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The Tainted Love of a Captain
Jane Lark
‘Pure, unadulterated romance’ Best Chick Lit.comThe sounds and scents of the Crimean War are strangling Harry Marlow, shutting him off and silently smothering his soul. But he is a soldier and that is his life, and he can see nothing else besides that. So why should he care when a woman watches him? His life is not one to share with a woman, other than for a few moments in his bed.When a woman is already drowning so deeply in sin she is without any fear of judgement – what can it matter if she choses to begin a new affair? It is like escape to choose her own man and Captain Marlow is the perfect candidate for a dalliance. All she has to do is obtain an introduction…
The Tainted Love of a Captain
JANE LARK
A division of HarperCollinsPublishers
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HarperImpulse an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2017
Copyright © Jane Lark 2017
Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com)
Cover design by Books Covered 2017
Jane Lark asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are
the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is
entirely coincidental.
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and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
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Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008139841
Version 2017-04-11
PRAISE FOR JANE LARK (#u4842acde-439b-5689-a020-f10321b416f4)
‘Jane Lark has an incredible talent to draw the reader in from the first page onwards’
Cosmochicklitan Book Reviews
‘Any description that I give you would not only spoil the story but could not give this book a tenth of the justice that it deserves. Wonderful!’
Candy Coated Book Blog
‘This book held me captive after the first two pages. If I could crawl inside and live in there with the characters I would’
A Reading Nurse Blogspot
‘The book swings from truly swoon-worthy, tense and heart wrenching, highly erotic and everything else in between’
BestChickLit.com
‘I love Ms Lark’s style—beautifully descriptive, emotional and can I say, just plain delicious reading? This is the kind of mixer upper I’ve been looking for in romance lately’
Devastating Reads BlogSpot
Table of Contents
Cover (#u95874531-62ce-5de2-a129-be3e762307ed)
Title Page (#uc629c765-8bbb-51bc-8a79-bc2cd127fd38)
Copyright (#uddf3e041-7e7f-517a-8089-c6643e529e37)
Praise for Jane Lark (#u89a82ba0-f5f0-5b8c-8126-4003cd6ee2df)
Acknowledgements (#u46bec416-4923-53bc-9cea-5fdf29222193)
Chapter 1 (#u242a6944-bb76-58a4-bd3f-e4a4e578e103)
Chapter 2 (#u7892e6fb-9f85-56ea-8cb7-ab0f1b2090a6)
Chapter 3 (#u5d93bde4-b01e-548e-8287-7b4e76a3a589)
Chapter 4 (#u4735e028-b8b9-55a5-86f0-76ea67422731)
Chapter 5 (#uba16d2a0-6bf9-5c04-a7cf-868e2ae841a5)
Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Author’s Note (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Jane Lark (#litres_trial_promo)
(#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
About HarperImpulse (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#u4842acde-439b-5689-a020-f10321b416f4)
I’d like to take the chance, before you begin, to say a thank you to the editor who discovered The Illicit Love of a Courtesan, the first of the Marlow Intrigues books, and believed in my writing and this series so much that she signed up all seven of the main books in the series.
When I decided to offer HarperImpulse The Illicit Love of a Courtesan, as it had already been published through a small independent publisher I wasn’t sure HarperImpulse would want it. My belief was that previously published books were often not wanted and so I only sent a tentative email saying ‘would you be interested in seeing it?’, it wasn’t even a submission. I can’t tell you how surprised I was to then receive an email saying, yes, with an expression of absolute excitement.
I was really surprised because I hadn’t sent the book, so Charlotte couldn’t have read it, but she’d said yes… I asked her then, ‘wouldn’t you like to read it before you say yes?’ The answer was, ‘I already have.’ Charlotte had bought and read the story. How wonderful! She has since then always believed in, and supported, my work and I cannot say how brilliant it has been to know I have had an editor who believes so wholeheartedly in my writing and is able to see what you see as readers.
Thank you, Charlotte Ledger, for fulfilling my lifetime dream and giving me this amazing chance to get my stories out into the world and bringing my work to life. Thank you too, to Suzy, who has taken up the baton of editor and polished off the last two books.
And thank you to my family for putting up with me spending all my time with a laptop in front of me!
Plus, I ought to remember in this, my great-uncle Baba, the black sheep of my Grandma’s generation, who lived in the small family cottage next to hers in Mobley, near Berkeley Castle in England, the namesake for Harry’s nickname.
Chapter 1 (#u4842acde-439b-5689-a020-f10321b416f4)
Gareth’s touch on Harry’s arm drew Harry’s attention away from his dog. ‘Is that not the woman we saw here yesterday?’
Harry looked across his shoulder and smiled. ‘I believe so.’
It was a blustery day and in the grey sky above seagulls called out as they played on the breeze, flying into it and then letting it sweep them back. The women’s skirts were blowing about their legs as they held onto the brims of their bonnets.
The dog barked because the stick had been lifted and not thrown yet. Harry looked at the waves and hurled the piece of driftwood he’d picked up to play their game. Ash turned and ran after it, all enthusiasm, inspired by the energy in the weather. A few minutes later the dog returned, with the stick in her mouth and her tail wagging violently Harry patted the Dalmatian’s head and took the stick from her mouth then hurled it into the sea again. The pebbles on the shore stirred with the movement of both the dog and the waves as Ash raced into the foaming water.
‘She is smiling broadly and my bet would be she is smiling at you.’
Harry glanced over his shoulder once more. The woman was speaking to her female companion, who from her appearance he would guess to be a maid. He looked at his friend. ‘Or you.’
‘No. Definitely you.’
‘How can you be sure?’
‘I have neither the looks nor the reputation that make women whisper.’
Harry laughed as Ash returned. ‘You have a scarlet coat with epaulettes, the uniform works wonders, Captain Morris,’ he mocked his friend, then took the stick from the dog’s mouth and threw it into the shallow part of the waves again. Ash followed it.
‘The woman could not be more obvious. She has not taken her eyes off you.’
‘Then perhaps it is some young miss who has heard of my reputation and sees a monster to point at.’
‘She is not looking at you in disdain.’
