Lilly understood what had happened in a flash of insight. Jasper had no title, only he had money, now. He was not upper class, yet his children and heirs would be. His lack of rank may have barred him from society, but his money would open those doors. Matrons would compromise on rank in order to secure the family income via their daughters’ marriage to such a man.
Raymond crossed the floor, his hand out. He took Jasper’s.
A flutter and sigh sounded from the observers. Raymond’s reputation was impeccable. If the Viscount Marblethorpe saw fit to welcome the commoner, Thomsett’s entry into society was guaranteed.
Quickly, Vaughn and Rhys joined the group just inside the door, all of them talking and laughing. Then they turned and crossed the floor, still talking. They were heading for where Lilly stood with her mother.
Lilly gripped Natasha’s arm.
“Calmness, Lilly,” Natasha breathed. “You’ve been introduced to gentlemen before. You remember how it goes, do you not?”
Raymond had his hand on Jasper’s shoulder. “Natasha, my dear. May I present Mr. Thomsett, the gentleman who has been the center of so much fuss in the papers lately? Mr. Thomsett, my wife, Lady Natasha.”
Jasper bowed. “Lady Natasha. It is a great pleasure to meet you.”
“I have heard a great many things about you in the papers, Mr. Thomsett. Is it true you fought in the Crimea War?”
“That is correct, Lady Natasha.”
Lilly could see from the corners of her eyes that everyone within hearing distance was absorbing every word of their conversation. It would be talked about later and all the details examined and interpreted.
“The Crimea War is where you earned your Victoria Cross, yes?” Natasha said.
“Indeed,” Jasper said.
Natasha stirred, as if she had just remembered something. “May I present my daughter, Mr. Thomsett. Lilly, dear, Mr. Thomsett of Yorkshire. Mr. Thomsett, my daughter, Lady Lillian.”
Jasper took her hand and bowed over it. “A great pleasure indeed,” he said gravely.
Lilly couldn’t speak. Her throat was too tight.
“Perhaps I could have the first dance with you?” Jasper added, as the orchestra cleared its throat with a draw of bows across strings.
“The first dance?” she breathed, as sighs of disappointment sounded from nearby.
“A waltz, I believe.”
Her heart lifted. “Yes. I would like that very much,” she told him.
Jasper led her out onto the floor, where other couples were forming. The orchestra started the first dance and Lilly sighed.
“Strauss,” they both said at once and laughed.
* * * * *
It was considered shocking to linger on the balcony with a gentleman, yet many maidens risked the dalliance to further potential relationships. Not as many brows raised as Lilly had thought would lift, when she and Jasper moved out into the cool darkness.
Jasper found them an even dark corner. “I would take you in my arms and kiss you, if I could,” he said. “For now, though, we must pretend this is our first meeting. Later, perhaps, if I find you tempting enough, I might risk stealing a kiss or two.”
“If?” Lilly repeated, affronted.
Jasper glanced around, then touched his lips to hers. “There.” His hand on her waist pressed inward and he sighed. “Corsetry. Ah well.”
“You made me think you weren’t coming back,” Lilly said. “Why couldn’t you tell me about this?”
“Because I didn’t know if I could bring it about at all. I had to travel to Denmark and argue with a stateman—a Swiss secretary. The negotiations lasted for four days, until I got what I wanted.”
“And that was?”
“Acknowledgment, in public.”
“Your full name, in the papers.”
“Exactly.”
“You used your father’s name to batter down society’s doors,” Lilly said slowly.
“You see it now.”
“Why, though? Why all the pretense?”
“For you, of course,” Jasper said.
Her heart leapt high. “Me…”
Jasper stroked her jaw with his thumb. “I have to have you in my life, Lilly. It was you who pulled me out of my memories that night. I overcame it, to save you. The thought of winning you for myself, of finding a way to keep you in my life, has kept me going for two weeks, now, facing down statesmen and peers and Northern Yorkshire farmers, who are quite possibly more terrifying than all the rest put together. You have made me whole again.”
Her breath trembled.
“I love you, Lilly,” he said, his voice low. “I have done all this to be worthy of your love. Say you will marry me and in a week or so, when the speed of the engagement doesn’t shock all of London, we will announce it and disappoint every debutante in the ballroom behind us.” He took her hand and stroked the back of it, making her tremble more. “Please say you will.”
“Only if you kiss me,” she breathed. “I don’t care who sees. I just want to kiss you and tell you I love you. Please, please, just kiss me.”
He did.
1860 Great Family Gathering
Innesford, Cornwall. October.
When Sharla and her family arrived, Ben arrowed toward the pavilion where they first gathered, trying it make it look as nonchalant as possible.
The odious Lady Laceby was standing by her daughter’s side as Ben ducked under the opening of the tent on the croquet field side and ambled toward the top of it, where the Wardell family were standing talking to Natasha and Raymond.
Natasha was looking down at Sharla’s hand as Lady Laceby smiled with a pleased expression. Then Natasha hugged Sharla.
Ben halted, his heart dropping to his stomach.
Sharla held her hand out for Raymond to see and this time, Ben could see the glitter of diamonds on it.
He bent over the table, propping himself up, trying to breathe.
A hand hooked under his elbow and hauled him outside the tent through the opening on the side. Jack and Will held him up.
“What are you doing?” Ben asked, his voice hoarse, as they carried him backward.
“Getting you drunk, cousin,” Will said.
“You saw…” he breathed.
“All of it,” Jack said and patted his shoulder. “My mother spent whole nights talking Sharla into agreeing to the match. I think my sister gave in because she could not think any more without sleep.”
Ben hung his head. “Christ save me,” he groaned.
“Brandy will taste better,” Will said.
* * * * *
Jasper found Lilly sitting on the bench outside the maze, with Elisa’s littlest daughter, Emma, next to her. They were chatting like old friends.
Jasper slid on the last few inches of the bench. Lilly met his eye, then bent to talk to Emma. “Have you met Mr. Thomsett yet, Emma?”
Emma turned around to look at him. “Hello.” Her smile was angelic.
And familiar.
Jasper’s breath stalled, as he looked from Lilly to Emma. Lilly lifted her hand to the girl’s hair and stroked it nervously, the ring on the third finger glinting in the morning sun.
He found breath to speak. “Hello, Miss Emma. You look like a grown-up lady to me. How old are you?”
“I’m nearly seven,” Emma told him proudly.
As Jasper stared, mentally staggering under the weight of a truth that had been sitting in front of him for the two years he had been serving the Great Family, Lilly’s eyes filled with tears. She blinked, not letting them fall.
“Emma! Emma, where are you?” Elisa’s voice.
Lilly lifted Emma down onto the grass. “Go and speak to your mother, Emma.”
Emma ran off, around the corner of the house.
Lilly stayed where she was in the corner of the bench, watching him. Waiting for judgement.
Jasper closed his eyes, marveling at the strength of women and the lengths they would go to protect those they loved.
Then he reached out and drew Lilly to him. Silently, he held her as she trembled.
Not for the first time, he blessed the day Lilly had come into his life.
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The next book in the
Scandalous Scions series.
The next book in this series will be released in early 2018. In the meantime, have you read the original Scandalous Sirens series?
Forbidden, Book 1, Scandalous Sirens
By J.A. Templeton and Tracy Cooper-Posey
Vaughn wants revenge. Elisa wants her son back. Neither expected to want each other.
Elisa’s determined to have her son back at any cost, even if it means marrying a vicious stoat of a man like Rufus Wardell, but her plans and her life are turned upside down by the sudden reappearance of Rufus’ grown and estranged son, Vaughn.
Lured by the contrast of Elisa’s sweet beauty with the wicked rumors of her wanton past, Vaughn embarks on a seduction as scorching as it is daring. What he finds is not at all what he sought: Elisa is an innocent, but with a sensuality so raw he cannot resist her...
...even though their passion is forbidden.
Amazon #1 Best Seller, Historical Romance
ARE Bestseller, Historical Romance
Amazon Best Seller, Regency Romances
CAPA Award Finalist
The wonderful end deserves cheers. —Sensual Romance
Get your copy of Forbidden now (bonus: It’s free!)
https://books2read.com/Forbidden
About the Author
Tracy Cooper-Posey is a #1 Best Selling Author. She writes romantic suspense, historical, paranormal and science fiction romance. She has published over 90 novels since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favourite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.
She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated four times for Book Of The Year. Tracy won the award in 2012, and a SFR Galaxy Award in 2016 for “Most Intriguing Philosophical/Social Science Questions in Galaxybuilding” She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught romance writing at MacEwan University.
She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Tracy’s site and click on the cover you are interested in: http://tracycooperposey.com/books-by-thumbnail/
* = Free!
Vistaria Has Fallen
Vistaria Has Fallen
Prisoner of War
Hostage Crisis
Freedom Fighters
Casualties of War
V-Day
Scandalous Scions
(Historical Romance Series – Spin off)
Rose of Ebony
Soul of Sin
Valor of Love
Romantic Thrillers Series
Fatal Wild Child
Dead Again
Dead Double
Terror Stash
Thrilling Affair (Boxed Set)
Scandalous Sirens
(Historical Romance Series)
Forbidden*
Dangerous Beauty
Perilous Princess
Go-get-‘em Women
(Short Romantic Suspense Series)
The Royal Talisman
Delly’s Last Night
Vivian’s Return
Ningaloo Nights
Blood Knot Series
(Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)
Blood Knot*
Southampton Swindle
Broken Promise
Vale
Amor Meus
Blood Stone
Blood Unleashed
Blood Drive
Blood Revealed
Blood Ascendant
The Sherlock Holmes Series
(Romantic Suspense/Mystery)
Chronicles of the Lost Years
The Case of the Reluctant Agent
Sherlock Boxed In
Beloved Bloody Time Series
(Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)
Bannockburn Binding*
Wait
Byzantine Heartbreak
Viennese Agreement
Romani Armada
Spartan Resistance
Celtic Crossing
Kiss Across Time Series
(Paranormal Time Travel)
Kiss Across Time*
Kiss Across Swords
Time Kissed Moments
Kiss Across Chains
Kiss Across Deserts
Kiss Across Kingdoms
Time and Tyra Again
Kiss Across Seas
Kiss Across Worlds
The Kine Prophecies
(Epic Norse Fantasy Romance)
The Branded Rose Prophecy
The Stonebrood Saga
(Gargoyle Paranormal Series)
Carson’s Night*
Beauty’s Beasts
Harvest of Holidays
Unbearable
Sabrina’s Clan
Pay The Ferryman
Hearts of Stone (Boxed Set)
Destiny’s Trinities
(Urban Fantasy Romance Series)
Beth’s Acceptance*
Mia’s Return
Sera’s Gift
The First Trinity
Cora’s Secret
Zoe’s Blockade
Octavia’s War
The Second Trinity
Terra’s Victory
Destiny’s Trinities (Boxed Set)
Interspace Origins
(Science Fiction Romance Series)
Faring Soul
Varkan Rise
Cat and Company
Interspace Origins (Boxed Set)
Short Paranormals
Solstice Surrender
Eva’s Last Dance
Three Taps, Then….
The Well of Rnomath
Jewells of Tomorrow
(Historical Romantic Suspense)
Diana By The Moon
Heart of Vengeance
The Endurance
(Science Fiction Romance Series)
5,001
Greyson’s Doom
Yesterday’s Legacy
Promissory Note
Quiver and Crave
Xenogenesis
Junkyard Heroes
Evangeliya
Skinwalker’s Bane
Contemporary Romances
Lucifer’s Lover
An Inconvenient Lover
The Indigo Reports
(Space Opera)
Flying Blind
New Star Rising
But Now I See
Suns Eclipsed
Worlds Beyond
Non-Fiction Titles
Reading Order
(Non-Fiction, Reference)
Reading Order 2016
Copyright Information
This is an original publication of Tracy Cooper-Posey
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, pl
aces and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Copyright © 2017 by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Text design by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Cover design by Dar Albert, Wicked Smart Designs
http://wickedsmartdesigns.com
Edited by Mr. Intensity, Mark Posey
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
FIRST EDITION: September 2017
Cooper-Posey, Tracy
Valor of Love/Tracy Cooper-Posey—1st Ed.
Romance—Fiction
Historical – Fiction
Valor of Love (Scandalous Scions Book 2) Page 18