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Regency Surrender: Rebellious Debutantes: Lord Havelock's List / Portrait of a Scandal
ANNIE BURROWS
Be careful what you wish for…Lord Havelock’s List by Annie BurrowsLord Havelock is in need of a wife and Mary Carpenter has all the qualities he most desires. But when Mary discovers her new husband’s list she’s hurt – and incensed. Is it perhaps time for Mary to make a list of her own, and change the rules of their relationship for ever… ?Portrait of a Scandal by Annie BurrowsAmethyst Dalby is content with her life as an independent woman. Until a trip to Paris throws her into contact with the one man who still has a hold over her – Nathan Harcourt! This gentleman has been brought low by scandal – and he’s determined to show Amethyst that life is much more fun if you walk on the dark side….
About the Author
ANNIE BURROWS has been making up stories for her own amusement since she first went to school. As soon as she got the hang of using a pencil she began to write them down. Her love of books meant she had to do a degree in English Literature, and her love of writing meant she could never take on a job where she didn’t have time to jot down notes when inspiration for a new plot struck her. She still wants the heroines of her stories to wear beautiful floaty dresses and triumph over all that life can throw at them. But when she got married she discovered that finding a hero is an essential ingredient to arriving at ‘happy ever after’.
Regency Surrender: Rebellious Debutantes
Lord Havelock's List
Annie Burrows
Portrait of a Scandal
Annie Burrows
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08566-3
REGENCY SURRENDER: REBELLIOUS DEBUTANTES
Lord Havelock’s List © 2014 Annie Burrows Portrait of a Scandal © 2014 Annie Burrows
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#uf6e0c433-7f86-55f1-8b23-faa25a3c88eb)
About the Author (#ue7346867-e1fc-5c86-9a26-ebcc0e339902)
Title Page (#u84eee7b5-fd0e-5b35-a243-188046b54596)
Copyright (#uca36459b-77bc-5181-bf48-4296b079ed6f)
Lord Havelock’s List (#uc5847db4-5dc7-5e8f-9a70-5952cfdf09b1)
Dedication (#u9ab03ecc-1a81-5316-8405-55654ea7f1cd)
Chapter One (#u62d800c6-6899-5725-9a8b-69aa0d1e71d2)
Chapter Two (#u0c95ccfb-2e39-5adf-aa20-baaca8239c4f)
Chapter Three (#u57307bdc-51ef-558e-97e8-2124c485d67a)
Chapter Four (#u4198b64b-73c6-50da-9a36-882ada187f52)
Chapter Five (#u4ab751fe-f5d9-57ee-80d8-568527cf071f)
Chapter Six (#u3102f90c-ce0c-5e7d-a815-25060bab6483)
Chapter Seven (#ue1cc40c1-5075-51ff-9204-f69a5bd9a136)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Portrait of a Scandal (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Lord Havelock’s List (#u2a523a8f-3ca5-5bae-9835-d72b917bf652)
Annie Burrows
My lovely new editor Pippa - such a pleasure to work with.
Chapter One (#ulink_1c8107e1-a87b-54aa-bf2c-3e771cf6ec79)
December 1814
‘Ho, there, Chepstow! Need some advice.’
Lord Chepstow, who’d been sauntering across the lobby of his club, paused, recognised Lord Havelock and grinned.
‘From me?’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘Lord, you must be in the suds to want my advice.’
‘I am,’ said Lord Havelock bluntly. Then glanced meaningfully in the direction of the club’s servant, who’d stepped forward to take his coat and hat.
Chepstow’s grin faded. ‘Need to find somewhere quiet, to talk in private?’
‘Yes,’ said Lord Havelock, feeling a great weight rolling off his shoulders. Not that he had much hope that Chepstow, of all men, would come up with any fresh ideas. But at least he was willing to listen.
As soon as they’d passed through the door to the library—the one room almost sure to be deserted at this, or any other, time of the day—he said it.
Out loud.
‘Got to get married.’
‘Good grief.’ Chepstow’s jaw dropped. ‘Would never have thought you the type to get some girl into trouble. Not one you feel you have to marry, at any rate.’
Havelock clenched his fists in automatic repudiation of such a slur on his honour, causing Chepstow to raise his own hands in a placatory gesture.
‘Now I come to think of it...’ Chepstow said, carefully moving a few feet out of his range, ‘sort of thing could happen to anyone.’
‘Not me,’ Havelock insisted. ‘You know I’ve never been much in the petticoat line.’ He lowered his fists as it occurred to him that, actually, Chepstow might be the very chap to help him, after all.
‘You have been though, Chepstow. You’ve had some really high-flyers in keeping, haven’t you? And still managed to stay popular with ladies of the ton. How d’ye do it, man? How d’ye get them all eating out of your hands, that’s what I need to know.’
‘By opening my purse strings to the high-flyers,’ said Chepstow candidly, ‘and minding my manners with the Quality. It’s perfectly simple....’
‘Yes, if all you are looking for is something of a temporary nature. But if you had to get married, what kind of woman would you ask? I mean, what sort of woman do you think would make a good wife? And how would you go about finding her, if you only had a fortnight’s grace to get the knot tied?’
Chepstow froze, like a stag at bay. ‘Me? Married?’ He slowly shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t. The trick is avoiding the snares they lay for a fellow, not deliberately walking straight into one.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Havelock began to say. But Chepstow wasn’t listening. He was looking wildly round the room, like a hunted animal seeking cover. And then, with obvious relief, he found it in the form of a pair of young men just barely visible above an enormous mound of books on one of the reading desks, engaged in earnest conversation.
‘Let’s ask Ashe,’ he said, grabbing Havelock by one arm and towing him across the floor with an air of desperation. ‘Kind of chap who reads books when he don’t need to is bound to know something worth knowing about matrimony.’
Which was rot, of course. But Chepstow was clearly panicking. Anybody who thought they could get away with manhandling him across a room, whilst babbling about books, had obviously lost his wits.
But then the topic of matrimony was apt to do that to a fellow. He wouldn’t willingly put his head in the noose if there was any alternative. But, having racked his brains for hours, Havelock simply couldn’t find one.
So he’d decided that the only thing to be done was to see if he couldn’t somehow sugar-coat the pill he was about to swallow. Find some way, unlikely though it seemed, to find a woman who wouldn’t oblige him to alter his entire way of life.
Who wouldn’t try to alter him.
‘Ashe, and, um...’ Chepstow floundered as he shot a blank look at the second man at the table with Ashe.
‘Morgan,’ said the Earl of Ashenden, waving a languid hand at his companion. Havelock had seen Morgan about, at the races, Jackson’s, this club and various social events, though had never had cause to speak to him before. Son of some sort of nabob, if memory served him. Nothing wrong with him, so far as he knew. Just not out of the top drawer.
Not that he cared a rap for any of that. Not at a time like this.
Introductions dealt with, Chepstow thrust Havelock into a chair, then perched on the edge of his own as though ready to take flight at a moment’s notice.
‘Havelock has decided he wants to get married,’ he announced, rather in the manner of a man who has just tossed a hot potato out of his burnt fingers. Then he practically pounced on the waiter, who’d ventured into the library to see if any of the young gentlemen needed refreshment.
‘We need a bottle of wine,’ declared Chepstow with feeling.
‘Not want to,’ Havelock explained once the waiter was out of earshot. ‘Have to. Need to. And before you start questioning my ton, no, it isn’t because I’ve suddenly started seducing innocents,’ he growled, shooting Chepstow a resentful look. ‘That’s not it at all.’
‘Steady on,’ said Chepstow, pushing enough books aside that the waiter would have room to put a bottle and some glasses down when he returned. ‘Sort of mistake anyone could make. With you looking so...out of sorts. And then broaching the topic the way you did.’
‘Gentlemen,’ said Ashe in that quiet way he had that somehow made everyone listen. ‘Perhaps the best thing to do would be to let Havelock explain, in his own words, just what his problem is and how he thinks we may be of assistance? Before he feels compelled to call on his seconds.’
At Morgan’s look of alarm, Ashe chuckled quietly. ‘It is a foolish man who casts a slur on Havelock’s honour these days.’
‘I don’t, and never have, challenged my friends to duels.’
‘You shot off half of Wraxton’s ear,’ put in Chepstow.
