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The Governess's Secret Baby
Janice Preston
The Beauty who tamed the Beast…New governess Grace Bertram will do anything to get to know her young daughter Clara. Even if it means working for Clara’s guardian, the reclusive and scarred Nathaniel, Marquess of Ravenwell!Nathaniel believes no woman could ever love a monster like him, until Grace seems to look past his scars to the man beneath... But when he discovers Grace is Clara’s mother, Nathaniel questions his place in this torn-apart family. Could there be a Christmas happy-ever-after for this beauty and the beast?The Governess TalesSweeping romances with fairytale endings!
The beauty who tamed the beast...
New governess Grace Bertram will do anything to get to know her young daughter, Clara. Even if it means working for Clara’s guardian, the reclusive and scarred Nathaniel, Marquess of Ravenwell!
Nathaniel believes no woman could ever love a monster like him, until Grace seems to look past his scars to the man beneath... But when he discovers Grace is Clara’s mother, Nathaniel questions his place in this torn-apart family. Could there be a Christmas happy-ever-after for this beauty and the beast?
The Governess Tales
Sweeping romances with fairytale endings!
Meet Joanna Radcliff, Rachel Talbot,
Isabel Morton and Grace Bertram.
These four friends grew up together in Madame Dubois’s school for young ladies, where they indulged in midnight feasts, broke the rules and shared their innermost secrets!
But now they are thrust into the real world, and each must adapt to her new life as a governess.
One will rise, one will travel, one will run and one will find her real home…
And each will meet her soulmate, who’ll give her the happy-ever-after she’s always dreamt of!
Read Joanna’s story in
The Cinderella Governess
Read Rachel’s story in
Governess to the Sheikh
Read Isabel’s story in
The Runaway Governess
And read Grace’s story in
The Governess’s Secret Baby
All available now!
Author Note (#uf5b15403-1535-5ccd-bf52-6d0179233e7b)
The Governess’s Secret Baby is book four in The Governess Tales series, but it is a stand-alone story and can be enjoyed even if you haven’t read the previous three. If you have read the others, however, you will be pleased to know that the epilogue—an absolute joy to write—brings back all three couples from the other linked books to find out what has happened since the end of their stories.
I loved bringing to life the gothic Shiverstone Hall, nestled below Shiver Crag in the Yorkshire Dales, and Nathaniel, its reclusive, scarred and taciturn owner. Only a feisty heroine will do for Nathaniel, and Grace is certainly that: bold, impulsive and determined, but also rootless and plagued with hidden self-doubt.
Enjoy the emotional ups and downs as Grace helps Nathaniel find the courage to embrace life again, and Nathaniel proves to Grace that she is capable of being loved.
The Governess’s Secret Baby
Janice Preston
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
JANICE PRESTON grew up in Wembley, North London, with a love of reading, writing stories and animals. In the past she has worked as a farmer, a police call-handler and a university administrator. She now lives in the West Midlands with her husband and two cats and has a part-time job with a weight management counsellor (vainly trying to control her own weight despite her love of chocolate!).
Books by Janice Preston
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
The Governess Tales
The Governess’s Secret Baby
Men About Town
Return of Scandal’s Son
Saved by Scandal’s Heir
Linked by Character
to Men About Town duet
Mary and the Marquis
From Wallflower to Countess
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://millsandboon.co.uk).
To my fellow authors
Georgie Lee, Laura Martin and Liz Tyner:
it’s been a pleasure collaborating with you, ladies, and I hope I’ve done justice to your characters in the epilogue.
Contents
Cover (#uc0051181-4486-565b-9af1-044dec02e984)
Back Cover Text (#udd536fe7-7a78-53f2-a98e-6408c4437d0c)
Introduction (#u4f24ae0d-eb28-5d49-b178-9b8cc50a25e6)
Author Note (#u44ef3223-3be7-5949-98ed-3575d898b55a)
Title Page (#u0fdf05eb-6908-5db5-8461-961592364f1c)
About the Author (#u7d9cad40-08d0-57d6-9780-2bb3a0aaebd7)
Dedication (#ua6809d13-1a98-5245-9eb4-1ab41f7727f7)
Prologue (#u7a8ca108-03f0-5011-a44a-baf81ab11950)
Chapter One (#u45349a22-f05b-5bce-821c-f2e74f56e4b4)
Chapter Two (#u247a23f6-4d7d-58dc-87ac-902031ffbd3c)
Chapter Three (#uc1fd9ac9-2150-5268-be6b-d1e8e9a675ba)
Chapter Four (#u0a0fe5c9-5a81-5364-8cee-0797fb68a1e2)
Chapter Five (#u2ed4e8a6-ac7a-5a23-bfa5-46d0f66f4d6a)
Chapter Six (#u954a4c43-d022-52de-aba7-6e5d4e905367)
Chapter Seven (#ue5ab18be-d6fe-5758-a577-a7683861c037)
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)
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)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#uf5b15403-1535-5ccd-bf52-6d0179233e7b)
Early October 1811
Nathaniel Pembroke, Marquess of Ravenwell, threw a saddle on Zephyr’s back, mounted up, and pointed the black stallion’s head towards the fell, the words of the letter searing his brain and his heart. As Zephyr’s hooves flashed across the ground the tears spilling from Nathaniel’s eyes evaporated in the wind and his roar of rage was heard by no man. The fells above Shiverstone Hall were avoided by local villagers and farmers alike, and that was precisely how Nathaniel liked it.
The great black’s pace flagged and, reluctantly, Nathaniel steadied him to a trot. The anger and the grief burning his chest had not eased—the hollow place where his shrivelled heart had struggled to survive this past nine years was still there, only now it was cavernous...a vast, stygian void. He should know by now grief could never be outrun. It cleaved to you like lichen clung to the rocks that strewed the dale below.
Hannah. Tears again clouded his vision and he blinked furiously, gazing hopelessly at the gunmetal grey of the sky. Dead. Never again to see his beloved sister’s face, or to hear her laugh, or to feel the rare human contact of her arms around him, hugging, reassuring. And David, Hannah’s husband of eight years and Nathaniel’s loyal and steadfast friend...his only friend. Also gone.
The raw lump in Nathaniel’s throat ached unbearably as the words of his mother’s letter—delivered as he had broken his fast that morning—reverberated through his brain: a carriage accident; Hannah and David both killed outright; little Clara, their two-year-old daughter, the only survivor.
You are named as Guardian to the child, my son. If I can help you, you know that I will, but I cannot, at my age, shoulder all responsibility for her upbringing. Neither will I live in that Godforsaken place you please to call home in order to help you with the task.
I urge you to come home to Ravenwell and we shall raise Clara together. It is time you took your place in the world again.
If you choose not to, however, then you must come and collect your ward. It is your duty and you owe it to your poor, dear sister to take charge of and care for the child she loved more than life itself.
Your loving
Mother
Nathaniel turned Zephyr for home, the realities of his dilemma bearing down on him. He could not deny the truth of Mother’s words—she was getting no younger and she would never be happy living at Shiverstone Hall—his cadet estate near the border between the North Riding of Yorkshire and Westmorland—nor would it be healthy for her. She lived most of the year at Ravenwell Manor, his main estate in the far more civilised countryside that surrounded the town of Harrogate, on the far side of the Dales.
But...he considered those alternatives, neither of which appealed. Go home to Ravenwell? He shook his head in dumb denial. Never. He could tolerate neither the memories nor the looks of sympathy from those who had known him before. Still less could he stomach the recoil of strangers at the sight of him.
By the time he rode into the yard behind Shiverstone Hall, his decision was made. He had one choice, and one choice only. He must fetch Clara and bring her to Shiverstone to live with him. His courage almost failed at the thought—what did he know about children, particularly one as young as Clara?
* * *
‘You have responsibilities, Nathaniel. You cannot continue to hide away. How are you ever to produce an heir otherwise? Not every woman will react like Miss Havers.’
Nathaniel bit back a growl at the reminder of Miss Havers. He had suspected how that would end as soon as his mother had told him of the woman who had agreed to a marriage of convenience. Even the lure of his wealth and title was not enough to compensate for his scars. Miss Havers changed her mind after one meeting and Nathaniel had retreated to Shiverstone Hall, resolving to live a solitary life. She hadn’t been the first woman to react to his altered appearance with horror: Lady Sarah Reece—with whom he’d had an understanding before he was injured—had lost no time in accepting another man’s proposal.
He did not miss his former carefree life as one of society’s most eligible bachelors: such frivolous pleasures no longer held any allure for him. Nor did he miss his erstwhile friends. He would never forget the shock on their faces, nor the speed with which they had turned their backs on him after the fire.
