An Earl In Want Of A Wife
A marriage of convenience… or desire?The Earl of Burwell needs a wife! The woman who broke Daniel’s heart has been blackmailing him, so to protect his son from the horrors of illegitimacy he must find a rich bride…Temporarily posing as her heiress cousin, plain, poor orphan Lizzie Eastway knows her popularity is due only to her supposed dowry – no one could ever love the real her. And disclosing her true identity seems heartbreakingly impossible when Lizzie sees the spark of genuine desire in dashing Lord Burwell’s eyes!
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Gently Daniel dropped a hand to her shoulder. Lizzie felt her breath catch in her throat as she anticipated his next move.
Slowly, so slowly, Daniel ran his fingers along the neckline of her dress, and she knew sheâd scream if he didnât delve deeper. Lizzie knew what they were doing was wrong, but she also knew that if Daniel stopped she would shatter from pure frustration.
Daniel stopped. Lizzie moaned, trying to pull him closer again, not caring if she was behaving like a common street walker. She wanted Daniel. Her body was screaming out in need of him.
She looked up with unfocused eyes and saw the confusion on his face. Of everything sheâd expected to see there, confusion hadnât been part of it.
Lizzie wondered once again what he saw when he looked at her. She knew he couldnât truly be attracted to her, but when he kissed her it seemed so real, so passionate, she couldnât believe he didnât feel some spark of desire. Surely even the most consummate of actors couldnât fake what they had just shared?
I started to write An Earl in Want of a Wife when I was heavily pregnant, and when I was planning this book my mind was taken up with all things to do with children. In this day and age in our society it does not much matter if your parents are married or not when youâre born, but with motherhood looming I got to thinking about families in Regency England. I realised that illegitimacy had far-reaching consequences for those living a couple of hundred years ago, and a man with an illegitimate child would have had many difficult decisions to make. With all this in my mind Daniel, a gentleman agonising over such decisions, was born.
As Danielâs character developed I realised he needed a very special woman to help him overcome not only the harsh judgements of society but also his own sometimes misguided ideas about fatherhood. Lizzie is that woman. She is the quintessential ugly duckling, but throughout the book she blossoms into a confident young woman. When writing An Earl in Want of a Wife I was infused with the sentimentality of pregnancy, and I wanted her to find her happy ending just as I would my own child.
LAURA MARTIN writes historical romances with an adventurous undercurrent. When not writing she spends her time working as a doctor in Cambridgeshire, where she lives with her husband. In her spare moments Laura loves to lose herself in a book, and has been known to read cover to cover in a single day when the story is particularly gripping. She also loves to travel, especially visiting historical sites and far-flung shores.
For Jack, my constant companion.
Your smile melts my heart.
And for Luke.
Every day with you is even better than the last.
Contents
Lizzie peered out of the carriage window and tried to calm her racing pulse. Never before in her life had she felt so alone. Before boarding the boat bound for London sheâd heard so much about the city, but now she was here she couldnât quite believe how busy and crowded it was. Momentarily she longed for the rolling hills just outside Bombay, but then silently reprimanded herself. She hadnât been happy there, not truly. This was the opportunity sheâd been waiting for her entire life.
As the carriage slowed Lizzie let the curtain fall back into place and tried to put herself into the role she was to play for the next few weeks. For at least a fortnight she was no longer to be Miss Elizabeth Eastway, orphaned daughter of a penniless second son. Instead she would play the role of Miss Amelia Eastway, cherished only child and heiress to a substantial fortune. She found herself smiling ruefully, knowing Amelia was the only person in the world who could have persuaded her to go along with such a ruse. If anyone else had asked, she would have laughed and shook her head, then proceeded to bury it in whatever book it was she was reading, but Amelia was different. Amelia was the sister sheâd never had, her only champion and friend in a world that did not favour penniless orphans. Lizzie knew she would jump in the path of a crazed horse to save Amelia, so when her cousin had asked her to swap identities for a couple of weeks she could hardly say no.
Of course, Amelia hadnât thought the whole thing through. Lizzie knew by agreeing to swap identities with her cousin it would be she who suffered in the long-term. She didnât have a large dowry or a substantial inheritance; people would forgive Amelia, but penniless Lizzie would be ruined. If her cousin had realised that, Lizzie knew she wouldnât have asked, but as always Amelia hadnât even stopped to consider the consequences. In Lizzieâs mind she didnât have much to lose, so when Amelia asked, she agreed. It wasnât as though she ever expected to make a good marriage or start a family, so Lizzie kept telling herself she wasnât sacrificing that much for her beloved cousin.
