by Lisa Campell
Beauty and the Beastly Marquess
She dreamt of his touch, he feared for his lust...
Lisa Campell
Contents
Thank you
About the book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Extended Epilogue
Afterword
Do you want more Romance?
The Marchioness’ Buried Secret
Never miss a thing
Thank you
About the Author
Thank you
I want to personally thank you for purchasing my book. It really means a lot to me. It’s a blessing to have the opportunity to share with you, my passion for writing, through my stories.
About the book
Can you imagine getting married to your prince charming only to discover that he is a beastly lord?
At the age of twenty, Eliza Trent was ready to be introduced to the ton —it was high time for her to find a suitable suitor. When a scandalous encounter ruins her reputation, Eliza is condemned to spend the rest of her life in isolation.
Then, like in fairytales, the man of her dreams rescues her from shame. But Eliza’s hopes for a happy marriage will rise only to fall once again…
Sebastian Campden might have perfected his fame as a notorious rake, but that's not the most dangerous thing about him. In truth, no one knows the real reason why he must remain a bachelor and can never have a family.
When his childhood friend Eliza is threatened by disgrace, Sebastian is determined to save her. His offer? The protection of an unconsummated marriage. Despite his limitations, she will try her best to seduce her husband, only to discover the shocking truth about him...
For who could lay with a beast without getting wounded?
She dreamt of his touch, he feared for his lust...
Chapter One
Eliza stood in front of the full-length mirror in her mother’s old room, her heart aflutter. She gazed awestruck at her own reflection. Could this be the same rambunctious child who had once hiked up her skirts to climb to the top branches of a tree? Were it not for the same mischievous twinkle in her forest-green eyes, Eliza might not have believed it herself.
The dress was perfect, as Judith had promised it would be. The soft blue crepe with the modish bell-shaped sleeves and empire waist, set off the viridian speckles in her irises. Her long dark hair had been gathered up above the nape of her neck into a bun, with jet-black curls framing her cheeks.
“See, darling? How fair you look!” Judith’s merry gaze met Eliza’s in the glass. “A proper young lady all ready to step out into society. I only wish I’d had such fanfare.” She pinned a few tiny white blossoms along the crown of Eliza’s head. “Your brother will be pleased, I’m sure.”
Eliza smiled. “I hope so. You don’t think he’ll act beastly tonight, do you?” She had grown up stuck to Matthew’s side, and she was well aware of his taste for tricks. The young baron’s title had done nothing to diminish his capricious nature, only masked it.
Judith pursed her lips. “I shan’t allow it if he tries.” Matthew was her beloved husband, and she too, knew of his jesting ways. “But I believe he’s serious about this, you know. He understands what it means to you. And for you.”
Eliza bit her lip. “He’d better.” She had only been waiting for years for this day to come, for her chance to ascend out of what she had begun to see as the doldrums of ‘normal’ life. The world had grown dull and slow in her parents’ absence, colored only by the tales of balls and music and surreptitious romance overheard from Matthew’s friends. She imagined the ton as a jewel at the end of a long, dreadful tunnel.
At last, that jewel was within her reach!
“Well?” Judith’s voice drew Eliza out of her thoughts. “What do you think?” She tugged gently at the dark curls that framed her sister-in-law’s face, drawing them down along her cheeks. “I think you’re positively lovely.”
Eliza clasped her hands together. Her smile returned, brighter and more exuberant than ever. “Oh, Judith! I feel like a princess!” It all felt so wonderfully surreal, as if she was visiting someone else’s enchanted life. The hours of classes, the lessons in music and etiquette, seemed a lifetime away.
“Come on then, Your Royal Highness,” Judith teased. “The ball awaits!”
Less than an hour later, Eliza found herself standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the entrance of Colchester Manor. She was flanked on either side by her brother and his wife, and they watched with amusement as she took everything in. A stream of finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen—all of them members of the ton, moved around them. Everywhere she looked, Eliza saw silks, feathers, jewelry.
They had just finished greeting their guests. Eliza’s head spun with names and faces, to the point where she feared she might make a faux-pas.
“What are you waiting for?” Matthew nudged her gently. “Don’t tell me I’ve gone to all this trouble just for you to stand there like a hitching post.”
She glared at him. “Wouldn’t it kill you to see me happy for one moment, Matthew?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, I suppose it might. That’s why I’ve gone to such lengths to toss you to the ton. Perhaps they’ll clothe and feed and shelter you now.” But then he smiled. “Don’t dawdle, Eliza. The world is waiting.”
Indeed, she sensed the eyes upon her while she ascended the stairs and passed across the threshold of the ball room. The manor’s front hall was lively and hot, ablaze with chandeliers to chase away the shadows. Eliza could still hardly believe this grand to-do was all for her sake. She was, however, determined to make the best of it.
And there was certainly no shortage of young gentlemen in attendance, whom she knew would now be judging her as a potential bride. Eliza wound her way through the milling crowd, glancing here and there among the smiling, laughing faces and realizing how many she didn’t recognize. To the younger sister of a baron, whose fortune was comparatively small, the ton loomed higher and more glamorous than ever.
The weight of her future struck Eliza then, in that moment, with unexpected force. She turned around, her skirts swirling, looking for her brother. Much to her chagrin, she found that Matthew had disappeared! Not truly, of course; she had no doubts that he was simply lurking somewhere out of her sight. She sighed and began her search, craning her neck to try and get a better view through the crowd.
As it turned out, there were many young nobles who bore more than a passing resemblance to Matthew Trent, Baron of Colchester. Eliza skirted the perimeter of the ballroom. She did not want to be seen mingling without a chaperone, or speaking to a gentleman alone. Surely Matthew must have known that! Frowning, the debutante listened for her sibling’s voice, or his laughter.
Though she had made many acquaintances, she wasn’t yet prepared to speak to anyone without either Matthew or Judith present. Her heart knocked about in her chest.
Finally, she spotted him sitting at a table along the furthest wall. Strangely, there was no sign of Judith, but Eliza was sure that this time, she could not have mistaken her brother. She approached him in a huff. “You fiend, running off and leaving me! Do you have any idea how I must look fleein
g from guests at my own—”
That was the moment he turned to regard her and silenced her fountain of words in an instant, for he was not, in fact, Matthew. He raised his eyebrows. “I’d imagine you must look rather amusing.”
“Sebastian!” Despite her irritation, Eliza could not keep her face from lighting up. “He didn’t tell me you were going to be in attendance tonight.” Now she felt foolish for not knowing him, though it had been a while since she’d last laid eyes on Matthew’s best friend.
“You couldn’t possibly believe I’d miss it,” he answered. Sebastian stood up to his full, broad-shouldered height and surveyed the room above her head. “Ah, there he is, the devil. Cutting this way like a shark through open water.” He pointed casually, and Eliza looked up to see Matthew striding toward her, apparently out of nowhere. A look of mild but long-suffering annoyance colored his features.
Matthew gave his sister a look. “I am trying, dear sister, to give you your freedom—within reason. There is no possible way you’d prefer to have me breathing down your neck at every turn.”
With this, Eliza grudgingly agreed. “But people are watching, Matthew,” she argued, keeping her voice low.
“Then let this be a lesson to you in how to act under scrutiny,” he replied easily. “Provided your coming-out goes well, the ton will be watching for the rest of your life. Even when you think they aren’t.” He turned to Sebastian. “Should have known you were lurking in a corner.” The gentlemen shook hands. “I take it you haven’t spied anything that’s tickled your fancy?” If embarrassingly blunt, the question was honest. Sebastian’s proclivity for women, and his disdain for the institution of marriage, preceded him.
Sebastian chuckled. “At Eliza’s coming-out ball? Perish the thought.” He smiled at Eliza. “Were there ever a night for me to act a gentleman, it’s this one.”
Eliza grinned back. “A far cry from the future Marquess of Dain I knew as a child. Would that you had been such a gentleman then, when I was so admiring!’
“Would that you had been anything other than an intolerable little brat,” he teased. “Always meddling, always underfoot. Many times I thought Matthew really must have had a younger brother.”
The lady rolled her green eyes, but the smile hadn’t left her face for a moment in Sebastian’s presence. He had always been her unabashed favorite of Matthew’s friends, and now as she gazed at him, his tawny, lionlike hair and piercing blue eyes did not escape her. There was a sharp, cool undertone to those eyes, but from Eliza’s perspective, they were rather more like diamonds than blades.
Matthew cleared his throat. “If I may suggest,” he said to his friend, stepping somewhat in between the two. “I think it’s time for us to fade back into the scenery. My wife would be a much more suitable visible companion for my sister.” He called Judith over from where she had been waylaid by a group of gossiping ladies, and as the two ladies reconnected, he glanced into his sister’s face.
Eliza knew that expression of wordless warning all too well. Matthew was often accommodating of her whims; he was not a fool. He had told her before to be wary of Sebastian, regardless of whatever affection she might feel. The Marquess of Dain was a sworn bachelor, deeply opposed to the respectable life represented by such things as a wife, a well-kept house, a brood of children. He would, as Matthew was quick to remind, bring her nothing but trouble.
Judith caught that look also and shooed her husband away, shaking her head. “Pay no attention to him, dear Eliza,” she said, patting her sister-in-law’s hand. “He has only your best interests in mind.”
“I know.” Eliza peered over her shoulder as she let Judith lead her away, back toward the spot where Matthew and Sebastian stood together, talking and laughing. Every young lady who walked by Sebastian tried to pass him a demure glance, hoping to catch his interest. But he paid no mind to any.
The night swept by in a whirlwind dream of laughter and conversation, candlelight and dancing. Eliza accepted offers to dance from a score of hopeful suitors, each with a gracious smile. Some of them she found quite charming indeed, but her eyes and thoughts kept returning to Sebastian Campden. A secret desire—to dance with him at her debutante ball—formed in the back of her mind. Nonetheless, she knew it could not be. The ton had already marked him for what he professed himself to be: a rogue, a rake, a playboy. He could never be pinned down, and it would only sully her reputation to try.
Still, she kept her little fantasy close as others courted her. One gentleman in particular displayed a striking persistence in his pursuit of her, asking for her hand to dance. He was tall and lean, like a jackal or a racing dog, his head topped by a vain plume of wiry dark hair. The eyes, brooding and intense, bored into Eliza’s each time she happened to catch them, so that she quickly glanced away.
After the second dance, she returned to Judith’s side and whispered, “Who is that gentleman?” She could feel him still watching her at a distance.
Judith, so rarely haughty, turned up her nose. “The Earl of Wyhurst,” was all she said, her tone rife with disdain. And then, “We would both do well to stay far away from him. As would any other lady.”
The scathing judgement from gentle Judith took Eliza aback. Certainly she had heard murmurs of Lord Wyhurst, and not flattering ones. The gentleman was decently attractive, but rather too old for her liking. And his stony stare was that of a gentleman out for possession, not love. Which, as far as Eliza was concerned, simply would not do.
“I agree,” she said to Judith, nodding. The two ladies made a point to slip back away from the dance floor before the band began again, lest the ardent Earl try to seek out Eliza once more.
“What’s the matter?” Matthew asked, upon his sister’s return. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
Sebastian laughed. “Perhaps she has. I hear the manor is haunted.” He winked at Eliza.
Eliza’s heart fluttered in her chest. Oh, if only all dreams had potential to come true!
Chapter Two
Ordinarily, Sebastian had precious little use for balls, especially those of the debutante variety. As the Marquess of Dain, and a member of the ton himself, he was constantly invited to events full of useless finery, and it was his custom either to demur entirely, or to be present only just long enough to make it known that he was there. He knew, of course, what the ton thought of him, and he told himself he didn’t mind. They had never, ever done him any favors.
But for Lady Eliza Trent, he was willing to make a rare exception. Sebastian had known the feisty, emerald-eyed lady since she was no more than a babe in her mother’s arms, and he had watched her grow into a lovely young lady. Perhaps, he thought, lovelier than she ought to be. That was the only acceptable way to explain the magnetism he sensed about her, the force that attempted to pull him in whenever she was nearby.
Naturally, such attraction was nothing less than unacceptable. Underneath his at times, contentious relationship with his sister, Matthew was too devoted a sibling, too steadfast a guardian, to allow his sister to settle for anything other than total respectability. After all, she was the sole remaining vestige of his once-happy family, and Matthew had managed to eke out a life of comfort, stability, and happiness with Judith.
Why shouldn’t he want the same thing for Eliza?
Sebastian understood more than anyone that he was not a good match for Lady Eliza Trent. She deserved a husband able to give her the future she wanted. Not him. Yet, as he watched a series of gentlemen invite her onto the dance floor, he felt something very like a pang of regret. Had things been even a little different, perhaps he would have taken her into his own arms.
It was not to be. To spare himself the indignity of longing, Sebastian turned away and went to fetch a fresh drink. The single thing keeping him from making an early retreat was the knowledge that Eliza would be brokenhearted to find him gone without saying goodbye. And because he always found himself strangely beholden to her sparkling green eyes, Sebastian stayed. He sat at t
he table with Matthew and Judith and some of their other friends, and he drank wine. Tonight he’d make no trouble.
It was the least he could do for Eliza.
The night seemed to drag on for a small eternity. Remembering his vow to stay out of trouble for Eliza’s sake, Sebastian instead battled the heavy chains of boredom. The air in the ballroom had become hot and hazy with candle smoke, but he didn’t dare go outside, for fear he’d start walking and end up at his own home.
His struggles had not gone unnoticed by Matthew, who prodded him once and said, “Careful, Seb, or the ton might think you’re having too much fun.”