To Court, Capture and Conquer

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The doublet was cut fashionably close to his body, hugging his strong shoulders and lean, muscled chest. He was no pale, doughy courtier, but a warrior.

A warrior who, it was rumored, spent much time on battlefields of romance, making conquests in the bedchamber.

Well, Elizabeth had no use for romance, or men who were too attractive and blatantly sensual, no matter what stray fantasies came into her mind. Her marriage had been a miserable disaster, and she was free at last to live her own life.

But surely life could include passion without marriage, if a woman was careful.…

Nay! Not for her. Not with Edward Hartley.

“How can Court be dull, Aunt Bess?” Jane said. She watched the stage with a dreamy glow in her eyes. The clown had been dragged offstage by a tall, furious-looking man and replaced by the pair of young lovers whose elopement started the action. They held hands and gazed into each other’s eyes as they uttered sweet vows of eternal love.

That surely wouldn’t end well.

“You hear tales of balls and pageants, Jane, and think every day at Court must be like that,” Elizabeth said. “Yet it seldom is. Mostly it is just passing time.” And that was surely why she was having such ridiculous daydreams of Edward Hartley—she was bored. She needed to travel again, refurbish her house, distract herself.