Once Ruined, Twice Shy
Page 11
“If you’re afraid Mr Andrew Calshott is going to appear like Banquo’s ghost and ruin the evening, let me assure you that transportation to the colonies is generally a permanent situation. If he sets foot on these shores again, he’ll be shot, as he would have been had his judges not chosen to be lenient. So, there is nothing at all to fear.”
As the orchestra struck up the first chords of the opening waltz, Conall took a step forwards and swept her into his arms. She basked in the heat of his love, oblivious to the other couples who followed them onto the floor.
She would never want for anything, or know fear again, while this man remained at her side. For Fate had cast them together.
And Fate was never wrong.
Acknowledgments
I’m eternally grateful to my long-suffering partner, Tim Robey, and the two very special author friends I met early on in my writing journey, Anna Albo and Shelley Iñón. Thank you so much for having faith in me! Thanks are due also to fellow author Eve Pendle for giving me nudges when I need them, and loads of practical help, and to Barbara Monajem for her unstinting encouragement. I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for your support, ladies!
If you have enjoyed this book, the author would be delighted to receive a review, either via Amazon or Goodreads. Thank you so much!
About the Author
I am an international bestselling author of heart-pounding Regency romances, set mostly in the West of England. I’m working on a fresh series for Dragonblade Publishing called Trysts and Treachery, which is set in the Tudor era. Though primarily a writer of romance, I love to put a bit of mystery, adventure, and suspense into my stories, and refuse to let my characters take themselves too seriously.
I like to write from experience, not easy when my works range from the medieval to the Victorian eras. However, my passion for re-enactment has helped, as have the many years I spent working in museums and British archaeology. If you find some detail in my work you’ve never come across before, you can bet I either dug it up, quite literally, or found it on a museum shelf.
Social media/web links
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Seduction, Scandal & Spies- heart-pounding, captivating historical romances from Elizabeth Keysian- there are plenty more on the way!
If you have enjoyed this book, or any other Elizabeth Keysian stories, she would be delighted to receive a review, either via Amazon or Goodreads. Thank you so much!
Also by Elizabeth Keysian
Book #1 in the Marry in Haste series
I Love to Hate You
Never get caught in a trap of your own making.
Miss Athene Hartville must marry quickly, before her inheritance runs out. When her flirtatious chaperone secures an invitation to spend the week with an eccentric duke and his guests, Athene’s hopes of finding a rich husband soar. Until, that is, her childhood nemesis Viscount Rushbourne, arrives. He threatens to trample her ambitions into the dust.
Struggling to manage his ailing father, a maverick younger brother, and an unwieldy earldom, Rushbourne’s reunion with the fiery Athene is a welcome distraction. Then he uncovers a conspiracy against him that could lead to his total ruin.
His only hope is to win Athene’s heart…but can he pay the price and accept her bitter revenge?
FREE on Kindle Unlimited
Book #2 in the Marry in Haste Collection
A Treacherous Engagement
In a grotto surrounded by rhododendrons, Miss Phoebe Duvall discovers a VERY eccentric gentleman.
With England at war with France and his earldom at stake, the last thing disgraced Robert Goodrich needs in his life is a woman bent on marriage. Especially when that woman is the enticing but desperate daughter of a spy trading secrets with the enemy.
Miss Phoebe Duvall must marry immediately or lose a vital inheritance. But her interest in the secretive Charles Addyman proves a costly mistake, entangling her in a web of prisoners and French spies.
When the devastatingly attractive Goodrich offers a marriage of convenience, she’s sorely tempted. But he hasn’t told her the truth about himself, and she’s tricked into an engagement with Addyman, who claims to have her father captive.
Goodrich must destroy his enemy without harming Phoebe, who has won his heart. But with her father’s life at stake, she’s going to take a bit of convincing that marriage to Goodrich would be the right decision.
If you like complex, swash-buckling heroes and stubborn damsels who try get themselves out of their own distress, grab your copy from Amazon NOW.
Beguiling the Baron
Beware reclusive barons. They are more hot-blooded than you’d expect . . .
A man who lurks day and night in an eerie tower must have something to hide. So thinks Galatea Wyndham, governess to Lord Ansford’s love-starved young daughter. Galatea’s new employer is objectionable, stubborn, great-hearted, handsome and, curse it, well worth saving from himself.
He proves her right with some shocking physical encounters, adding tinder to the blaze of her growing love for him. But just as the barriers between them are crumbling away, the tower crashes down.
With Lord Ansford inside it.
Available from Amazon
FREE on Kindle Unlimited
The Wayward in Wessex Series
Distracting the Duke
Devonshire, England, 1820
Determined to avoid the strife-filled marriage of his parents, Marcus, the Duke of Ulvercombe, wants an amenable, biddable wife, and has set his cap for a certain pretty miss. Unfortunately, her vastly opinionated, frustrating, and lamentably beautiful guardian, Lady Clara Tinniswood, keeps distracting him, tempting him to consider a far more tempestuous—and passionate—union.
Recently widowed Lady Clara Tinniswood wants only to organize a quiet new life for herself, beyond the control of any man. But one shockingly unguarded moment while confronted by Marcus’s gloriously naked body catapults her headlong into a forbidden passion and threatens to undermine all her well-laid plans.
Even if Marcus abandons his sweet ideal and surrenders to his growing desire for Clara, there's still one thing that could destroy their hopes forever...
Available from Amazon & other retailers
Unmasking the Earl
Devastated by the disappearance of his sister, the Earl of Stranraer has gone to extraordinary lengths to find the notorious rake responsible, and enters his household incognito to wreak his vengeance. But his enemy has an unexpected protector—the innocent but headstrong Miss Cassandra Blythe.
Cassie is determined to learn the art of seduction. But she is blindsided by her body's thrilling response to the wrong man—a mysterious servant who shows up at the most inauspicious moments to spoil her lessons in love with warnings of her imminent ruin. When she learns the handsome servant's identity and the reason for his deception, she resolves to help Stranraer, but only if he abandons his vow to destroy his enemy.
The earl is sorely tempted give the meddlesome beauty a lesson in seduction she’ll never forget. But she turns the tables, and he gets his own lesson in forgiveness…and love.
Available from Amazon & other retailers
Vanquishing the Viscount
Emma Hibbert will never again trust a good-looking man. They offer nothing but heartbreak and humiliation. But her conscience won't let her abandon a sinfully handsome stranger needing help—even if he ignites an unwelcome passion in her. She soon realizes she should have left him in the mud where she found him, for he has the power to ruin everything...
Viscount Tidworth is anything but grateful for being rescued after a tumble from his horse. His pretty savior may be well-meaning, but forcing him to delay his journey completely wrecks his engagement plans. And Tidworth cannot let that stand. But when he discovers Emma's true identity, he must choose between his desire for revenge...and his baffling attraction to her.
Available from Amazon & other retailers
The Wanton in Wessex Series
A Perilous Passion
Miss Charlotte Allston's curious nature has always led her to trouble. This time, she's tangled in a web of traitors and spies and quite literally swept off her feet by a handsome stranger. But all is not what it seems with the Earl of Beckport.
The earl is living incognito, hunting a band of smugglers at the center of a plot for the French to invade England. The enigmatic Miss Allston becomes a person of interest...and not just in the smuggling case. Passion flares swift and hot between the two. But when her attempts to help with his secret mission only endanger it, he must question where her loyalty truly lies.
When Charlotte is captured by the very traitor he's after, the earl must decide between redemption...and love.
Available from Amazon & other retailers
A Potion for Passion
When Miss Flora Hartington bumps into a handsome traveling apothecary, she sees her chance at adventure, a brief escape from the shackles of propriety, and she jumps at the opportunity. It doesn’t hurt that he’s incredibly attractive, and kind in his own way. But it’s a temporary solution to her very big problem––namely her family trying to control her entire future.
Kidnapped by traveling folk as a child, Lawrence Campion yearns to be a real doctor, which means earning passage to America. The last thing he needs is to be saddled with the beautiful and feisty Flora. However, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, and then be off to fulfill his dreams. But Lawrence has a past that is quickly catching up with him. And he carries a secret that could destroy both their plans.
Available from Amazon & other retailers
Timeless Christmas Romance: novella collection
Seven heart-warming stories by award-winning and bestselling historical romance authors. Featuring Catherine Kean, Elizabeth Rose, Elizabeth Keysian, Laurel O’Donnell, Barbara Monajem, Amanda McCabe, and Lana Williams.
Available for a limited time only
Preview of Never Trust a Widow
The Next Instalment of the MARRY IN HASTE COLLECTION
Prologue
Gloucestershire, England, 1786
Deceiving her family cut Fina Hamilton, youngest daughter of the Duke of Wolfingham, in two. But Dundas Reedman, the handsomest rogue in all of Gloucestershire, assured her reconciliation would be possible, after they were married and the baby was born.
Dundas cut a fine figure on his bay stallion, his long dark hair blowing in the May breeze, breaking free from its queue as it so often did. His tricorn hat was of the best quality, his deeply-skirted riding coat fitted perfectly, emphasising the slenderness of his waist.
Fina smiled. How she longed to get her fingers on the multitudinous horn buttons, gradually removing his coat down to the embroidered waistcoat and billowing white shirt. But it was what lay beneath that fascinated her most—the virile male body that had given her such illicit pleasure in the pergola at Wolfingham, by the banks of the River Severn last summer, and before the roaring fire in Dundas’s house in the autumn.
All pleasures had to be paid for, mind, and this was a massive sacrifice, to elope with a man her parents would never let her marry. But she had to. She now carried his child.
He turned and grinned at her. “How do you fare, my lovely?”
“No nausea. Saxon makes an easy ride.” She patted the mottled neck of her grey stallion, gifted to her by Papa on her eighteenth birthday, and her best friend—aside from Dundas of course—ever since.
“Good. We’ve a long, difficult road ahead, as you know. But you’ll adore London, Fina. For dances, dinners, entertainments, gambling and whoring, it knocks Gloucester into a cocked hat.”
“I shan’t care for any of those.” She lifted her chin. “I shall be at home with our child at my breast, ready to rock him to sleep with lullabies and kisses. I trust you’re not thinking of gambling or whoring for yourself.”
He was just trying to tease her, as was his wont. Ever since their secret affair had blossomed into passionate, bodily desire, she’d heard not a whisper of Dundas going with any other women, or betting dangerously at the card tables. He hadn’t even flirted with her two older sisters when he’d danced with them at the last assembly.
She was so fortunate to have won this amusing, dashing buck for her very own, when he could have had any woman he wanted. He’d but to crook his little finger and they’d come. It might have been any one of Gloucester society’s diamonds now following the bay stallion and its rider to a wedding in the Fleet prison, but he’d chosen her. She’d been promised a life of mingled love and excitement, rubbing shoulders with the diarists, artists and politicians of London.
“Is your jewel box firmly attached?” He slowed his mount so he was walking beside her, despite the narrowness of the bridleway they were following. Deep below, the young River Severn flashed in the sunlight as it rushed its way towards Bristol and the sea.
She patted the small wooden box strapped to Saxon’s saddle. “Secure enough. But if you crowd me, it could get knocked off by a tree branch. So, for that matter, could I.”
He gave her a feral grin. “You may go ahead of me then. Just follow the road. But have a care. There’s a steep drop to the river—I’d hate you to miss your footing.”
She trotted past him, ducking beneath a low bough of ash.
“Oh no, Saxon’s very sure— my heaven! Whoa. Whoa boy!”
“Fina, hold on!”
Her stallion was tearing along the track as if it had a pack of hounds at its heels. She could hear the drumming hooves of Dundas’s horse is it thundered behind her, but he wasn’t shouting any more. Instead, she heard the thrash of a whip is it sliced through the air and cut into Saxon’s flesh.
What in the Lord’s name?
Saxon reared, screaming his fury, tipping her straight from his back.
A cascade of pain, tumbled light and shadow, and an unstoppable descent through gravel-spiked mud followed. She was thrashing about in water, not knowing which way was up and which was down.
Weighted with water, her skirts tangled about her legs, dragging her away from the light, but as the pressure threatened to burst her lungs, she clawed for the surface, instinct coming to the fore.
The river couldn’t be that deep, the current not that powerful—there must be something to cling to, and Dundas would have seen her fall.
Sodden and gasping, stabbed with a thousand points of pain, she clung to a root or branch, rough on her hands, but strong. Greedily wheezing in air and coughing out water, she shook the hair from her face and gazed up the bank to the tall trees that fringed it. “Dundas! I’m here. Help me!”
A host of pigeons clattered out of the woods in alarm.
“Dundas!” Her voice was a scream now. Her grip was slipping. “I can’t get out on my own. Help me!”
Her only answer was the rush of water and blood in her ears.
And the sounds of a horse’s hooves galloping off into the distance.
Due out February 2021