He spoke jokingly, but, as Sadira met his eyes, she had a feeling that he was challenging her in some way.
When he and his grandmother had left the room, she stood gazing down into the fire.
She felt that if only this charade they were acting was real, how differently she would be feeling now.
She had always wanted to marry a man who had a keen knowledge of horses, who was athletic and strong and whose home was in the country.
It was one of the idyllic dreams that she had shared with Anne.
Now the background was perfect, but everything else was wrong.
The Earl was in love with a woman he could not marry and she knew that every moment they were together he was wishing that it was her stepmother who was beside him and not her.
As she thought of the Marchioness, she put her hand up to
