The Scandalous Suffragette
Votes for women! Can she fight for freedom and for love? When chocolate heiress Violet Coombes is caught hanging her suffragette banner in a most shocking place, Adam Beaufort Esquire proposes a marriage of convenience! His good name will avert scandal for her family, and her money will save the estate Adam’s father gambled away. Violet accepts, but she’s determined nothing will distract her from the Cause – including her oh-so-tempting husband!
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Votes for women!
Can she fight for freedom and for love?
When chocolate heiress Violet Coombes is caught hanging her suffragette banner in a most shocking place, Adam Beaufort, Esquire, proposes a marriage of convenience! His good name will avert scandal for her family, and her money will save the estate Adam’s father gambled away. Violet accepts, but she’s determined nothing will distract her from the Cause—including her oh-so-tempting husband!
ELIZA REDGOLD is an author, academic and unashamed romantic. She was born in Scotland, is married to an Englishman, and currently lives in Australia. She loves to share stories with readers! Get in touch with Eliza via Twitter @ElizaRedgold, on Facebook facebook.com/ElizaRedgoldAuthor and Pinterest: pinterest.com/elizaredgold. Or visit her at Goodreads and elizaredgold.com.
ISBN: 978-1-474-08890-9
THE SCANDALOUS SUFFRAGETTE
© 2019 Eliza Redgold
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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To my dear friend Anne in Devon,
with love and gratitude.
Thank you to the fabulous Nicola Caws, editor extraordinaire at Harlequin Historical in London, for her fantastic feedback and for agreeing that it was the right time to tell Violet’s story. Thanks to my agent Joelle Delbourgo in New York, for her continued support and much appreciated advice. Thanks to Dr Rose Williams, for her insightful reading of the manuscript. While to Pamela Weatherill, for so many conversations about these topics, must be awarded purple hearts. Many thanks to friends and family, including those who joined us in France, especially to Marina Gillam, who brought the violet creams. To Nikki and Stefan Gasqueres, for the inspiring house-swap in Provence, merci beaucoup. I didn’t expect to be writing fiction again, but I’m glad I did. And the biggest thanks to the suffragettes, for my vote.
Contents
‘The Sun will run his orbit, and the Moon
Her circle. Wait, and Love himself will bring
The drooping flower of knowledge changed to fruit
Of wisdom.’
‘Upon my brain, my senses, and my soul!’
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson: ‘Love and Duty’ (1842)
‘What the blazes are you doing?’
Violet peered down from the edge of the first-floor balcony and managed not to lose her footing. Her perch was precarious as she attempted to tie the banner across the balustrade. She hadn’t knotted either end yet, the banner still clutched in her tense fingers. It would have been much easier by daylight, and from the inside of the balcony, but there was no hope of that. It didn’t help being shouted at from down in the street.
‘What are you doing up there?’ he shouted again.
In the dim street lighting Violet couldn’t make out the man’s face. All she could see was a tall figure clad in a dark coat. ‘It’s none of your concern, thank you!’
