The Earl’s
Mistress
MacLachlan
Family and Friends # 10
By: Liz Carlyle
Releasing August 26th, 2014
Avon Romance
Women rarely refuse the wicked Earl of Hepplewood, whose sensual skills
are the stuff of legend. But when his new governess answers his proposition
with a slap to his face, then stalks out with references in hand, Hepplewood
finds more than his face is left burning . . .
Isabella Aldridge has brains, bravado, and beauty-but the latter is no use to a servant. With orphaned sisters to feed, eviction nearing, and Hepplewood’s words ringing in her ears, Isabella realizes she must barter her most marketable asset . . .
But when fate unknowingly sends Isabella back into Hepplewood’s arms, the earl must make an impossible choice-draw Isabella down into his sensual darkness, or behave with honor for the first time in his life.
She must surely know who
and what he was.
Isabella Aldridge has brains, bravado, and beauty-but the latter is no use to a servant. With orphaned sisters to feed, eviction nearing, and Hepplewood’s words ringing in her ears, Isabella realizes she must barter her most marketable asset . . .
But when fate unknowingly sends Isabella back into Hepplewood’s arms, the earl must make an impossible choice-draw Isabella down into his sensual darkness, or behave with honor for the first time in his life.
“Well. Let us hope our Miss Aldridge is
not as bland, demure, and well-churched as the last one, for we’re fresh out of
curates for them to marry. Send her in.”
Jervis bowed
himself from the room.
An instant later,
Hepplewood’s breath caught.
Isabella Aldridge
was anything but bland.
She was instead a
dark, fragile beauty; perhaps the most beautiful creature he’d ever beheld,
with a face pale as porcelain and thick, inky tresses that the most severe of
arrangements could not disguise. She was tall, too, he realized, as she
swept her gray skirts through the door, yet far too thin for his liking.
He exhaled slowly,
and with no small measure of relief.
She stopped some
distance from the desk and dropped into a curtsey that was at once graceful and
subservient, her hems puddling like quicksilver upon his blood-red
carpet.
“Your lordship,”
she murmured, flicking a glance up at him as she rose.
“Good morning.”
Hepplewood’s words were cool and clipped as he tossed aside her
paperwork. “Miss Aldridge, I believe?”
She gave a nod that
held something less than agreement. “Actually, it is Mrs., my lord,”
she said, in a quiet, throaty voice. “Mrs. Aldridge. I
am a widow.”
“Without children,
I trust?” he said a little harshly.
Her gaze faltered,
and dropped again to the carpet. “I was never so blessed,” she
replied. “It was the briefest of marriages. In my youth.”
Mrs. Aldridge did
not look, however, as if her youth was much past her.
Hepplewood stared
her boldly up and down, willing himself to be unaffected as he motioned her to
take the chair before him. Despite her dull attire and quiet demeanor,
Mrs. Aldridge could not be much past five-and-twenty by his assessment—and
Hepplewood was known to be a keen judge of female flesh.
He suppressed a
bitter smile. Hers had doubtless been a short and tragic union,
then. What a coincidence.
But Mrs. Aldridge’s
marriage had likely been made of more honorable stuff than his had been.
She had wed a soldier, perhaps? Or an older gentleman?
But the latter sort
of alliance was made only for money—and if Mrs. Aldridge had possessed two
shillings to rub together, she would not be here.
2 comments:
Thank you for hosting today!
I still can't Decide what's going to happen between the Earl and Isabella. I can make a guess, but I'm guessing I just have to wait until I read the entire book. :-) I think it will be very interesting. jdh2690@gmail.com
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