Yet if she was honest, it was something else.
Something that had happened when he had held out his hand to her and she had felt his fingers clasp hers.
“I was frightened, Papa, very very frightened!” Bettine was saying. “First they said they would kill me and then if Grandpapa did not pay the ransom, they would cut off my fingers!”
“You might have known I would rescue you, long before they could do that,” the Marquis said.
“Miss Walford thought that you would hear our prayers winging towards you like white doves,” Bettine answered him. “She was very brave, much braver than me!”
“That is not true,” Nolita said. “Bettine was extremely brave, my Lord. You would have been very proud of her.”
“I am proud of you both,” the Marquis said. “At the same time this sort of outrage must never hap
