She was far too taken by the adorable girl to pay much attention to her parent – instead leaning down a little towards her, watching patiently to see whether the girl would be satisfied by the replacement; whether she would be bright and loud or tentative and shy – that she hadn’t noticed him turn around, not until Montgomery.

“Arthur,” she said sweetly, smiling at him even as her eyebrows quirked up in surprise. It was difficult to reconcile Arthur as – well, this apparent man, strolling about the park with his daughter, when to her mind, he would eternally be the kind of man who was high on her couch, or else seduced into the likes of Emrys Selwyn’s parties.

Though she was surprised by his appearance, she didn’t falter as he did. Her smile merely broadened as her gaze drifted leisurely between him and his daughter. “And who is this little sugarplum?”

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