY ASHFORD studied English with history at Nottingham University, and the Regency is her favourite period. She lives with her husband in an old stone cottage in the Derbyshire Peak District, close to beautiful Chatsworth House, and she loves to walk in the surrounding hills while letting her imagination go to work on her latest story.

      You can contact Lucy via her website: www.lucyashford.com.

The Captain’s Courtesan

Chapter One

      Spitalfields, London—February 1816, 8 p.m.

      ‘The Temple of Beauty?’ echoed Captain Alec Stewart, lifting his dark eyebrows as he eased his foil into the nearby sword rack. ‘How old are you, Harry—twenty? And still wet around the ears, my young pup. The Temple of Beauty is nothing but a den of harlots, take my word on it.’

      For the last half an hour, this dusty old hall at the heart of the east London mansion known as Two Crows Castle had echoed to the click of gleaming blades, to the muttered curses of Lord Harry Nugent, and the curt admonitions of his tutor. Now the fencing lesson was over and Harry collapsed on a bench to mop the sweat from his brow and make his plea once more.

      ‘Oh, Alec, do please say you’ll come! It’s my birthday after all. And the girls are as sweet a bunch as you’ll find in London!’

      Alec laughed aloud. ‘Trust me, they’re whores.’ Pouring out two brandies, he handed one to his pupil. ‘I’m not coming. But—happy birthday all the same.’

      Harry Nugent, inordinately rich and a truly hopeless fencer, sighed and sipped just a little of his brandy, which was rough. He let his gaze rove with a certain amount of trepidation around this lofty hall, where the chill February wind rattling at cobwebbed windows sent shadows from the candles leaping across the smokestained rafters. Then he glanced at his fencing master, who,

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