A Little Mischief by Amelia Grey

cousin’s dark brown eyes. He was well-dressed but looked much too thin for his tall frame. It was clear he’d already had too much to drink.
    “No doubt.” Bradford bowed to Miss Winslowe. “How are you this evening, Miss Winslowe?”
    “Well, Mr. Turnbury, and you?”
    “Couldn’t be better. You are looking beautiful tonight.”
    She smiled graciously. “Thank you, kind sir.”
    Daniel didn’t like the expression on Bradford’s face when he looked at Miss Winslowe. It reminded Daniel of a man who wanted to ravish a woman.
    Bradford faced Daniel. “And might I add that my son is in excellent health, too.”
    “Good,” Daniel said, knowing he was going to see that this man did not inherit the title Earl of Colebrooke. By the looks of him, he was drinking himself into an early grave.
    “I had heard you were returning to London—and to claim a bride.”
    “I’m sure the thought chills you, Bradford, but it is time for me to marry.”
    “Couldn’t agree more,” his cousin said. “The sooner the better as they say. We never know what the future will bring, do we?”
    It didn’t surprise Daniel that Bradford referenced his brother’s death. That was just another of his bad habits.
    “I believe you two gentlemen have a lot of catching up to do,” Isabella said. “Would you excuse me?”
    “Don’t go,” Bradford said.
    “I was…” Isabella said.
    “She was…” Daniel said.
    “Just leaving,” they said in unison.
    “What a coincidence,” Bradford said. “So was I, but before I do—Miss Winslowe, I hear a dance about to start. Would you do me the honor of joining me, if you haven’t already committed this dance to another?”
    “I haven’t promised, but I”—she hesitated a moment before smiling and saying—“I’d be delighted to be your partner. Thank you for asking.”
    “Wonderful. See you later, old chap,” Bradford said to Daniel as he and Isabella walked away.
    Daniel felt an unusual tightness in his chest as they disappeared into the crowd. He didn’t want his cousin dancing with Miss Winslowe. He didn’t want him touching her, smiling at her. And he didn’t even want his cousin looking at her and wanting her in the way Daniel wanted her.
    It was crazy what he was feeling for her. It was clear she didn’t like him. Nor he her. Yet he wanted her. What kind of madness was this? Had she bewitched him in some way?
    Daniel shook off those feelings. Enough of Miss Winslowe. He had to go find Throckmorten. Daniel wanted to make sure the scoundrel never approached Gretchen again.

Six
    “He was so charming when I was presented to him,” Joanne Langley told the gathering of young ladies who stood around her in the retiring room. “Lord Colebrooke looked into my eyes and smiled at me with such delight in his face. I thought I was going to melt into the floor like spring snow.”
    “I was the first lady he asked to dance,” Alice Eldridge said with a satisfied smile spreading her generous lips wide. “And I simply felt faint with heat when he looked at me.”
    “I felt the same way when he danced with me,” Lady Katherine Spearmont announced as she fluttered her fan under her pointy chin. “He indicated he is going to ask to call on me later in the week.”
    “How did he indicate that?” Lady Lynette Knightington asked with more than a little interest in the earl.
    “Yes, I want to hear this, too,” Alice said. “Maybe he indicated he was going to call on me.”
    Isabella turned away from the young ladies’ discussion. They were chatting and laughing about events of the evening as well as the dashing Earl of Colebrooke. From the sighs and mewling it appeared he’d stolen all their hearts with a few smiles and three or four dances.
    What rubbish, she thought. It was clear to her that none of the ladies had seen the side of Lord Colebrooke that Isabella had seen. She was tempted to tell them he was the most arrogant man she’d ever had the misfortune to meet but decided