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Thinking of that, he began to look for her with more purpose They’d been here at least two and a half hours, and he and Theo had negotiated a three-hour li more than ten persons (The duchess may have abandoned her Rules in the bedchaiven to the to stop dropping the newspapers on the breakfast roo roon of his wife He looked in the card rooms, and the ballroo for it but to extend his search to the floor above

He was dawdling in the long gallery, looking at the portraits of po voice around the corner For all Ja with him now and then James was of the considered opinion that she did it because she knew that it drove him mad

Just as he turned on his spurred heel to head in the other direction--he took the avoidance of Sir Geoffrey to the level of art--he antthe Eer "All the fine clothing in the world can’t give her the figure of a woht be a man You know the reputation that pirates--"

At that precise hast, snapped his mouth shut

Just because a man has learned to control his te it when circumstances demand James twisted his former schoolmate’s cravat around his hand, hoisted hi at the top of his lungs "How dare you say such a thing about e You cur, unfit to be in her presence"

Trevelyan’s face was turning an interesting color of plum, and he seemed disinclined to answer, possibly because the cravat was cutting off his air supply That was all right: Jaainst the wall again "She is the most beautiful"--slam!--"exquisite"--slam!--"woman in all of London"

By now Ja up the stairs, but he didn’t care "I never saoman more beautiful, not in China,"--slam!--"not in the Indies,"--slam!--"and certainly not in the British Isles Even more important, she is incredibly kind Witness the ti to you, you spiteful, shriveled worm" Slam, slam, slam!

A hand touched his sleeve, and he turned, teeth bared It was Theo

"Dear heart," she said, and with just those tords, the rage drained from him and he dropped Trevelyan like a piece of discarded laundry

The spiteful woran to craay "You!" James said, in precisely the same voice hich he used to roar some version of "Time to die!" as he leapt over a ship’s rail

Trevelyan heard and understood; he froze

"If you ever utter a word about my wife that is less than coain I will instead send you through aAnd not on the ground floor, either"

Jae to answer back? Instead, he held out his arallery was now crammed with people

"My duchess," Ja the croith the air of a man who has ruled the waves "She is not a swan, because that would ilanced down at Theo Her eyes were painted with an exotic tilt at the corners Her cheekbones were regal and her bottom lip was colored a perfect red that made it more kissable than it already was Sht, rose above a waist the size of a man’s hand

But none of that mattered compared to the innate kindness in her eyes, the joyful turn of her lip, the wild intelligence hich she greeted every day

That was beautiful