章 430: Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty

“I—”

“Consider…The words of that gossiping pair distressed you and yet you know them to be false. Your father has no need to buy you either a husband or a lover.” He accentuated his words with a small squeeze of her shoulder. “You are lovely and gentle, a woman any man would be lucky to claim.”

Now she’d forced him to fabrication to get out of the sticky situation. She made herself smile. “Thank you.” she said.

The stunning angles of his face relaxed in relief and he returned the smile.

Good. If she could convince him she was fine, he would let her leave and she could find someplace to lick her wounds in private.

No one else would notice if she disappeared from the party. Well, perhaps Edward, her colleague from the women’s shelter would notice. Only she had left him thoroughly engrossed in a debate over archeological method with one of her father's colleagues and doubted he would surface before the party ended.