“I wouldn’t expect love from you. I can’t love you back.” Beth plied her fan to her hot face, her heart stumbling. “Hardly flattering, my lord, for a woman to hear a man won’t fall in love with her. She likes to believe she will be the center of his abject devotion.” Mather had said he’d be devoted. The crumpled letter burned her again. “Not won’t. I can’t love you.” “I beg your pardon?” She’d been using the phrase so often tonight. “I am incapable of love. I will not offer it to you.”
