Unmasking Lady Innocent

ANN LETHBRIDGE has been reading Regency novels for as long as she can remember. She always imagined herself as Lizzie Bennet or one of Georgette Heyer’s heroines, and would often recreate the stories in her head with different outcomes or scenes. When she sat down to write her own novel, it was no wonder that she returned to her first love: the Regency.

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Ann grew up roaming England with her military father. Her family lived in many towns and villages across the country, from the Outer Hebrides to Hampshire. She spent many memorable family holidays in the West Country and in Dover, where her father was born. She now lives in Canada, with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and a Maltese terrier named Teaser, who spends his days on a chair beside the computer, making sure she doesn’t slack off.

Ann visits Britain every year, to undertake research and also to visit family members who are very understanding about her need to poke around old buildings and visit every antiquity within a hundred miles. If you would like to know more about Ann and her research, or to contact her, visit her website at www.annlethbridge.com She loves to hear from readers.

Unmasking Lady Innocent

Ann Lethbridge

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I dedicate this story to Teaser, my dog and patient writing companion, who makes sure I get my exercise each and every day.

Spinster Diana Buntin has accepted that handsome Lord James Grey will never look at her as more than a friend. Yet she is tired of waiting to experience passion. Armed with a list of rakes known to specialize in seduction, Diana arranges to meet her first lover at a masked ball—keeping their identities secret and her reputation intact.

But while Diana feels a powerful attraction to her mystery seducer, she also senses that he may not be a stranger after all….

In the dark of the carriage, the horses’ hooves did nothing to drown out the thunder of Diana Buntin’s heart. The sound filled her ears and vibrated her ribs. Her lungs ached for air, yet the simple act of breathing seemed unattainable.

Kate, her good friend and once her lady’s companion, squeezed Diana’s hand as the carriage halted. “Dinna fash,” she said, her soft Scottish brogue stronger since she married her highland laird.

Hand in hand, they waited for the door to open. “'Tis not too late to change your mind,” Kate murmured.

And what then? Continue her lonely spinster’s existence?

She would have married long ago, were it not for the death of her betrothed, followed almost immediately by her elderly parents’ demises, one after the other. She’d done nothing but wait for years. In what had seemed less than a moment, she’d gone from youthful debutante to spinster on the shelf. A horrid fate for a woman who once expected a glittering marriage, home and family.

Wasn’t it now her turn to taste what life had to offer? Wasn’t it time to stop waiting and seize what she wanted?

Realizing she was gripping Kate’s hand far too hard, she let go. Many women had the kind of discrete liaison she sought. Widows. Unhappily married women. For them, people turned a blind eye. So what if she’d never been married?

Having made her list of potential bed partners from men known by reputation as hedonists who specialized in passion, she’d closed her eyes and let fate take its course. Only Kate knew the name her pin had stabbed. Like the good friend she’d always been, Kate had delivered the offer of one night of anonymous lovemaking. Diana didn’t want to know the man’s identity, she just wanted him to show her the passion she’d missed. Because she was finished with waiting.

She forced a smile. “No going back. This is what I want.”

The carriage door swung open. The liveried footman let down the steps. Diana resolutely stepped down into the warm spring evening. She glanced back at her auburn-haired friend. “Besides, he may not show up.”

Kate jumped down beside her. “He’ll be waiting.”

Good. Someone waiting for her for once.

Her stomach lurched. Why was she so nervous? It was only a meeting tonight. If she didn’t feel comfortable with the man, that would be an end to it. He might not like her and would have the same option. It was the terms they’d agreed. Was that her fear …that he would find her lacking? Mentally she shrugged. Nothing would be lost. The meeting would be a fleeting anonymous discussion. Her reputation would remain intact. She’d made sure of it.

“Harry is already here?” she asked Kate, perhaps for the third time. Harry, Lord Godridge was the man who had swept Kate off her feet and carried her off to a wedding at Gretna Green. The couple had recently returned to London take Diana’s niece, Lizzie, back to her father in Scotland.

“He’s here with Lizzie.” Kate chuckled. “Puzzled but content to be of service.”

They climbed the steps to the front door of the Dunstan’s palatial home on the bank of the Thames near Richmond. “Tonbridge is a good man,” Diana said wistfully. “His gain is my loss. I have yet to find a companion to replace you.”