She lifted her face to his and there was no mistaking the expression in her eyes or the invitation on her lips.
The Duke however made no response except to stare at her in a way that she found bewildering.
She did not know that at this moment he was suddenly finding, incredible though it seemed, that Aline Langstone no longer appealed to him either as a beautiful woman or as one he desired.
The Duke was used to his love affairs, and there had been a great many of them, coming to an end slowly but inevitably.
But he had never known such an absolute finish to an affaire de coeur, what might almost be called a ‘fall of the curtain’ as he felt at this moment.
He had been so easily aroused by the Countess in the past and had thought that her beauty drew him not merely as a man but as a con
