The Breach of Promise Affair - Ch. 9

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Miss Pemberley struggled vainly beneath him. So nonsense and wine and bottled wiles were no match for a bound, half-drugged assailant. Contempt exhilarated him. His fingers tightened. The sputtering croaks that escaped his grasp were the most honest sounds to yet pass her lips. Her smile was extinguished, as was the beguiling sparkle in her eyes. She would know the inexorable retreat of consciousness under the triumphant gaze of an adversary. She would know what he had known one time too many.

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