69 Chapter 69

"Beautiful, bewitching, beguiling, bewildering ... " Kendall Winterborne, the third Earl of Stillmore, muttered another word that began with B under his breath and flung the entire contents of the brandy snifter down his throat in one gulp. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and glanced at Chasens in the tarnished, fly-specked mirror.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, sah, there's a lady to see you."

Babs. Barbara Langley, Lady Barbara Langley. Well, well, well. He had to hand it to the conniving jade. She had chosen her moment earlier with the skill of a conquering field-marshal.

Then again, it was the reason she'd made such an impact on his heart. It was what gave her the right to laugh in his face as she returned the box containing that bracelet he'd paid a king's ransom for at Ringsell's earlier.

It was what had driven him to give her the blasted, damned trinket in the first place.