Surrender To The Marquess
A battle of wills!When Lady Sara Herriard’s husband dies in a duel, she turns her back on the vagaries of the ton. From now on, she will live as she pleases. She won’t change for anyone – certainly not for the infuriating Lucian Avery, Marquess of Cannock!Lucian must help his sister recover from a disastrous elopement and reluctantly enlists Lady Sara’s help. She couldn’t be further from the conventional, obedient wife he’s expected to marry, but soon, all he craves is for her to surrender – and join him in his bed!
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A battle of wills!
When Lady Sara Herriardâs husband dies in a duel, she turns her back on the vagaries of the ton. From now on, she will live as she pleases. She wonât change for anyoneâcertainly not for the infuriating Lucian Avery, Marquess of Cannock!
Lucian must help his sister recover from a disastrous elopement and reluctantly enlists Lady Saraâs help. She couldnât be further from the conventional, obedient wife heâs expected to marry, but soon all he craves is for her to surrenderâand join him in his bed!
âLadies need protection.â Lucian stalked over to the balustrade.
Shaking the provoking creature would not be a good illustration of his caseâkissing her would be even worse.
âHow did you get here this evening, for example? These streets and lanes are darkâanyone could be lurking.â
âBy sedan chair, with the same two reliable, burly chairmen I always use. They will come and collect me later. And should desperate footpads leap out and manage to fell both of them I can defend myself.â
âHow? With sharp words?â he demanded, and took two strides to stand in front of her, his hands either side, pinning her back against the balustrade. âMen are stronger, more vicious, than you could imagine.â
âAlso more vulnerable,â she murmured. âLook down, my lord. It is not only my words that have an edge.â
He didâjust as he felt pressure against the falls of his evening breeches. In the moonlight something glinted: sharp steel, held rocksteady in her hand.
Lucian stood quite still. âWhere did that come from?â
Some time ago I wrote Forbidden Jewel of India, a story I was passionate about, set entirely in India in the 1780sâa time when the East India Company ruled in uneasy alliance with the Princes and Rajas. Anusha was half-Indian; her lover, Nicholas Herriard, an English officer and heir to a marquess. When it was time for him to take up his title and return to England in 1816 I had all the fun of discovering how he and Anusha and their son and daughter adapted to English life.
I told Ashe Herriardâs story in Tarnished Amongst the Ton, but I had no inkling of what might happen to Sara, his sisterâuntil now. So here she is, very much her motherâs daughter and determined to be her own womanâdespite what the men in her life think and certainly despite what Lucian Avery, Marquess of Cannock, believes is best for her.
I hope you enjoy following Saraâs stormy path to true love as much as I enjoyed discovering it.
LOUISE ALLEN loves immersing herself in history. She finds landscapes and places evoke the past powerfully. Venice, Burgundy and the Greek islands are favourite destinations. Louise lives on the Norfolk coast and spends her spare time gardening, researching family history or travelling in search of inspiration. Visit her at louiseallenregency.co.uk, @LouiseRegency and janeaustenslondon.com.
Books by Louise Allen
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
The Herriard Family
Forbidden Jewel of India
Tarnished Amongst the Ton Surrender to the Marquess
Lords of Disgrace
His Housekeeperâs Christmas Wish
His Christmas Countess The Many Sins of Cris de Feaux The Unexpected Marriage of Gabriel Stone
Brides of Waterloo
A Rose for Major Flint
Danger & Desire
Ravished by the Rake
Seduced by the Scoundrel Married to a Stranger
Silk & Scandal
The Lord and the Wayward Lady
The Officer and the Proper Lady
Mills & Boon Historical Undone! ebooks
Disrobed and Dishonored
Auctioned Virgin to Seduced Bride
Visit the Author Profile page
at millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.
To Lorna Chapman
for encouraging me to tell Saraâs story. Thank you!
Contents
September 1818âSandbay, Dorset
It was an elegant shop front with its sea-green paintwork, touches of gilding and sparkling clean windows. Aphroditeâs Seashell. A risqué choice of name, Lucian thought, considering that Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, born from the sea foam when Cronus cut off Uranusâs male parts and threw them into the ocean. Otherwise it looked feminine and mildly frivolous as befitted its function and location. Not a place he would normally set foot in unless absolutely desperate.
But Mr L. J. Dunton Esquire, otherwise known in polite society as Lucian John Dunton Avery, Marquess of Cannock, was desperate. Otherwise he would not be found dead within a hundred miles of an obscure seaside resort in the not very fashionable time of mid-September. That desperation had driven him to ask for advice and the landlord at the rigidly respectable Royal Promenade Hotel had recommended this place, so he pushed open the door to a tinkle of bells and stepped inside.
