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well, at some stage she had been un tied and laid upon a bed. Her
cheeks warmed at the idea of being manhandled by a stranger
although she comforted herself with the knowledge that at least she
was still fully clothed. Uncomfortable, thanks to the lacing on her
under dress, but clothed.
    Pushing aside the covers, Isabella rose to
her feet. She felt… untidy. The carefully arranged curls that she
had left the house with the previous night had tumbled down and now
her heavy hair was loose, hanging around her shoulders in a tangle.
Her dress was rumpled and, somewhere along the way, she had lost
one of her slippers.
    The conversation continued from the other
room, a deep rumble of male voices. Isabella’s soft mouth
tightened.
    ‘ - does not alter the fact
that I need an heiress. And I like Alora Piedmont. I do believe we would rub along
together very well. She’s awfully sweet.’
    She walked towards the
door, spine stiffening with righteous indignation. He liked Alora
Piedmont did he? She could only think that the poor girl had had a
very fortunate escape to have avoided the clutches of this madman.
Miss Piedmont was
not the one who was ruined!
    ‘It does not matter what she is as she is
not the girl who is currently asleep in the next room. Truth is,
you’ve ruined the creature by acting like a jackass. And you can’t
go about ruining innocent girls. It just isn’t done.’
    Well at least his friend understood the
consequences, even if the Earl of Stornley did not. A pity he had
not been there last night.
    ‘But I know nothing about her!’
    ‘Well I wouldn’t panic just yet. For all you
know she may be an heiress as well.’
    An heiress? Was that was this was about?
Well she would take great pleasure in disillusioning them on that
score. Miss Isabella Hathaway was as poor as a church mouse.
    ‘Oh really? Two heiresses who look like
Botticelli angels? I hardly think so.’
    ‘It does not matter. You must marry
her.’
    ‘I don’t want to!’
    ‘You have no choice!’
    Isabella opened the door
and glared at the two men who were sitting eating breakfast –
breakfast! – as if they did not have a care in the world. ‘No.
But I do. And if
you think I’m going to marry some… some peep-o-day boy then you
have both got another think coming! The only thing I intend to do
is to go home. ’
    Both men turned as one to stare at her,
dismay write large on each of their faces. As well it may be.
    She was tired, she was disheveled and she
was, to all intents and purposes, ruined.
    Under the circumstances, Stornley and his
wretched friend were in for a very uncomfortable time.
     

Chapter Three
     
     
     
     
    ‘Miss Hathaway!’ Stornley rose so quickly
that his chair shot backwards, tipping over and falling to the
floor with a clatter.
    ‘Good morning, my lord,’ she replied coldly.
‘Naturally you have discovered a way out of this predicament while
I have been… resting?’
    Stornley grimaced. ‘We were just discussing
the situation -’
    ‘So I heard.’
    ‘ – and we have yet to find
a solution but I can assure you, I will do my utmost to make things
right.’
    ‘There is only one way to make it right,’
Stornley’s companion repeated quietly.
    Isabella shifted her eyes to the tall,
dark-haired gentleman that had also risen to his feet when she had
entered the room. She was almost sure he had been the earl’s
companion at the ball the night before for she could remember two
men, one fair, the other dark. He was, she supposed, good-looking.
Certainly, both men could be considered such; tall, young and
strong of body. She had always preferred brunettes, it was true,
but that was not to say she found this man appealing, despite the
fact that he had a pair of striking green eyes, black-fringed and
startling against the overall darkness of his coloring. He looked a
little like Willett and an unlooked for pang of pain echoed through
her.
    Presumably, this was ‘Harry’. The one who
had decided that she