Forty Four

When he had set out at the beginning, Lady Sarah, anyone as the bride really, had been a footnote, a codicil. The least important piece of the document. She was wellborn, pliable, quiet, could run a household. Nothing outstanding about her, but she would make a fine, respectable wife who would be forgotten as soon as the documents were signed and a few legitimate children produced. His lip curled. The games one had to play.

He still wouldn‟t care even now if he thought for a moment that he could carry on his affair with Caroline and keep the status quo once he won. Though relying on the status quo was a rocky proposition. Rarely did it stay as it was supposed to.

What if she got with child? Doomed to repeat his father‟s mistakes and inflict them on a woman for whom he actually cared? No.

And even so, if there was one woman in England who would not have an affair with a man married to her beloved cousin…well, he‟d gone and started an affair with that woman.