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eyes as he watched her squirm beneath his gaze? The chill that had run down her spine when she first caught his eyes on her?
    He was in his early thirties, she would guess, with coal-black hair and the patrician features common to many lords. He wasn’t ugly. Far from it. But the cruelty in his looks detracted from the handsomeness that might have been found there. And Kelsey was hoping that the old man who had started the bidding, even with his disgusting leers, would continue to outbid that one.

    And Heaven help her, it had come down to just the two of them. The few others who had offered a bid or two at the beginning had dropped out when they’d noticed the frigid looks coming their way from that other lord, looks ominous enough to chill the most hardy soul. The old man was still bidding because he simply hadn’t noticed, possibly due to poor eyesight or because he was barely cognizant; he appeared foxed.
    And then she heard a new voice upping the bid to twenty-five thousand, followed by a yelled-out question from another man nearby, “What do you need with a mistress, Malory? I hear you’ve got the ladies standing in a line waiting to get into your bed.”
    That remark produced a lot of laughter, and even more when the new bidder replied, “Ah, but those are ladies , m’lord. Perhaps I’m in the mood for something—different.”
    Which was an insult to Kelsey, but perhaps wasn’t meant to be. He didn’t know, after all, that she’d been every bit the lady until she walked into this house. In fact, there was nothing about her at the moment to indicate that she was other than what they all thought her to be, which was no lady at all.
    She had been unable to see who the new bid had come from. The voice had sounded from the general direction of the doorway, but the exact position of the speaker was hard to distinguish with so much noise going on in the room. And there were more than a dozen men in that area, sitting as well as standing. It wasimpossible to tell. Yet the man she didn’t want to buy her apparently knew who the new offer had come from, because he was now glaring in that general direction. But again, Kelsey couldn’t tell exactly who had drawn his murderous look.
    She held her breath, waiting to see what he would do. A glance at the old man showed that he likely wouldn’t be bidding anymore. He’d actually nodded off, and no one seemed inclined to wake him. Well, he’d sounded pretty foxed when he had been bidding. Apparently the drink had done him in. But her savior, whoever he was, would he continue to bid against that other lord? Or would he be intimidated like those others?
    “Do I hear twenty-five five?” Lonny called out.
    Silence. And Kelsey suddenly realized that all of the other bids had jumped by five-hundred-pound increments—except the last one. The man called Malory was the first to raise the amount by two thousand. An indication that he was very serious? Or too rich to care? Or perhaps he was too deep in his cups to have been paying much attention.
    “Do I hear twenty-five five?” Lonny repeated, a bit louder so as to reach the back of the room.
    She kept her gaze on that blue-eyed lord, waiting, praying he’d sit down and bid no more. Veins were standing out on his neck, he was so furious. And then, amazingly, he stalked out of the room, knocking one emptychair over in the process, shoving men aside if they didn’t step out of his way in time.
    Kelsey looked to the owner of the house, to see his reaction, and Lonny’s disappointment confirmed it. The departed lord was bidding no more.
    “Twenty-five thousand then, going once…” There was only a brief pause before Lonny added, “Going twice…” Another pause, just a tad longer. “Very well, sold to Lord Malory. And if you will step into my office just down the hall, m’lord, we can conclude this business.”
    Again, Kelsey tried to see who Lonny was talking to. But he was lifting her down from the table, and short