Droll, sneaky laughter, punctuated with vole-like squeaks, while sparks danced in her blue eyes like shy emerging stars. She struggled to hold back her amusement, but it slipped out nonetheless. 'Well,' she muttered, 'it seems you succeeded.'Д«efore Gabriel even realized what he was doing, he reached out to lift her chin with his fingers. But then he heard a delicate snorting, snickering sound, and he realized she was. He saw her shoulders tremble, and for an alarming moment, he thought she had begun to cry. 'I'm no more interested in marrying than you are.'ДЄfter a brief, electric silence, Pandora dropped her head swiftly. 'I'm so sorry for intruding on your happy hunting grounds.' 'Is that how men think of it? No wonder I hate balls.' Pandora looked scornful. 'If it's grouse season,' Gabriel pointed out acidly, 'and you're keeping company with a flock of grouse on a grouse-moor, it's a bit disingenuous to ask a sportsman to pretend you're not a grouse.' 'Not every girl who attends a ball wants to be Cinderella.' 'Anyone as opposed to marriage as you claim to be has no business taking part in the Season.' 'Because I thought it would be only slightly less boring than staying at home.' 'There's just one thing I'd like to ask: What the bloody hell were you doing at the ball in the first place, if you don't want to marry?' 'That's none of your business,' she told him smartly. How could a girl of her position, with her looks, make plans that didn't include the possibility of marriage?

I've made plans for my life that don't involve becoming anyone's wife.'

I never wished on falling stars, or pulled the petals off daisies while reciting 'he loves me, he loves me not.' At my brother's wedding, they handed out slivers of wedding cake to all the unmarried girls and said if we put it under our pillows, we would dream of our future husbands. When I was little, I never liked the stories about princesses waiting to be rescued. 'I've never wanted to marry,' Pandora continued. Was she really speaking to him as if he were an errand boy? Look you? Look you? Gabriel was simultaneously amused and outraged. вЂњLook you,' Pandora told him in a businesslike tone, 'marriage is not on the table.'

A real wild child