She Lost Her Name, She Took Back Her Place novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Terms

The Visconti country house at Chantilly had a library with a fire in it, and Adrien had shut the door.

"Sit," he said. "I have three conditions. I'll say them once."

I sat in the leather chair by the fire, still wearing his jacket over my dress because I had forgotten to take it off in the hall.

He stood with his back to the mantel.

"My grandfather has called the board for dinner tonight. Eight men, two of them my uncles. He plans to announce that the pact will be honored, with you." His mouth was grim. "If I refuse him in front of them, he will make himself ill. If I accept, I have to look like a man who wants to."

"And do you want to?"

"I want to see if you can do it."

"Do what?"

"Be my fiancée for ten weeks." He held up a finger. "First. In public, I touch you. On the arm, on the back, at the table. If we are not convincing, the board will not believe it."

"And in private?"

"In private I do not touch you at all."

I looked at him.

"Why not?" I said.

He did not answer at once.

"Because I don't know you," he said. "And because alone with you, I would not stop at the arm."

The fire cracked.

I held very still and did not look away.

His jaw was tight and the pulse in his throat was visible.

He said it plainly, I thought. It means nothing.

I did not believe myself.

"Second," he said. "You do not lie to me about Bianca."

My hands tightened in my lap.

"I have watched her for a week," he said. "In the hospital, on the stairs, at the dining table."

"I know she is lying. I do not know what about."

"I am not going to ask you to tell me everything. I am asking you not to tell me anything false."

"That is a hard rule."

"It's the only one that matters."

"And if I stay silent?"

"Then I'll draw my own conclusions." His eyes held mine. "Silence is allowed. Lies aren't."

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