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There was nothing to stop hi hiolden whiskey they e of hisdown his cards and saying, "Enough is enough!" He was a duke, wasn’t he? He could do as he wished

Ien looked at him sharply and then pushed away from her chair She walked over to the sideboard while he watched hungrily

"How is baby Mary today?" she asked over her shoulder, giving Gabe another one of her delicious s, but Rafe was too busy watching to pay attention If In He’d been through enough agony He could drink a little, and then keep his drinking more controlled, so he didn’t have a headache every lected his estate… much Perhaps he would only allow hiood Or perhaps only when he had guests

He started to his feet "What the devil are you doing?"

Ien had pushed open one of the s that looked down over the courtyard before Holbrook Court "I’ out this liquor," she said silass

Rafe wasn’t even sure how he found hi her arm

"Ow!" she said

"That’s whiskey," he snapped "My God, you’ve tossed the Toberrabbed a crystal decanter "Why not?" she said tauntingly "You’re not going to drink it again"

"That’s no reason to destroy it!" He looked wildly back at the table His brother atching, eyebrows raised Griselda had looked up and was actually sht to pitch my best whiskey into the courtyard," he snarled at Griselda

"The only one ill care is you," Ih in her left hand "You can’t stop thinking about it, can you? I’ve watched you look over here all evening I wouldn’t put it past you to sneak down after we’ve all gone to bed and drink the place dry!"

Rafe just stared at her He had toyed with that idea… but--

Crash! The crystal decanter shattered against the dark cobblestones far below, and quick as the flash of an eye, Iasped, but this one didn’t ht on the fraent, deep smell of the best whiskeya fox

"You’re pathetic," I another decanter into the darkness outside the

By some miracle this one didn’t smash; he heard it fall on its side with a dull clunk He could just see jewel-colored port leaking onto the dusty cobblestones, far below

"Will you please sit down so that I don’t have to destroy any more of your crystal? Because I will," she added

Rafe just blinked at her, a hairbreadth fro her an injury Then Gabe took hien co out laundry, to empty all the decanters Rafe owned: whiskey fronus Gunson They weren’t labeled He knehich hich by the color and the weight of the liquor

"I expect you have more of the same stored around the castle," she said "Phehat a stench!" She reached out and pulled the bell

Brinkley appeared so promptly that heabout all the crashing glass "I’ve had to purge the duke’s whiskey collection," Ien said airily "Now, is whiskey kept in another location as well?"

Brinkley nodded, eyeing the cracked decanter on the floor