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“But he isn’t ours,” she said.

Alistair shook his head. “I know I said that Badger was my dog, but I really got him for you.”

She gazed at him with the same damned determined eyes that her mother had used on him the night before. “No. He isn’t ours.”

She gave a little push to Jamie, who was looking quite miserable. The boy came forward with the puppy and held him out to Alistair. “Here. He’s yours. Abby says you need Badger more than us.”

Alistair took the squirming, warm little body, completely nonplussed. “But—”

Abigail marched right up to him and yanked on his arm until he bent. Then she wrapped her skinny little arms around his neck and half strangled him. “Thank you, Sir Alistair. Thank you.”

She whirled and caught her startled brother’s hand and dragged him from the room before Alistair could think of a reply.

“Dammit.” He stared down at the puppy, and Badger licked his thumb. “What am I to do with you now?”

He strode to the window and looked down in time to see Helen help the children into the dogcart. Abigail glanced up once, he thought in his direction, but she hastily looked away again, so perhaps he was wrong. Then Helen climbed in, and the footman driving the cart gave the reins a shake. They all rolled away, out of the stable yard, out of his life, and Helen never once looked back.

His body urged him to run after her, but his mind chained him where he was. Keeping her would just delay the inevitable.

Now or tomorrow, he’d always known that Helen would leave him.

Chapter Twenty

The sorcerer opened his doors to Princess Sympathy readily enough, but when she told him what she’d come for, he laughed. He led her to the yew knot garden and pointed to where Truth Teller stood, immobile and cold.

“There is your knight,” the sorcerer said. “You may work what little magic you know to save him, but be forewarned: I give you only this day. If he is still a man of stone when the sun sets, I will make you his stone bride and together you both shall stand in my garden for all eternity.”

The princess consented to this poor bargain, for she had no other choice if she were to make Truth Teller a man of flesh and blood again. All the hours of that day she performed the spells and incantations that she had brought with her, but when the sun’s rays began to fade, Truth Teller was still stone. . . .

—from TRUTH TELLER

Three days later, Alistair was woken by a commotion downstairs. Someone was shouting and carrying on. He groaned and shoved his head beneath his pillow. Rising early was no longer a priority in his life. In fact, he had no priorities at all. Might as well stay abed.

But the commotion grew louder and closer, like an advancing midsummer’s storm until—ominously—it was right outside his bedroom door. He’d just flung the covers from his head when his sister crashed into his room.

“Alistair Michael Munroe, have you lost your mind?” Sophia blasted at him.

He clutched the bedsheets to his bare chest like a startled maiden and scowled at his sister. “To what do I owe the honor of this visit, dear sister?”

“To your own stupidity,” Sophia said promptly. “Do you know I met Mrs. Halifax on Castlehill in Edinburgh just yesterday morn, and she said that you and she had parted company?”

“No,” Alistair sighed. Badger had woken with the commotion of course, and the puppy came bumbling over the bed to lick his fingers. “Did she tell you that her name isn’t really Halifax?”

Sophia, who’d been pacing the room, stopped, her expression alarmed. “She’s not a widow?”

“No. She’s the former mistress of the Duke of Lister.”

Sophia blinked, and then scowled. “I thought she might still be married. If she’s left Lister, who she was before hardly matters.” She dismissed Helen’s scandalous past with an impatient wave of the hand. “What matters is that you dress at once and go to Edinburgh and apologize to that woman for whatever boneheaded thing you’ve said or done.”

Alistair eyed his sister, now vigorously drawing the curtains. “I’m appreciative of the fact that you assume the rift is my fault.”

She only snorted at that.

“But what,” he continued, “do you think I should do once I apologize? The woman won’t live here.”

She turned to face him and pursed her lips. “You asked her to marry you?”

Alistair looked away. “No.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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