The Trouble with Virtue: A Comfortable Wife / A Lady By Day
A COMFORTABLE WIFEMiss Antonia Mannering has made plans that include her long-ago friend Lord Philip Ruthven. She knows Philip is popular with the ladies, but he has never married. Might he now be ready for a wife? If she could only prove that she could run his home, not disgrace him in Society and be a comfortable wife, surely he would propose to her. But when love enters the equation, Antonia might be getting more than she bargained for…A LADY BY DAYRecovering from scandal, Josephine, Countess of Mareck, has secured a second chance at respectability. And she certainly will not risk it for Sir Noah Rutledge, who’s returned to London from the Mediterranean to secure a new business venture. But when Noah confronts Josephine and puts her secrets at risk, he stirs a most unexpected desire.With the elite watching closely, she must to be careful not to fall for an unsuitable man. Unless love proves stronger than Society…
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#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens and rising star Alison DeLaine bring you two tales of passionate temptation…and decorum overthrown.
A Comfortable Wife
Miss Antonia Mannering has made plans that include her long-ago friend Lord Philip Ruthven. She knows Philip is popular with the ladies, but he has never married. Might he now be ready for a wife? If she could only prove that she could run his home, not disgrace him in Society and be a comfortable wife, surely he would propose to her. But when love enters the equation, Antonia might be getting more than she bargained for….
A Lady by Day
Recovering from scandal, Josephine, Countess of Mareck, has secured a second chance at respectability. And she certainly will not risk it for Sir Noah Rutledge, who’s returned to London from the Mediterranean to secure a new business venture. But when Noah confronts Josephine and puts her secrets at risk, he stirs a most unexpected desire. With the ton watching closely, she must be careful not to fall for an unsuitable man. Unless love proves stronger than Society….
Praise for the novels of
“All I need is her name on the cover
to make me pick up the book.”
—New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard
“Laurens’s writing shines.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An interesting and absorbing plot…
an exciting and appealing romantic mystery.”
—FreshFiction.com
“The sensual tension simmers…and, as always,
Laurens delivers the delicious heat as they fall in love.”
—Michelle Buonfiglio, myLifetime.com
“Laurens spices up her superbly sensual,
elegantly written love story with a generous measure
of splendidly entertaining.”
—Booklist
“A fast-paced, action-packed, historical romance. Stephanie Laurens has another winner on her hands.”
—The Romance Readers Connection
“Danger, intrigue and seduction aplenty—
will leave you satisfied yet hungry for more.”
—Romance Reviews Today
Other must-have reads from
#1 New York Times bestselling author
Stephanie Laurens
An Unwilling Conquest
A Lady of Expectations
The Reasons for Marriage
Fair Juno
Impetuous Innocent
Four in Hand
Tangled Reins
And coming soon from Alison DeLaine
A Gentleman ’Til Midnight
A Comfortable Wife
Dear Reader,
In writing An Unwilling Conquest, the third book in the Lester trilogy, one character, Philip, Lord Ruthven, positively begged to be made a victim of love. His attitude as displayed in An Unwilling Conquest could not go unanswered—and that’s how A Comfortable Wife came about. Miss Antonia Mannering was the young lady who had Philip most determinedly in her sights. As a husband. The possibility of love never entered her head—she was far too levelheaded, and she knew Philip too well. She was looking for a husband, and by now he should be looking for a wife—to her, their aims were compatible. All should have been terribly comfortable, except…
What happens when love gets stirred into their equation is told in A Comfortable Wife. I hope you enjoy seeing Philip succumb to a passion that becomes more precious than anything else in his life.
Stephanie Laurens
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
“THIRTY-FOUR, MY DEAR HUGO, is a decidedly sobering age.”
“Heh?” Startled from somnolence, Hugo Satterly opened one cautious eye and studied the long-limbed figure gracefully lounging on the opposite carriage seat. “Why’s that?”
Philip Augustus Marlowe, seventh Baron Ruthven, did not deign to answer—not directly. Instead, his gaze on the summer scenery slipping past the carriage window, he remarked, “I would never have thought to see Jack and Harry Lester competing over who would provide the first of the next generation of Lesters.”
Hugo straightened. “Tricky prediction, that. Jack suggested laying odds but Lucinda heard of it.” Hugo grimaced. “That was the end of it, of course. Said she wasn’t about to have us all watching her and Sophie, counting the days. Pity.”
A fleeting smile touched Philip’s lips. “An uncommonly sensible woman, Lucinda.” After a moment he added, more to himself than to his friend, “And Jack was lucky with his Sophie, too.”
They were returning from a week’s house party at Lester Hall; the festivities had been presided over by Sophie, Mrs Jack Lester, ably seconded by Lucinda, now Harry Lester’s bride. Both recent additions to the Lester family tree were discreetly but definitely enceintes, and radiant with it. The unabashed happiness that had filled the rambling old house had infected everyone.
But the week had drawn to its inevitable close; Philip was conscious that, despite the calm and orderly ambiance of his ancestral home, there would be no such warmth, no promise for the future, awaiting him there. The idea that he had invited Hugo, a friend of many years, confirmed bachelor and infrequent rake, to join him solely as a distraction, to turn his thoughts from the depressing path he saw opening before him, floated through his mind. He tried to ignore it.
