“You did what?” “I am not a brute,” he said mildly. “You are free to decline.” “You were not free to ask,” she sputtered. Could he be serious? It mattered not what she thought of his family—they thought themselves one of the finest in all of the colonies and would certainly never permit their son to settle for less than the wealthiest of patricians. She opened her mouth only to close it again when she realized her argument had nothing to do with her own desires, but of the impracticality of such an arrangement. Had his attention dizzied her to the point that she had forgotten what his family had done to hers…to the whole of Salem? Even if she looked past that, there could never be anything between them. His disdain for her beloved home had seen to that. If she succumbed to him, she would be left with nothing but the mark of a sinner while he moved on from town to town, building his coffers and bedding every willing woman along the path.
