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"You wish to add to your list? That's hardly fair, is it?"
"I did not say I was adding to the list, merely clarifying it." Julian paused.
He saw the wariness in her turquoise eyes and smiled slightly. "Don't look so
worried, my dear. The first item on my list, an heir, is plain enough. It's the
second item I wish to clarify."
"No trouble. It seems simple enough."
"It will be once you understand exactly what I mean by it."
"For example?"
"For example, it will save us both a great deal of trouble if you make it a
policy never to lie to me."
Her eyes widened. "I have no intention of doing any such thing, my lord."
"Excellent. Because you should know you would not be able to get away with it.
There is something about your eyes, Sophy, that would betray you every time. And
I would be most annoyed if I should detect a lie in your eyes. You understand me
perfectly?"
"Perfectly, my lord."
"Then let us return to my earlier question. I believe I asked you if anything
was wrong and you stated that there was nothing wrong. Your eyes say otherwise,
my dear."
She toyed with the loose ribbon on her reticule. "Am I to have no privacy for my
thoughts, my lord?"
He scowled. "Were your thoughts so very private at that moment that you felt
obliged to conceal them from your husband?"
"No," she said simply. "I merely assumed you would not be pleased if I spoke
them aloud so I kept them to myself."
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He had set out to make a point but now Julian found himself swamped with
curiosity. "I would like to hear them, if you please."
"Very well, I was engaging in a bit of deductive logic, my lord. You had just
admitted that the business matters you had attended to prior to our marriage had
been most provoking and I was hazarding a guess as to what sort of business
matter you meant."
"And to what conclusion did your deductive logic lead you?"
"To the conclusion you had undoubtedly had some difficulty when you had informed
your current mistress that you were getting married. One had hardly blame the
poor woman. She has, after all, been doing all the work of a wife and now you
announce you intend to give the title to another applicant for the post. A
rather unskilled applicant, at that. I expect she enacted you a grand tragedy
and that was what provoked you. Tell me, is she an actress or a ballet dancer?"
Julian's first impulse was an absurd desire to laugh. He quelled it instantly in
the interests of husbandly discipline. "You overstep yourself, madam," he said
through his teeth.
"You are the one who demanded I tell you all my private thoughts." The loose
feather in her bonnet bobbed. "Will you agree now that there are times when I
should be allowed some privacy?"
"You should not be speculating about such things in the first place."
"I am quite certain you are right but unfortunately I have very little control
over my inner speculations."
"Perhaps you can be taught some measure of control," Julian suggested.
"I doubt it." She smiled at him suddenly and the warmth of that smile made
Julian blink. "Tell me," Sophy continued impishly, "was my guess accurate?"
"The business I attended to before leaving London last week is none of your
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affair."
"Ah, I see the way of it now. I am to have no privacy for my speculations but
you are to have all the solitude you wish for your own. That hardly seems fair,
my lord. In any event, if my errant thoughts are going to upset you so much,
don't you think it would be better if I kept them to myself?"
Julian leaned forward without any warning and caught her chin in his fingers. It
occurred to him that her skin was very soft. "Are you teasing me, Sophy?"
She made no move to pull free of his hand. "I confess I am, my lord. You are so
magnificently arrogant, you see,