by Lauren Smith
“Are you ready to come see Sean? He needs another reprimand for trying to leave his bed,” Anne said.
“Of course. I’m half-tempted to tie the man down to keep him there. Bloody fool.”
Ashton and the others had thought Sean Hartley to be dead when they’d left Rushton Steading. Yet as Emily and Horatia had tended to what they thought were his final moments, the man had stubbornly clung to life. Stanching his wounds and making him comfortable, they had fetched the village doctor, who had once again worked a miracle.
Following Anne up the stairs, Cedric entered a guest bedroom. Sean was pale, but his eyes were clear and alert. One of the downstairs maids was spooning hot broth into his mouth. The maid jumped to her feet and curtsied as Cedric entered, her eyes downcast, cheeks flushed.
Cedric held up a hand. “Please, don’t let me disturb you. Stay.”
The maid sat down in the chair by the bed and resumed her task. Cedric leaned against one of the bedposts at the foot of the bed and scowled down at the willful young man.
“Now, listen here, Hartley. My wife says you’re doing your damndest to get out of bed before you should.”
Sean began to protest.
“Don’t argue with me, lad. You won’t win. I never officially terminated your employ here before, and I’ll be damned if you make me do so now. It is my order as master of this house that you stay right there and let lovely ladies tend to your every need for as long as the doctor believes you need to stay in bed. Understood?” The maid blushed at that.
With a nod, Sean eased back onto the pillows of his bed. Cedric glanced at the women.
“I’d like a few minutes alone with him.”
Anne and the maid quietly exited the bedchamber. Cedric took the empty chair by the bed.
“I owe you a debt, Hartley. You defended us more bravely and truer than any soldier. And you saved both our lives by telling Ashton what had happened. Those are debts I can never repay.”
Cedric stood and made sure Sean was listening. “There are dark times ahead for me, for Anne and the League. We’ll need a good man like you on our side. I’m depending on you to get better.”
Sean swallowed and nodded. “Of course.”
“Good. Now, if I were you, I’d let that pretty little maid serve you as long as you can manage it. She has an eye for you, I think.” He winked at Sean and then left the room, chuckling at Sean’s flustered expression. Anne and the maid were outside.
“Go on and tend to him,” he said. The maid ducked back inside. Once he and Anne were alone, he pulled his wife into his arms, dipping her down low, as if in a dance, and kissed her senseless.
She touched her kiss-swollen lips, her dark lashes fluttering. “What was that for?”
He lifted her chin so she could see his expression.
“It took me far too long to realize what joy I had within reach.” His mother’s favorite hymn came to mind, and he knew she would approve. “I was blind, but now I see.”
Anne’s eyes shimmered. “And what do you see?” she asked.
“A long and wonderful life with you, my heart.”
He bent his head down and kissed her, letting go of every dark memory tainted by pain. All that remained was an all-consuming feeling of love for Anne and the possibility of having everything he’d ever wanted in life.
And it all started with one passionate kiss to build their lives upon.
Epilogue
Daniel Sheffield rapped his knuckles on the door to Hugo Waverly’s study.
“Enter.”
Daniel nudged the door open and sauntered in. This was not going to be good news he delivered, and he hoped playing calm would help to lessen his master’s rage.
They’d had a perfect plan. It shouldn’t have gone awry. Once their man in Brighton had sent word Al Zahrani’s ship had docked and he was making his move, Waverly had informed the Royal Navy and dispatched the HMS Ranger with orders to sink the ship to send a message to slave traders operating in English waters. No prisoners were to be taken under any circumstances.
What Daniel hadn’t expected, and neither had Waverly, was Lord Lennox’s timely interference.
“Well? Is it done?” Waverly looked up from his desk covered in papers, most of them bearing royal seals.
“No. The HMS Ranger was intercepted by Lord Lennox’s ship, which informed them of British subjects being held captive on the ship.”
“Lennox?” Hugo crumpled the sheet of paper under his hand.
“Yes, sir. A fire was set by someone on board Al Zahrani’s ship and it sank. Now it’s at the bottom of the sea, as you’d hoped, but Sheridan and his wife survived.” Daniel kept one hand still resting on the latch of the door in case he needed to make a hasty exit.
Waverly sat back in his chair and frowned.
“That man is like a bloody cat with nine lives.”
Daniel waited for the fury to spark in Waverly’s eyes, or for the man to shout or throw something. Such displays of temper had happened in the past.
“The Ranger did recover this floating among the wreckage, however.” He revealed the item he’d been hiding behind his back. A cane with a silver lion’s head.
When he held it out to Waverly, the man’s grim expression turned to a hard smile.
“Well now,” he chuckled. “My property has finally been returned to me.”
Daniel retreated back to the door of Waverly’s study.
“I’ve been to the White House in Soho and handled the matter regarding the individuals that Al Zahrani sold.”
Waverly steepled his fingers together. “And you made it clear that we don’t hold for that manner of trade here?”
“Yes. They tried to claim the women were simply employed by the house. I made sure they understood how mistaken they were. They won’t be purchasing anything of that sort anytime soon. But I learned one female was auctioned off before I arrived.”
“Just one? I commend you on your speed.”
“I believe you will be even more interested to learn who purchased her.” This was the one bit of good news Daniel had. “Lawrence Russell.”
For the first time in a long while Waverly smiled. “Well, that’s certainly interesting. A Russell buying a slave? Look into it, but do not act. I do believe that’s a card we shall hold until it’s time to play it.”
Waverly gazed out the window to the back of the garden of his townhouse. Lady Waverly was sitting in the garden with another woman, chatting idly while a nurse held a tiny boy’s hand. The lad walked on chubby legs, clutching his nurse’s fingers as they navigated the garden’s gravel path. Waverly’s son, Heath, barely a year old.
He had his father’s dark hair, but his mother’s delicate features, which would likely make him grow into a handsome buck someday. Daniel flinched when he realized Waverly was now watching Daniel rather than the boy.
“Forget Sheridan for now. Lennox’s shipping affairs have become increasingly inconvenient. What is he currently up to? What does our man inside have to report?”
Daniel stood to attention and focused back on Waverly.
“He says Lennox is quarreling with a Lady Melbourne. It seems she is intruding upon his business in the shipping lines. She’s buying contracts out from under him and generally running amok over Lennox’s carefully structured empire.”
Waverly smiled again. “Excellent. Lady Melbourne? I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her. I want you to find out everything you can about this woman. If she can be manipulated into crippling Lennox, I want to know how. Enemies of the League are my welcomed allies.”
“Yes, sir.” Daniel paused just outside the door when Waverly spoke again.
“Bring me the chess pieces, Sheffield, and I’ll put Lennox in a checkmate he cannot escape.”
About the Author
Lauren Smith is an attorney by day
, traveling the country roads to small-town courthouses, and has participated in hearings in sixty-six of the seventy-seven counties of her native Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. She’s an author by night, who pens adventurous and edgy romance stories by the light of her smartphone flashlight app. She writes historical, contemporary, paranormal and gothic love stories.
She’s won multiple awards, including: Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Quarter-Finalist, winner of New England’s Reader’s Choice Award, finalist in Greater Detroit Bookseller’s Best Award, winner of the Carolyn Reader’s Choice Award, and a semifinalist for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award.
Laruen lives in Tulsa with her three pets: a feisty chinchilla, a sophisticated cat and a dapper little schnauzer. Fans are encouraged to contact her through her website at www.laurensmithbooks.com where they can sign up for her newsletter on the home screen and can email her through the Contact tab. She’s also on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/LaurenDianaSmith/ and @LSmithAuthor.
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Can the League’s most wicked rakehell be tamed? Or has this Rogue fallen too far?
The League of Rogues, Book 2
Horatia Sheridan has been hopelessly in love with Lucien, her brother’s best friend, ever since he rescued her from the broken remains of her parents’ wrecked carriage. His reputation as London’s most notorious rakehell doesn’t frighten her, for under his veneer of cool authority she has glimpsed a man whose wicked desires inspire her own.
Lucien, Marquess of Rochester, has deliberately nurtured a reputation for debauchery that makes every matchmaking mother of the ton quake with fear. His one secret: he is torn between soul-ripping lust for Horatia, and the loyalty he owes her brother.
That loyalty is put to the test when an old enemy of the League threatens Horatia’s life. With Christmas drawing near, he sweeps her away to his country estate, where he can’t resist granting her one wish—to share his bed and his heart.
But sinister forces are lurking, awaiting the perfect moment to exact their revenge by destroying not only whatever happiness Lucien might find in Horatia’s arms, but the lives of those they love.
Warning: This book contains an intelligent lady who is determined to seduce her brother’s friend, a brooding rake whose toy of choice in bed is a little bit of bondage with a piece of red silk, a loyal band of merry rogues and a Christmas love so scorching you’ll need fresh snow to extinguish it.
The League of Rogues takes what they want—but have they taken on too much?
The League of Rogues, Book 1
For too long Miss Emily Parr has been subject to the whims of her indebted uncle and the lecherous advances of his repulsive business partner. Her plan to be done with dominating men forever is simple—find herself a kind husband who will leave her to her books.
It seems an easy enough plan, until she is unexpectedly abducted by an incorrigible duke who hides a wounded spirit behind flashing green eyes.
Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex, spends countless nights at the club with his four best friends, and relishes his rakish reputation society has branded him with. He has no plans to marry anytime soon—if ever. But when he kidnaps an embezzler’s niece, the difficult debutante’s blend of sweetness and a sharp tongue makes him desperate for the one thing he swears he never wanted: love.
Yet as they surrender to passion, danger lurks in Godric’s shadowed past, waiting for him to drop his guard—and rob him of the woman he can’t live without.
Warning: This novel includes a lady who refuses to stay kidnapped, a devilish duke with a dark past, and an assortment of charming rogues who have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Her Wicked Proposal
Copyright © 2016 by Lauren Smith
ISBN: 978-1-61923-168-9
Edited by Noah Chinn
Cover by Kim Killion
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2016
www.samhainpublishing.com