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up to.
    “No Greg tonight?”
    Mary shook her head as she waved her cousin over. “Pressing business. Or was it university? My mind’s a bit foggy…” She rubbed her eyes. “Either way he’ll be gone for a little while.”
    Mary was holding something in her hand but it was dark in the corner and so it wasn’t until Angela was standing right next to her that she realized what it was.
    It was a flask.
    “Mary Elizabeth Marie Cartwright! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
    “What does it look like?” Mary opened the flask and poured a generous amount of the amber colored liquid into her punch.
    “Of course I know what you are doing! What I want to know is why! Lady Sutherland does have wine you known.”
    The brazen woman seemed undisturbed. “Piss is what it is. I wouldn’t drink that cheap bat’s wine if I was dying of thirst.” She took another large gulp. “This stuff is better.”
    “Can you even imagine what will happen if you get caught?” Angela gulped for a much needed breath. “And where did you get that bloody thing from anyway?”
    “The gardener,” Mary answered matter-of-factly.
    She threw her hands up in the air. “The gardener. Oh but of course! I should have known that the gardener was giving alcohol to my cousin!” Angela was becoming slightly frantic and her attitude, bitingly sarcastic.
    “Well he didn’t just give me the alcohol for the hell of it...
    “Oh really? I would have never guessed!”
    Mary took a large gulp of her punch before continuing. “I caught him with it in the garden behind your mother’s rose bushes and told him that if he didn’t give it to me right away I was going to tell my uncle and have him dismissed. He has nine children did you know? Can’t very well lose his job... And then once I had it, I figured it would be a shame to let it go to waste.” Mary held out the devilish item and smiled. “Besides, it does make these events much more bearable.”
    Mary took another large drink, almost finishing the punch, before she poured another generous amount into her cup. “Just to be sure,” she said with a smile. “Go ahead and take some. It will calm your nerves and from the looks of you, you need that.”
    Angela hesitated knowing what would happen if she were found out. Actually she couldn’t even imagine. What she could imagine were the horrible things that would happen if she was forced to spend any longer in the company of the Duke.
    She took the flask from Mary and poured a large amount into her own punch. Then she looked back at Mary and shrugged her shoulders in defeat… or was it acceptance? Angela lifted the flask again but instead of pouring more into her cup, she pressed the opening to her lips and took three large swallows. She had never drunk this kind of alcohol before and it burned as it flowed over her tongue and went down her throat into her stomach. She instantly felt warmer as a pocket of heat formed deep in her belly, and before she could even lower the flask, that feeling had spread to her entire body.
    Mary was staring at her in shock.
    Angela wiped her mouth. “Just in case.”
    Mary threw her head back and laughed. Then she looped her arm through her cousin’s and they walked together, slightly wobbly, back into the ballroom.

Chapter Four
     
    The first encounter with Mary had been the last lucid memory Angela had of that night. A large portion of the evening had simply faded into darkness. And then in an instant, she was gliding gracefully across the dance floor on the arm of the most admired man in the room. The man flashed her smile and it sent a thrill through her body. Angela blushed and looked down shyly, too embarrassed to get a good look at her dance partner’s face. The man slowly moved his hand lower down her back until he was cupping the elegant curves of her bottom. He squeezed its suppleness, his large, firm hand covering her completely. The entire room was staring at then, and for once, Angela was