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high. “You will have to, Miss Ahearn.”
    â€œBut I cannot! I’ve my personal expenses—”
    â€œYou will be provided with a home, and I shall, of course, do my best to see to your needs.”
    â€œI don’t want your charity!” she exclaimed. “Oh, dear God!” she murmured suddenly, and sank back to the settee. That she had even tried to be decent to this man when everything was a disaster! She looked up at him sharply. “We must break the will!”
    â€œThere is no way to break the will, I assure you,” he said calmly. “The squire was entirely of his right mind throughout his entire life.”
    â€œHow could he have done such a thing!” Marissa whispered.
    Ian Tremayne sighed, and she thought that he was very carefully swallowing his impatience and irritation. He came to the settee and sat beside her. He took her hands in his and for one wild moment she wanted desperately to snatch her fingers free. There was so much power in his touch, so much heat. And he was close beside her, his knees touching hers, his breath once again fanning her face with warmth, his eyes seeming to blaze through her and read her heart. Could he see the deception there?
    Did it matter anymore?
    â€œI believe, Katherine, that your father thought you were involved with a rather inappropriate young man. He was worried about you. He felt that your health was weak, that you might destroy your own life.”
    â€œHe knew!” she gasped, and then she colored, because he was staring at her again, and she realized that he thought she had been involved in an affair with an inappropriate man.
    Well, it wasn’t her, and Jimmy was far from inappropriate! Fury filled her because she was quite certain that he was condemning her with his dark blue gaze.
    He dropped her hands and stood. “Yes,” he said wryly, “I believe he knew something. Is your affair over?”
    Her cheeks flamed once again. It was none of this man’s business.
    Well, at least she could tell the truth.
    â€œThat is none of your business whatsoever, Mr. Tremayne.”
    â€œIf not now, Miss Ahearn, it will certainly be so once we travel to the States.”
    She didn’t respond, but sat stiffly. “I don’t believe that we shall be doing so now,” she said at last.
    â€œI beg your pardon, Katherine?”
    â€œMarissa,” she said. She smiled tightly. “It is Katherine, initial M, Mr. Tremayne, and I am known as Marissa.”
    â€œMarissa,” he murmured. She was surprised at the soft way her name whirled upon his tongue.
    â€œThere is no reason for me to come with you,” she said wearily.
    â€œThere is every reason for you to do so. I am your guardian. And I command it.”
    She looked at him with a certain amusement. “And do you intend to shackle me to your side, Mr. Tremayne? To pull me across the ocean in chains?”
    â€œTrust me,” he said pleasantly. “I shall see to it that you come, one way or another. It seems ever more important that I attend to your father’s trust in me.”
    â€œI cannot go!” she whispered almost desperately.
    Once again, he spoke gently. “It will not be so bad. As I have told you, I am scarcely about. I’ve my own past to live with, and I am not a man anxious for company. I will see to your needs—”
    She was on her feet once again. “How could you ever agree to such a setup!” she demanded furiously.
    She heard the sharp intake of his breath and saw the angry narrowing of his eyes. “I agreed to take on a guardianship. I knew nothing of the stipulations of the will. Yet I have told you—”
    â€œYou agreed to a betrothal.”
    â€œYes, I did, for your father seemed desperate. But he knew that I had no intent of marrying again, that I wanted nothing to do with a new wife. Perhaps that was why the stipulation. He assumed you would be quite safe in my care