Deceived
Rumor has it a certain notorious Princess has not a feather to fly and is looking for a gentleman to ease her financial worries. Perhaps the Earl of S. is the man she seeks…. – The Gentleman's Mercury, 1816Princess Isabella never imagined it could come to this. Bad enough she faces imprisonment for debts not her own. Even worse that she must make a hasty marriage of convenience with Marcus, the Earl of Stockhaven–the man she'd loved and lost so long ago. But that he now wants revenge by demanding she be his in more than name only…well, that is simply intolerable!As the London gossips eagerly gather to watch the fun, Isabella struggles to maintain a polite distance in her marriage. But the more Isabella challenges Marcus's iron determination, the hotter their passion burns. This time, will it consume them both–or fuel a love greater than they dare dream?
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Nicola Cornick will whisk you back to Regency England—where you can escape into a world of passion and privilege…deceit and desire!
Praise for international bestselling author and RITA>®Award finalist Nicola Cornick:
“The Earl’s Prize is a captivating Regency story with an interesting and engaging twist. Two wonderfully human characters are presented that are remarkably intelligent and a pleasure to get to know…. This is a purely delightful story, which I enjoyed immensely.”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub
(A 4½-star review)
“Nicola Cornick has written a merry romp about Regency London that will make you wish you had been there.”
—romance-cafe.com on The Season for Suitors
Deceived was the runner-up for the Romantic Novelists Association’s prestigious Elizabeth Goudge Trophy 2005, where it was judged to be:
“A masterclass…. A vivid range of emotions and sensations….”
Nicola Cornick
Deceived
Dear Reader,
When I was a child we used to go to the seaside every summer and stay in an old cottage with a wild garden. There were bent old trees to hide in, and stone statues, and the long golden curve of the sand to play on. It was this old house and garden that I remembered when I was writing Deceived. I wanted my heroine, Isabella, to have a place that she loved and could run away to. The old house at Salterton became the place of Isabella’s childhood memories—and the place where she first met Marcus and fell in love. In the story, when Marcus, in his quest for revenge, threatens to take everything from Isabella that she cares for, Salterton is the one place she is determined to fight for.
I love old-flame stories. I love reading them and I love writing them. There is something exciting about unfinished business and something poignant about what might have been. Can Isabella and Marcus overcome all the barriers and misunderstandings that fate has put between them and rekindle the love that they found in the house by the sea all those years ago? I hope that you enjoy reading Deceived and finding out!
With love,
To the Cornick family with my thanks
and all my love.
I recognize the marks of the old flame of love.
—Dante
CONTENTS
Part 1–Revenge
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Part 2—Seduction
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Part 1–Revenge
London, June 1816
This newspaper is pleased to record the return to these shores of a certain notorious princess, whose arrival will be greeted with great glee by the gentlemen of the Ton. Rumor has it that the Princess IDC has not a feather to fly and is looking for a gentleman to ease her financial worries. Though whether the infamous lady will take him as lover or husband remains to be seen….
—The Gentlemen’s Athenian Mercury, June 12, 1816
CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS A HELL OF A PLACE to look for a husband.
Most discerning females, given a choice of marriage mart, would prefer the genteel familiarity of Almack’s any day to the rather more dubious qualifications of the Fleet Prison.
Princess Isabella Di Cassilis did not have that luxury. Princess Isabella was desperate.
She had explained to the jailer that her requirements were very specific. She needed to marry a man who owed so much money that to take on her twenty-thousand-pound liability would be a mere drop in the ocean of his debt. She needed a pauper—a strong one, since she did not want him dying on her and leaving her heir to his debts as well as her own—and she needed him now.
It was of no consequence to Isabella that she would be ruined if this escapade ever came to light. She was beyond ruin already. The more fastidious members of the Ton closed their doors to her, so what harm could a little more scandal do? She might even accomplish the remarkable success of being ruined twice over in one lifetime. It would be a considerable achievement for a lady of only nine and twenty.
Isabella Standish had not been born to be the princess of a European country, not even an insignificant one such as Cassilis. Her father had been a minor member of the Ton who’d aspired to be important but had never quite achieved his ambitions. Her grandfather had been fishmonger to King George III, ennobled by the monarch in one of his bouts of madness after he had partaken of a particularly tasty piece of rainbow trout. The family title was therefore not only newly created but also the butt of some hilarity, to the great mortification of the second Lord Standish, Isabella’s father.
It had been Isabella’s misfortune that at the age of seventeen she had been walking down Bond Street the day before her wedding and had caught the roving eye of the jaded Prince Ernest Rudolph Christian Ludwig Di Cassilis, who had been charmed by her prettiness and her unspoiled manners. Prince Ernest had immediately made a counteroffer for her hand in marriage. It was an offer that her father was not minded to refuse, as he was about to be bankrupted by his extravagance. Prince Ernest’s arrival was most timely, for Lord Standish if not for his daughter. The wedding that took place a few days later was not the one that Isabella had intended.
