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Page 375

| there all along, why didn't you take them earlier? Wouldn't things have been easier for you?" |

| She did not want to seem selfish by saying that having the coins would have made things easier for her as well! It had been gratifying to know that she had worked for what she had gotten. Things were appreciated more if earned, not taken! |

| "To be truthful, Sasha," Ashton told her, kicking up ash as he trudged onward. "I never wanted to see those coins again. I had never planned to. They had caused enough grief and trouble. As I saw it, they were best forgotten by everyone. They were accumulated by greedy people. But now that I have decided to dig up the damnable chest, I may as well get full worth out of it. I shall clear my name once and for alland we shall take what we need to get a fresh start in life." |

| Sasha looked over her shoulder at Crispin, and then around her at the men who were busy going through the ruins to rescue anything they could that had not been completely incinerated by the fire. |

| Then she looked into the distance, all hazy with smoke. "But, Ashton, if you are going to dig up that chest, don't you think you should go by horseback?" she questioned softly. "And are you actually letting me accompany you without my having to ask? I usually have to almost get on my hands and knees and beg to be a part of each of your new adventures." |

| Ashton's eyes glistened, so beautifully violet through the ash smudges on his face. "Darling, no horses are needed," he said, smiling down at her. "We don't have that far to go to get to the digging spot. I purposely chose the land on which we |

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