The logic of appearances was something she understood.
The maintaining of them wasn’t magic.
It was, in fact, the furthest thing from it.
“Appearances,” she repeated. “It’s simply the same stuff and nonsense that has dictated my life from birth.”
With that, she pushed open the carriage door and hopped down to the cobblestones before Deverill could get it into his male brain that she was in need of assistance. Before she shut the door, she had one last thing to say. “I can live with that.”
The parting image she held of him was of his eyebrows gathered into an expression of utter and complete confoundment.
Good.
That man who had it all needed to be confounded every so often.
When this pretend engagement ended, so would themagic.
And she understood that was all right.
Better than all right.
For when this pretend engagement ended, her real life would, finally, begin.
The good, solid life she’d been denied for so long would be hers to pursue.
At last.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HAMPSTEAD, TWO DAYS LATER
Dev hadn’t planned on spending his afternoon at the horse races.
It was the middle of the week, and a man had work.
But a man also had a pretend fiancée to keep track of.
So, on his way up to Camden this morning, he’d directed his coachman to Little Stanhope Street to see how the new servants were faring and, most importantly, if he still even had a pretend fiancée after…
The kiss.
That kiss had kept him awake these last two nights.
For a very simple reason.
The kiss between him and Lady Beatrix…
It had been her first.
And the part contributing to his restless nights was clear.
The kiss had its origin in pretense.
Which didn’t sit easily inside him.
No one’s first kiss should be for others.
It should be real.
