Victoria Alexander - The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Everheart

All’s fair in love and meddling among the members of New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander’s Lady Travelers Society!

Unmarried and dedicated to illustrating the Explorers Club’s artifacts, Dulcie Middleworth is running out of prospects. Spinsterhood’s a tragedy for the daughter of a viscount, but London’s most eligible maiden has a secret: she’s already in love. But to confess an attraction to charming explorer Michael Shepard? Not when the man has no wish to marry and his heart’s desire lies in adventure abroad.

Surely such a predicament calls for a matchmaker of Poppy Fitzhew-Wellmore’s caliber! And calls as well for a romantic rival—the legendary figment of Poppy’s imagination Reginald Everheart—to nudge Michael’s affections in Dulcie’s direction. But what to do when everyone demands to meet the famously infamous suitor who doesn’t really exist?

The Rise and Fall of

Reginald Everheart

Victoria Alexander

www.millsandboon.co.uk

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Travelers Society series, VICTORIA ALEXANDERwas an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she’s written more than forty full-length novels that have been translated around the world. Victoria lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with a long-suffering husband she kills off in every book and two bearded collies in a house under constant renovation and never-ending chaos. She laughs a great deal—she has to. Check out her books at www.victoriaalexander.com, and chat with her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/victoriaalexandersplace.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text All’s fair in love and meddling among the members of New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander’s Lady Travelers Society! Unmarried and dedicated to illustrating the Explorers Club’s artifacts, Dulcie Middleworth is running out of prospects. Spinsterhood’s a tragedy for the daughter of a viscount, but London’s most eligible maiden has a secret: she’s already in love. But to confess an attraction to charming explorer Michael Shepard? Not when the man has no wish to marry and his heart’s desire lies in adventure abroad. Surely such a predicament calls for a matchmaker of Poppy Fitzhew-Wellmore’s caliber! And calls as well for a romantic rival—the legendary figment of Poppy’s imagination Reginald Everheart—to nudge Michael’s affections in Dulcie’s direction. But what to do when everyone demands to meet the famously infamous suitor who doesn’t really exist?

Title Page The Rise and Fall of Reginald Everheart Victoria Alexander www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Travelers Society series, VICTORIA ALEXANDER was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she’s written more than forty full-length novels that have been translated around the world. Victoria lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with a long-suffering husband she kills off in every book and two bearded collies in a house under constant renovation and never-ending chaos. She laughs a great deal—she has to. Check out her books at www.victoriaalexander.com , and chat with her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/victoriaalexandersplace .

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

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

London, 1868

AT THE TENDER AGE of twenty-three, Miss Dulcie Middleworth, the youngest daughter of Viscount Middleworth, had just been declared a social failure.

Dulcie stared at the nearly blank sheet of laid paper affixed to the board in front of her and tried to concentrate on her preliminary pencil drawing of a fragment of ancient pottery. The barely started work was part of her continuing commission to document in pen and paint the endless collection of the Explorers Club. Her efforts at the moment were pointless really. She simply couldn’t focus on her work. As much as she didn’t care for the most part about her standing in society, it was rather bothersome to be considered a failure. Mother was certainly upset.

Oh, there hadn’t been a notice in the Times or any sort of official announcement in Notes for Ladies, the London ladies’ magazine her mother and sisters devoured for the latest news on society’s approved activities as well as scandalous escapades. The latter were discreetly detailed and rarely mentioned anyone by name, although determining who was the subject of the latest bit of gossip usually took no more effort than an afternoon of calls and a few cups of tea. No, in the world of London society, there were no official announcements as to who had done what, but the end result was the same.

For the first time since Dulcie had come out in society, she had not been invited to Lady Scarsdale’s grand ball, the acknowledged start of the social season ever since Lady Scarsdale’s daughter had been a debutante some twenty or so years ago. Mother had long said the ball was intended to ensure Lady Scarsdale’s daughter a position of some power in society as well as guaranteeing she would not be overlooked. According to Mother the girl was not one of that season’s great beauties but she did have a certain wit and cleverness about her that was not apparent simply by looking at her. By the time the Scarsdale offspring had indeed married well—her fourth season, Mother said—Lady Scarsdale’s ball had become the place to be and be seen for any young woman looking for entry to society and to make a good match. While the new season’s crop of debutantes in its entirety was routinely invited to the ball, those who were in their subsequent seasons were given the prized invitation based on any number of mysterious factors known only to Lady Scarsdale and her cohorts.

This year—Dulcie’s fifth in society—the invitation to Lady Scarsdale’s ball had not been forthcoming. Mother was livid and blamed Father. Her three older sisters were nearly as distraught over the slight and vowed to redouble their efforts to find Dulcie an appropriate match.

It wasn’t as if Dulcie didn’t wish to be married. She did but she wanted to marry for reasons of affection. Dulcie Middleworth wanted love and rather feared she had found it. Pity it appeared to be one-sided.

She casually glanced across the large library in the impressive Bloomsbury mansion that housed the Explorers Club to the only other person currently in the room and tried not to sigh. Not that he would have noticed.

Michael Shepard’s gaze shifted back and forth between the book opened to his left and the notebook in front of him. His dark hair was slightly disheveled as if he had just run his hand through it as, no doubt, he had. His pen flew across the notebook page with a life of its own. Any minute now, he’d stop to push his spectacles—which had an endearing tendency to slide down his perfectly straight nose—back into place. He didn’t look up but she knew his eyes were the deepest shade of gray, like the sky on a stormy day. His shoulders were broad, which bespoke some sort of physical exercise, and he stood a good head taller than she. Not that she had ever been close enough to measure.