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"Likely she does want hi a duchess, and stay safe here in England, and I would send my mother to London as well"

"Why--" But there was really no point in asking Sébastien He was prancing down the stairs in front of Piers, looking like a cockerel at dawn Clearly he understood women better than Piers did He was practically a woiven the embroidery on his waistcoat

"She won’t take your father back unless you h," Sébastien tossed over his shoulder "At the ry for you as well as for herself"

"Bollocks," Piers said again

Sébastien reached the botto roo "Ah, hteen"

"Bollocks!" Piers told Prufrock, as standing about looking as if he was enjoying hiown that had to have beenand then kissing her fingertips But when he looked about, the target of all this feance was nowhere to be seen "Where’s the duke?"

"Who?" his mother said disdainfully

"You knok nose, cheekbones, sober look? We used to live in his vicinity"

She took a sip of wine "I suppose he doesn’t care for a preprandial drink And I hear that he’s leaving at dawn toaily enough, but Piers could see the shadow in her eyes Daht Sébastien too, probably "Where’saround The doctors were clustered around the sherry Sébastien was kicking the fire, endangering the high polish he maintained on his boots

"I don’t know," hisher ," he said, accepting a glass of brandy fro to drivewith the idea of accepting my hand Not that I ever really offered it"

His mother looked at hi Linnet will cause an uproar in Napoleon’s court, just by walking in the door All this fuss about her reputationno one will care about that"

"You’re saying she’s too good forher fan "But too beautiful: of a certainty You should have ot here, before she had a chance to get to know you"

Prufrock actually broke into a trot crossing the roo exactly as about to enter

Linnet’s evening dress was cut in a vaguely classical style Piers had heard the ruarments beneath their tunics, and apparently Linnet took that historical aspect of her costuoas so sheer that he could see the bu for Prufrock to announce her And as for the muslin around her bosom--well, there wasn’tof pearls that did a subtle job of calling attention to the swell of her breasts

He could feel an unfa; that dress was intended for hi across the roo directly before him with a muttered "Excuse me, I’m in a hurry"

So Piers slowed down There was no use co with Sébastien’s Continental flune froive it to Linnet Watching hih to make him a bit nauseated, so he turned around and stulass of brandy

She would come to hi with each other It wasn’t the flirtation, but the similarity to himself that intoxicated him