Finn St Just cleared his throat impatiently.

“Did you read it then?’ he said in a cold voice, and it took me a minute to figure out that he was asking me about the contract that I was holding in my hands.

I quickly began to read in earnest.

The entire document was couched in legal language and fleetingly, I wondered how many such women had read the deeds I held in my damp, sweaty hands.

For surely, I was not the first!

I had no illusions about myself. Or the brothers lounging splendidly before me.

*

In return for my'services,’ as it stated, I was to be given a...