Much Ado About Matchmaking

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Much Ado About Matchmaking
Myrna Mackenzie

WHAT, ME MARRY? NEVER![Or so says Emmaline Carstairs. Until she met her uncle's new business associate and Rencountered a matchmaking conspiracy that derailed her plans! Seems her beloved Uncle Gilbert was determined to steal a page from Shakespeare himself on the subject of matchmaking. Uncle Gilbert thought Ryan Benedict was worthy of his k niece's love–and would do anything to bring them together. Including pairing them up to restore the old hotel so dear to Emma's heart. Given her daily contact with Ryan, soon Emma felt the effects of his intoxicating kisses and intense charm.; Perchance the lady doth protest too much!

“I can’t believe how you’ve replicated the original. This is…”

“How did you do this?” Emma asked, gazing up at him.

Ryan’s blue eyes hypnotized her as he stepped closer. “I didn’t do much,” he said, his voice deep and husky. “The book’s beauty was there to see. All I had to do was look.”

She barely managed to swallow. Her skin ached where he had touched her, the kind of ache she’d never thought to feel, the kind she was sure other women made up when they’d talked of such things.

“I think I understand what Uncle Gilbert wanted me to see. So I guess…we can go home now.”

Ryan nodded curtly. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” She just didn’t trust herself to stay here with him any longer. If she did, if he showed her any more or touched her again, who knew what would happen?

Dear Reader,

Four special women shatter the barricades they’ve built around their dreams, in Silhouette Romance this month. Be it openly defying the life role set out for them or realizing their life’s ambition, these independent ladies represent the type of aspirational heroines we’re looking for in Silhouette Romance.

Myrna Mackenzie launches our newest trilogy, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, with Much Ado About Matchmaking (SR #1786) in which a woman who doesn’t think she’s special or beautiful enough for the worldly hero finally gets the courage to listen to her heart. The Texan’s Suite Romance (SR #1787) rounds out Judy Christenberry’s LONE STAR BRIDES continuity and features a woman who knows Mr. Right when she meets him but now must help him heal enough to let love back into his lonely life. When her screenplay is made into a movie set on her family’s ranch, one woman thinks she’s fulfilled all her dreams…until she meets one very handsome stuntman. Watch this drama unfold in Lights, Action…Family! (SR #1788)—the concluding romance in Patricia Thayer’s LOVE AT THE GOODTIME CAFЕ miniseries. Finally, Crystal Green wraps up the BLOSSOM COUNTY FAIR series with Her Gypsy Prince (SR #1789) in which a sheltered woman bucks her family’s wishes to pursue a forbidden love.

And be sure to come back next month when Elizabeth Harbison puts a modern spin on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.

Happy reading,

Ann Leslie Tuttle

Associate Senior Editor

Much Ado About Matchmaking

Myrna Mackenzie

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Books by Myrna Mackenzie

Silhouette Romance

The Baby Wish #1046

The Daddy List #1090

Babies and a Blue-Eyed Man #1182

The Secret Groom #1225

The Scandalous Return of Jake Walker#1256

Prince Charming’s Return #1361

* (#litres_trial_promo)Simon Says…Marry Me! #1429

* (#litres_trial_promo)At the Billionaire’s Bidding #1442

* (#litres_trial_promo)Contractually His #1454

The Billionaire Is Back #1520

Blind-Date Bride #1526

A Very Special Delivery #1540

* (#litres_trial_promo)Bought by the Billionaire #1610

* (#litres_trial_promo)The Billionaire’s Bargain #1622

* (#litres_trial_promo)The Billionaire Borrows a Bride #1634

† (#litres_trial_promo)The Pied Piper’s Bride #1714

† (#litres_trial_promo)Midas’s Bride #1719

† (#litres_trial_promo)The Black Knight’s Bride #1722

Their Little Cowgirl #1738

Instant Marriage, Just Add Groom #1755

Much Ado About Matchmaking #1786

Silhouette Books

Montana Mavericks

Just Pretending

Lone Star Country Club

Her Sweet Talkin’ Man

Family Secrets

Blind Attraction

Baby and All

“Lights, Camera…Baby!”

Morning Beauty,

Midnight Beast

MYRNA MACKENZIE

is the winner of the Holt Medallion honoring outstanding fiction and a finalist for numerous other awards, including the Orange Rose, the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice and Wish RWA’s Write Touch. She believes that humor, love and hope are three of the best medicines in the world and tries to make sure that her books reflect that belief. Born in a small town in southern Missouri, Myrna grew up in the Chicago area, married her high school sweetheart and has two teenage sons. Her hobbies include dreaming of warmer climes during the cold northern winters, pretending the dust in her house doesn’t exist, taking long walks and traveling. Readers can write to Myrna at P.O. Box 225, LaGrange, IL 60525, or they may visit her online at www.myrnamackenzie.com (http://www.myrnamackenzie.com).

Shakespeare’s Recipe for Romance

In Much Ado About Nothing

Take 2 conquering warriors returning to peacetime activities.

Throw in 2 lovely young cousins.

Add in 1 matchmaking uncle.

Mix generously and see how things are turning out.

Add 1 devious troublemaker, determined to spoil everything.

Correct this problem by bringing in more people to help throw the young lovers together.

Add a few white lies and a dash of secrecy and whispering.

Drop in another pinch of pure mischief by the matchmakers, a dollop of dastardly plotting by the nefarious villain and a generous smidgen of stubbornness on the part of the young lovers.

Allow to simmer. Then read on and savor as true love sets out to conquer all!

Contents

Prologue (#u6b7f43e9-08bb-5308-adec-d2336c9bc6ce)

Chapter One (#u9cfadec3-3ac7-52c4-a887-9436149b2960)

Chapter Two (#u6c374fb2-45fe-5ae8-ae5b-360e9a021b11)

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)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue

Gilbert Messmer frowned as he put down the copy of Much Ado About Nothing he had finished reading and looked out the window to where his niece, Emmaline Carstairs, was gathering herbs from the garden. Tomorrow would mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day his dying sister, Danielle, had asked him to care for Emmaline as his own, so, why was he worrying about Emma’s fate now?

At twenty-nine, she was already grown up. But something had happened lately that had made him wonder if he had really kept his promise to Danielle as well as he should have.

“Of course I did. I fed Emma, I clothed her, I gave her a place to stay and I cared about her.”

Gilbert grimaced. Did you really? Ever since his wife had died giving birth to his daughter Holly soon after Emma had arrived, he had been a different man, divorced from much of life, married to his business.

He’d been a good businessman, but hiding from his grief at losing his wife, he’d given most of what little affection he had left to Holly. What had been left for Emma, and why was he worrying about that now?

“You know why,” he whispered. It was because Holly had fallen in love and gotten engaged to one of his two new business associates, and she was blissfully happy. Her excitement reminded him of how deeply he had loved his wife, of how he and Lila had once laughed every day.

Watching his daughter come alive with love had been a gift, pulling him from the fog he had lived in for years.

While Holly awakened each morning these days with stars in her eyes, here was Emmaline quietly laboring in his garden as she so often did. For the first time ever, Gilbert wondered if she actually liked working in the garden.

He had never asked. Instead he’d just allowed her to take care of necessary tasks here at the Messmer’s mansion and at his hotel. She always seemed to be working or taking classes related to her work. Had she ever felt the kind of joy that Holly was feeling? If Danielle’s spirit visited him today could he tell her that he had done all he could for her child?

No, but what could he do now?

“Something. I promise you, Danielle, that I’ll make amends.” But how?

Gilbert glanced down at his book. “Maybe Shakespeare would have had some good ideas about what a penitent and neglectful uncle should do to make sure his niece is happy,” Gilbert muttered. Shakespeare certainly seemed to have a fascination with the human condition.

Gilbert stared at the gilt lettering on the cover. He loved the comedic tale he had just finished for the tenth time. Shakespeare had filled the pages with romantic heroes returning from war, a young couple in the throes of new love, a dastardly villain, another couple who couldn’t keep from verbally sparring with one another, and of course, lots of matchmaking.

“Hmm,” he said and looked out the window again.

Emmaline glanced up just then and gave him a small, sunny smile, waving at him before returning to her task.

She really did resemble her mother with that dark hair and those solemn gray eyes. “Twenty-five years,” he whispered. “How selfish you’ve been, Gilbert. How blind.”

But now his eyes were opening, and he would begin again if it wasn’t too late. All he needed was a plan. All he needed was to start doing what he hadn’t done for years—placing his daughter’s and niece’s needs first. Before business.