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England, Warwickshire
Lakeside Manor
Monday, March 16, 2015
8:45 p.m.
This is going to be a hell of a week, Giulianna thought, as she stopped her black Land Rover Defender in front of the impressive black and gold iron gates of Lakeside Manor and buzzed the intercom.
She should have arrived here hours ago, but an unending traffic jam had made her ridiculously late—not that she really wanted to be there early, on time, or at any time at all. If she had her way, she’d never set foot on Lakeside Manor again.
She used to love coming here with her ex-fiancé, Lord Richard Smith, one of the owners of the place, along with his older brother, Lord Hugh Smith, the 15th Earl of Lakeside, and their widowed mother.
Today, she wasn’t there because of Richard, but because duty called.
She was
