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“I am on the no-travel list.”
“You won’t be anymore, after you become my wife,” the marquess says.
I plonk down on the bed, which is the only other seat available. “But I don’t want to be your wife.”
“I don’t want you to be my wife, either, in the traditional sense of the word.”
“You mean we’ll be pretending to be married?”
“Not exactly.” He shifts in his chair, the gap clearly beginning to bother him.
“Could you elaborate, please?”
“You see, my grandfather, the Duke of Arrago expects us to sign a real marriage contract and stay formally married for a year, sharing accommodations. We will divorce after that, and you will walk away with three hundred thousand euros.”
“That’s a fortune!”
“For you, yes.”
What a snob!“I’m happy living in this trailer and doing what I do.”
“Ah, the statue gig.”
“Busting is fun and it pays the bills.”
“Busting? Don’t you mean bumming? Or is it begging?” He shifts again, crossing his legs.
How’s the ass? I hope it hurts!“I’m a licensed performer. I don’t beg for money; I earn it.”
“What instrument do you play? Do you sing? Dance? Draw portraits?”
I mime, you jerk!“My art form is called pantomime.”
“Art form!” He sneers. “We both know that your statue number is just glorified bumming.”
It’s decided, I hate you.
I cross my arms. “Says the man born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and with titles and positions dropping into his lap! The man who hasn’t done anything to deserve the bounty he enjoys.”
“All true,” he concurs, surprising me again.
I glower at him.
He recrosses his legs, wincing. “I’m sorry I ended up antagonizing you again, Mademoiselle Mussey. It wasn’t my intention.”
Aww, poor thing!After the duke’s guards warned me to expect such a high-level visit, I should’ve done something about my only chair. I should’ve gotten some tools from the community shed and removed another slat near the front edge. That way, the seat would’ve pinched his lordship’s balls, too.
I glower at him harder.
He flashes me a canned smile. “What I was going to tell you is that you’ll have your own bedroom in my Parisian residence and several rooms in the château. And we’ll never have to touch each other.”
I cock my head. “What’s in it for you?”
“The dukedom, the estate, the assets. Everything. Those are my grandfather’s terms.”
“But why?”
“He says it’s breaking his heart that you were stigmatized despite there being zero evidence of your involvement in the palace fire or Prince Benjamin’s mysterious illness and death a year earlier.”
