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stopped him. “Damnation.”
    “What is it?” Prudence whispered. “What’s wrong?”
    “Someone’s coming down the hall. We can’t go out there now.”
    “What if he comes in here?”
    “Then there will be hell to pay. And it will be all your fault, Prue. A fact which I will not soon forget.”
    Sebastian tugged her across the room toward the massive mahogany wardrobe.
    “Where are we going?”
    “We’re going to get you out of sight.” He opened one of the ward-robe doors. “Get inside. Hurry.”
    “Angelstone, wait. I don’t think this is such a good idea. There are so many clothes in here. Women’s
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    clothes. Good lord, this must be Lady Thornbridge’s bedchamber.”
    “Get in there. Now, for God’s sake.” He seized her around the waist as if she were a sack of potatoes
    and tossed her into the ward-robe.
    “Good heavens.” Prudence nearly suffocated amid a pile of expen-sive silks, satins, and muslins. She
    flailed about wildly, trying to regain her balance.
    “Move over,” Sebastian muttered. His hands cupped her derriere as he attempted to shove her farther
    into the depths of the wardrobe.
    “There’s no room.” Intensely aware of his hands on her bottom, Prudence pushed frantically at the
    clothing in an effort to shift some of it aside. But the wardrobe was stuffed with expensive garments.
    “Why don’t you hide under the bed?”
    “Hell. Maybe you’re right.” Sebastian released her and backed out of the wardrobe.
    He closed the mahogany door, leaving Prudence in tomblike dark-ness. At that instant the bedchamber
    door was flung open with a resounding crash.
    Prudence did not need Lord Thornbridge’s outraged roar to know that Sebastian had not had a chance
    to get beneath the big bed.
    “Angelstone. You? Why, you blackhearted son of a bitch, I never thought to find you here, man. I was
    certain’t‘was someone else she would be meeting tonight. Devil take it, I thought… I believed… that is
    to say, I was told… How dare you, sir?”
    “Good evening, Thornbridge.” Sebastian’s voice was amazingly cool. Incredibly, it was even laced with
    his customary cynical amuse-ment. He sounded as if he had just encountered Thornbridge in his club
    rather than in Lady Thornbridge’s bedchamber.
    “I’ll see you dead and in hell for this, Angelstone. Don’t think I won’t.”
    “Calm yourself, Thornbridge. I am not here for an assignation with your lady.”
    “What other reason could you possibly have for being here in her bedchamber? Don’t you think I know
    she’s disappeared from the ball-room? She’s on her way up here to meet you, isn’t she?”
    “No.”
    “Don’t try to deny it, you bastard,” Thornbridge raged. “You’re here to seduce my wife. Right here in
    my own house, by God. Have you no shame at all, man? No sense of decency or honor?”
    “I have no notion of the whereabouts of Lady Thornbridge, sir. But I can assure you, I have no intention
    of meeting up with her here. See for yourself, she’s nowhere in the vicinity.”
    “I suppose you’ve got a reasonable explanation for being in her bedchamber?” Thornbridge asked in
    disbelief.
    “I was looking for the new water closet I’d heard you’d had in-stalled.”
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    “Do not think to fob me off with that banbury tale.” Thornbridge was clearly infuriated. “The water
    closet is under the back staircase, exactly where it is in most respectable houses.”
    “My mistake, sir,” Sebastian said politely. “I evidently got some-what disoriented when I left the
    ballroom. I could have sworn one of the servants said it was on this floor. I believe I may have had a bit
    too much of your excellent champagne tonight, Thornbridge.”
    “You’re not going to get away with this, Angelstone.” Thorn-bridge’s voice shook with the intensity of
    his