Chapter Twelve

The following evening, Portia was standing in the mansion's foyer and examining her image in the looking glass with the same frightened interest one might have for a particularly stunning garden spider.

To save his wife from having to see her little sister leave on such a risky trip, Adrian had grabbed Caroline and Eloisa and retired to Larkin and Vivienne's town mansion. She wasn't certain that she wanted any members of her family to see her dramatic makeover.

She had covered the naturally occurring roses in her cheeks with an ivory face powder. Her rouged scarlet lips and the dark, beautiful arch of her brows were only made more remarkable by the immaculate mask. She had told her maid to use a pair of mother-of-pearl combs to smooth her hair up and away from her face before letting the shiny ringlets fall freely down her back. She seemed both older and more worldly because of the novel hairstyle, which showed chiselled cheekbones and a hint of a widow's peak that were typically cove