Return Of The Runaway

Scandal is their destiny!

Meet the Arrandale family—dissolute, disreputable and defiant! This infamous family have scandal in their blood, and wherever they go their reputation will always precede them!

Don’t miss any of the fabulous books in Sarah Mallory’s dazzling new quartet!

The Chaperon’s Seduction Already available

Temptation of a Governess Already available

Return of the Runaway Available now

and look for the fourth and final sinfully scandalous story, coming soon!

These days we think of surgeons as being at the top of the medical profession—skilled lifesavers, possibly even more important than general practitioners. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century things were very different. Doctors and physicians might be considered gentlemen, but surgeons worked with their hands, and rarely had any formal qualifications, so they were considered artisans, tradesmen. This is the world occupied by Raoul Doulevant, a Belgian surgeon who is proud of his skills but who knows he cannot be considered a suitable husband for the daughter of a marquess.

Cassie is an Arrandale, the errant granddaughter of the Dowager Marchioness of Hune. She is mentioned in the earlier books of this mini-series but never seen, having eloped and run off to France with her husband during the short-lived Peace of Amiens. Now, in 1803, the peace is at an end, Cassie is a widow and she wants to return to England.

This is the story of Cassie and Raoul’s flight through France. It is dangerous, difficult, and as they learn more about each other they realise their worlds are just too far apart for them to find happiness together without momentous sacrifices on both sides.

Enjoy their journey!

Return of

the Runaway

Sarah Mallory

www.millsandboon.co.uk

SARAH MALLORY was born in the West Country and now lives on the beautiful Yorkshire moors. She has been writing for more than three decades—mainly historical romances set in the Georgian and Regency period. She has won several awards for her writing, most recently the Romantic Novelists’ Association RoNA Rose Award in 2012 (for The Dangerous Lord Darrington) and 2013 (for Beneath the Major’s Scars).

To Marianne—from the proudest mum in the world.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Author Note

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Verdun, France—September 1803

The young lady in the room at the top of the house on the Rue Égalité was looking uncharacteristically sober in her dark-blue linen riding habit. Even the white shirt she wore beneath the close-fitting jacket bore only a modest frill around the neck. She had further added to the sobriety by sewing black ribbons to her straw bonnet and throwing a black lace shawl around her shoulders. Now she sat before the looking glass and regarded her reflection with a critical eye.

‘“Lady Cassandra Witney is headstrong and impetuous,”’ she stated, recalling a recent description of herself. Her critic had also described her as beautiful, but Cassie disregarded that. She propped her chin on her hand and gave a tiny huff of dissatisfaction. ‘The problem with being headstrong and impetuous,’ she told her image, ‘is that it leads one to make mistakes. Marrying Gerald was most definitely a mistake.’

She turned and surveyed the little room. Accompanying Gerald to Verdun had been a mistake, too, but when the Treaty of Amiens had come to an end in May she had not been able to bring herself to abandon him and go home to England. That would have been to admit defeat and her spirit rebelled at that. Eloping with Gerald had been her choice, freely made, and she could almost hear Grandmama, the Dowager Marchioness of Hune, saying, ‘You have made your bed, my girl, now you must lie in it.’

And lie in it she had, for more than a year, even though she had known after a few months of marriage that Gerald was not the kind, loving man she had first thought him.

A knock at the door interrupted her reverie. After a word with the servant she picked up her portmanteau and followed him down the stairs. A light travelling chaise was waiting at the door with Merimon, the courier she had hired, standing beside it. He was a small, sharp-faced individual and now he looked down his long narrow nose at the bag in her hand.

‘C’est tout?’

‘It is all I wish to take.’

Cassandra answered him in his own language, looking him in the eye. As the bag was strapped on to the chaise she reflected sadly that it was little enough to show for more than a year of married life. Merimon opened the door of the chaise and continued to address her in coarse French.

‘Milady will enter, if you please, and I will accompany you on foot. My horse is waiting at the Porte St Paul.’

Cassie looked up. The September sun was already low in the sky.

‘Surely it would have been better to set off at first light,’ she observed.