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The Governess Game: the unputdownable new Regency romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Duchess Deal
Tessa Dare
‘I absolutely adored it. I laughed out loud numerous times… Love her writing.’ Jodi Picoult The addictive new Regency read from the New York Times bestselling author that’s perfect for fans of Georgette Heyer!The accidental governess…After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart . . . without risking her own.The infamous rake…Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling . . . and he’s in danger of falling, hard.Praise for Tessa Dare:‘I absolutely loved it; her style is so warm and funny.’ Nicola Cornick on The Duchess Deal‘The irresistibly provocative, classy love scenes set the bar high for other historical romance novels.’Publishers Weekly on The Duchess Deal‘This book is funny, it’s charming, and the romance works so beautifully.’Smart Bitches, Trashy Books on The Duchess Deal‘A rollicking and passionate romp that is just what… fans will relish.’Library Journal on The Duchess Deal‘Wickedly funny and soul-satisfyingly romantic novel…’ Booklist on The Duchess Deal‘Prepare to Fall in Love’Julia Quinn on The Duchess Deal…
TESSA DARE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty historical romances. Her books have won numerous accolades, including Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® award (twice) and the RT Book Reviews Seal of Excellence. Booklist magazine named her one of the ‘new stars of historical romance’, and her books have been contracted for translation in more than a dozen languages.
A librarian by training and a booklover at heart, Tessa makes her home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband, their two children, and a trio of cosmic kittens.
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TESSA DARE AND MILLS & BOON
Girl Meets Duke
THE DUCHESS DEAL
The Governess Game
Tessa Dare
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-0-008-26825-1
THE GOVERNESS GAME
© 2018 Eve Ortega
Published in Great Britain 2018
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.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For my children, the Darelings,
because apparently I have a trend with this
series—dedicating
books to people I hope will
never read them.
My daughter served as a
brilliant consultant on Rosamund and Daisy’s
characters, and my ever-clever
son taught me that some kids learn best in unconventional ways.
Darelings, I love you both. I promise that
out of all my books, this is the one and
only page I’ll ever force you to read.
(Bonus: I’ve now embarrassed you
in front of thousands of strangers.
Mom achievement unlocked!)
Contents
Cover (#u148e24ae-4a7d-5ad5-a442-696457a5bac6)
About the Author (#uaa7256f3-5ac0-51c5-980d-e27b5ebfcd80)
Booklist (#u80cd7a82-9de2-5820-a495-dfff4cca74c6)
Title Page (#u3d2b4608-3127-5f4f-99d1-d8e02265ce4c)
Copyright (#u3f86f4f9-b980-5b0b-b562-4fe19cf16c5d)
Dedication (#ubc4310c2-5d78-5337-ace2-c55619bede0f)
Prologue (#ulink_86fec003-8ff8-57d6-9e96-ff76b6204654)
Chapter One (#ulink_b0a22044-ce95-5220-ba89-27a0021f2748)
Chapter Two (#ulink_c862aaa4-422e-5b7e-99d3-c24d0ef3ac60)
Chapter Three (#ulink_bc1acb00-8adf-57a0-baf6-a2daf6d2cc14)
Chapter Four (#ulink_bc575974-da9a-5e82-82b1-2588771f7aa8)
Chapter Five (#ulink_e1882529-8c6b-5535-ba2a-061dba103efd)
Chapter Six (#ulink_f3bb183a-5f3e-5dd8-b244-cc4eed0b4784)
Chapter Seven (#ulink_31e10496-9691-512f-8773-b525d07d24b7)
Chapter Eight (#ulink_ff46cc0c-76b2-5097-bbd4-20c31cccdd35)
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)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u4fc783d2-94ad-5d57-ba14-150cc7d31447)
Alexandra Mountbatten had common sense. That’s what her friends believed.
The truth was, Alex had no sense at all—at least, not when it came to charming gentlemen with roguish green eyes. If she possessed any wisp of rationality, she wouldn’t have made such a fool of herself with the Bookshop Rake.
Even now, more than half a year later, she could revisit the embarrassing scene and watch it unfolding, as though she were attending a play.
The setting: Hatchard’s bookshop.
The date: a Wednesday afternoon in November.
The personages: Alexandra, of course. Her three closest friends: Nicola Teague, Lady Penelope Campion, and Emma Pembrooke, the Duchess of Ashbury. And, making his first appearance in a starring role (trumpet fanfare, please)—the Bookshop Rake.
The scene proceeded thusly:
Alexandra had been juggling a tower of Nicola’s books in one arm and reading her own book with her free hand. A copy of Messier’s Catalogue of Star Clusters and Nebulae, which she’d plucked like a pearl from the used-book section. She’d been searching for a secondhand copy for ages. She couldn’t afford to buy it new.
One moment, she’d been blissfully paging through descriptions of astronomical nebulae, and the next . . .
Bang. A collision of cosmic proportions.
The cause remained unclear. Perhaps she’d taken a step in reverse, or maybe he’d turned without looking. It didn’t matter. Whosoever’s elbow jostled the other’s arm, the laws of physics demanded an equal and opposite reaction. From there, the rest was gravity. All her books fell to the floor, and when she looked up from the heap—there he was.
Ruffled brown hair, fashionable attire, cologne that smelled like bottled sin—and a smile no doubt honed from boyhood as a means to make women forgive him anything.
With affable charm, he’d gathered up the books. She’d been no help at all.
He’d inquired after her name; she’d stammered.
He’d asked her to recommend a book—a gift, he said, for two young girls. In response, she’d stammered yet more.
He’d drawn close enough for her to breathe in his woodsy, earthy, oh-so-manly cologne. She’d nearly fainted into the antiquities section.
But then he’d looked at her with warm green eyes—truly looked at her—the way people rarely did, because it meant allowing the other person to truly look at them, too. Equal and opposite reactions.
He made her feel like the only woman in the bookshop. Perhaps the only woman in the world. Or the universe.
