Her question surprised him. He'd thought everyone knew, both about his failed attempt at marriage and about how detached he'd been from the world in the aftermath of it. People didn't know the truth of that, of course, but they filled in the gaps with their own suppositions — that he'd spent nearly a year subsumed by drink, or depression, or was halfway to mad as his father was. Miss Broadmoor wasn't especially interested in society, though, he'd known that. It had been four years ago, too. Even people who were familiar with it all at the time might have pushed it to the back of their minds by now.

He flushed, but saw no way to avoid answering the question. "We were engaged," he explained. "She ended things."

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