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see if you’re even capable of that kind of pretense.” It took her several moments to grasp what he was implying, and then she blushed vividly. “There will be no practicing or pretending of that sort! Really, Sebastian, you know very well that even mild displays of affection between married couples are kept behind closed doors. I’d always thought that was rather silly, but now I’m bloody well thankful it is so. As for pretending to be in love with you, I’ll manage somehow, if it becomes necessary.”

Chapter 9
    T HEY COULD HAVE REACHED PORT LAST NIGHT, but their captain was new to the task and too timid to continue on after the rain started, obscuring all view. Although the channel was heavily trafficked, a veteran captain would have had no trouble avoiding a collision with sister ships. But it didn’t really matter what time of day they docked at Dover, because their destination was only a little farther down the coast.
    Margaret was grateful for the extra time, since she wanted to carefully broach to Edna the subject of the possible marriage, so she and Oliver would know to corroborate the wedding story if it became necessary. She hadn’t counted on her maid being so scandalized by the very idea.
    “You can’t do that,” Edna had said bluntly.
    “Course I can,” Margaret told her. “Keep in mind he is Sebastian Townshend.”
    “Exactly, the disowned son of the Townshends, a family you’re quite close to. You would have given him the cold shoulder if you had met him again under normal circumstances. It makes no sense that you’d marry him.”
    Margaret hadn’t thought she’d have to convince Edna of the reasons she might have married Sebastian but trotted out a few. “I never mentioned this to anyone before, not even to Florence who I confided everything to when we were children, but you know I used to be quite fascinated by him—
    before the duel, of course. But it isn’t unreasonable that I might have held a tendre for him all these years and been delighted to meet up with him again. It’s also not unreasonable that I thought I could reconcile him and his family. And you mentioned it yourself, how handsome he is, certainly handsome enough to turn any girl’s head.”
    “Not yours,” Edna said with a huff.
    “No, not mine, but you get the point. I could have fallen in love with him and married him, despite all the reasons I shouldn’t. Besides, we haven’t yet determined whether we will need to pretend we’re married, but if we do, it’s for a good cause, Edna. Let’s not forget why I went in search of him in the first place.”
    Edna had agreed in the end, though grudgingly, and went off to let Oliver know what to expect.
    Margaret had a few doubts of her own that night, though, especially after recalling Sebastian’s warning about his touching and kissing her. She’d let him know she wouldn’t tolerate anything of the sort, but—he was a different man these days from the one she’d admired in her youth. He was a mercenary, a man willing to do whatever was necessary to get the job done, so would he abide by any restrictions she set?
    She went to sleep with her doubts but woke up with a new resolve, that she, too, could do whatever was necessary to remove Douglas from danger. And if that meant pretending to be Sebastian Townshend’s wife, so be it.
    She found him on the deck that morning, staring pensively at the English coastline, which was now in view. She’d been gone only four months but had missed her home terribly. How much worse it must have been for him, being away for so many years. Or maybe, as he’d claimed, he just didn’t care anymore. Not bloody likely.
    The tiers of his greatcoat were flapping in the wind. On any other man the coat might look dashing.
    On Sebastian it somehow added to his menace. And yet the man was so damned handsome he took her breath away. This attraction that seemed to be growing stronger each time she saw him was going to be a problem. She