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together certainly hadn’t felt like a manipulation. Just a surrender of two people who rarely gave in to their own desires, thanks to their duties and professions.
    Violet shifted and looked at her evenly. “I was going to tell him that I am in town with a friend and ask if you could join us at his estate.”
    Olivia only just kept from jumping to her feet in joy. “Me?” she said, as if this suggestion were not something she had been hoping for since Violet’s revelation of the arrangement Liam wanted to make.
    “You can keep his guard or friend, or whatever that man is, busy.” Violet waved Mal off like he wasn’t important except as an obstacle, and Olivia frowned.
    “Malcolm?” she said, stressing his name so that Violet would acknowledge he had one at all.
    Violet examined her closely. “Malcolm. I didn’t see him last night or this morning, but I think if I stay there he might take an interest in my intentions. That could prove difficult for me.”
    Olivia swallowed. So Violet hadn’t guessed the reason for Mal’s absence. She would leave it at that, at least for now, but she still had to let Violet know she was more than willing to “distract” Malcolm Graham.
    Probably too willing.
    “Malcolm,” she said on a sigh, her tone far lighter than her thoughts. “He was awfully handsome. And quite a good kisser. I wouldn’t mind distracting him.”
    Violet smiled. “Then I shall write Lord Windbury this afternoon and tell him I will accept his offer, as long as you may accompany me. I’m certain he will say yes, since I will make it clear you won’t be any interference to our… connection .”
    “Excellent,” Olivia said, rising to her feet to clap her hands. “Then I will have my maid begin packing right away. And so it begins!”
    With a squeeze of her friend’s shoulder, Olivia scurried from the room and down the narrow hallway to her own. Once inside, she spun around the room, her arms around herself in a joyful hug.
    She should not want this connection so much with a man who was all but a stranger, and yet she did want him. Somehow, in a very short time, everything had changed.
    And she only hoped that her appearance at Windbury’s estate would be as pleasing for him as it was for her.
     
     
    Olivia had always steered clear of the highest bred of men. She had lived in fear that they would see through her façade the easiest and reveal her for what she truly was. So as the carriage stopped in the wide circular drive at Lord Windbury’s Bath estate and she stepped down to look up and up at the magnificent house, she let out her breath in a low whistle.
    “Lor’,” she murmured and immediately tensed. Her Cockney accent was something she’d fought for years to suppress and, here it was, coming to the surface when she needed to tamp it down most.
    “Yes,” Violet whispered with a laugh. Her friend had never fully understood how painful her accent and poor upbringing was to her. “And Liam behaves as if this is a snug little cottage.”
    Olivia regained some semblance of composure and rolled her eyes. “Men with money are so often utterly ridiculous.”
    Violet might have answered her, she might have sung “God Save the King”, for all Olivia knew. Her attention was suddenly dragged, almost physically, to the tall, broad-shouldered man who was coming around the house from the direction of the stables. Malcolm.
    But he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at Violet and his concern was something he couldn’t fully mask. Olivia hesitated. If he questioned Violet’s motives, he might doubt her own at some point.
    And then she would have to lie to him outright, rather than by simple omission. The first felt so much worse than the second.
    “Miss Milford,” he said as he reached them. “I apologize, I would have been here to greet you the moment you arrived, but I was called to deal with an estate issue.”
    Violet smiled, all enviable confidence as usual when she took his hand and