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anyone else coming tonight, does she?” he asked.
    “No,” she said.
    “I cannot bear the thought of any other man touching her, either,” he said.
    Miss Blythe stooped to pick up her book and set it on a table with her spectacles.
    “Are your girls bound to you by contract?” heasked. “If Prissy wanted to leave, could she? Or is there a price you would accept?”
    “My girls are free to leave whenever they wish,” Miss Blythe said. “Most of them never do wish to leave because I look after them well, sir. They are infinitely better off here than they would be on the street.”
    “I know,” he said absently. “If I were to offer to take Prissy away and make her my mistress, you would set no obstacle in the way, ma’am?”
    “Indeed I might,” she said, “though I have only my influence to use with her. I would wish to know that her interests would be as well protected under your care as I have tried to make them under mine. Won’t you take a seat, sir? I believe we have some business to discuss.”
    Sir Gerald sat.
    P RISCILLA ENTERED THE blue salon the following morning with some trepidation. She had just had a lengthy and painful interview with Miss Blythe, who had told her when it was over that Sir Gerald Stapleton was waiting to speak with her.
    He had come to say good-bye, she thought. She wished he had not. She had begun to accustom her mind that morning to the knowledge that she would not see him again.
    Surely he did not expect her to take him to her room. The rules allowed no clients in the mornings.Miss Blythe had said nothing about a bending of the rules.
    She wished that her jaw were not as black and yellow as it was or her eyes so ringed with dark shadows. She had not slept at all during the night, weary though she had been. And she had been unable to stop at least some of the tears from flowing.
    “Priss?” he said, turning from the window he had been staring through and crossing the room to take her outstretched hands. “Ah, your poor face. I wish I could have stopped it happening, you know, and whatever indignity you were subjected to.”
    She smiled warmly at him. “Sir Gerald,” she said. “You have come to take your leave of me, sir? How kind of you. I do hope you enjoy the summer in the country.”
    “I have come to take you away from here if you will come,” he said.
    She withdrew her hands from his and stared at him.
    “I have leased a house,” he said. “I think you will like it. I have hired two servants and plan to hire as many more. And I have arranged for some furniture. Will you let me set you up there, Priss? Will you be my mistress?”
    “Your mistress, sir?” she asked. His mistress? Only him? No others? No daily appointments encompassing three hours and involving three gentlemen? Onlyhim? Only Sir Gerald? He was not going away, after all? She was not to be saved from herself after all?
    “I don’t like sharing you,” he said. “It is distasteful to me. I want you for myself. Will you come?”
    Would she come? He wanted her for himself? He did not wish to share her? There would be only him? Only him!
    “You have spoken with Miss Blythe about this?” she asked.
    His grin made him look almost boyish for a moment. “She has driven a hard bargain on your behalf,” he said. “You must discuss it with her, Priss, and make known to her any changes you wish to make to the agreement. She has it all written out this morning for my signature. She will doubtless read it to you. I think you will find that it protects you from all possible disasters. In particular, you will be well provided for when I grow tir—” He ran a hand through his fair curls. “When we finally part, for whatever reason.”
    When he grew tired of her. How soon would that be? A matter of weeks? But surely he would not go to the trouble of furnishing a house for her and signing an agreement with her for a matter of weeks. Months, then? Surely not years. He must be close to thirty years of age.