From baby bump to marriage vows!
Rosa Rothwell knows her pregnancy is scandalous. She will do anything to protect her baby, even staging a daring escape from her family’s Italian home. Rosa has no idea what the future holds—until a handsome but infuriating stranger offers his help.
Convinced his family is cursed, Lord Hunter believes he’s far better off alone. But the pregnant debutante’s sweet nature touches him deeply. Can he confront his demons at last, and give them both a new future...as husband and wife?
‘I have a proposition for you,’ he said, choosing his words carefully. ‘I would like you to listen to what I have to say and think before you give me an answer.’
Rosa smiled at him, but her expression turned serious as she studied him.
‘I think we should marry.’
Rosa almost choked as he said the words.
‘Don’t jest, Thomas,’ she said. ‘I know I am unmarriageable, but please don’t poke fun.’
‘I’m completely serious.’
‘Why would you want to marry me? You’re not in love with me. You barely know me.’
All very good points, but he knew enough.
‘You need to marry, and soon, or the child you carry will be illegitimate for ever.’
‘That’s not what I asked. I know why I’m in desperate need of a husband.’ Rosa grimaced. ‘But no man in his right mind would take me on.’
‘Maybe I’m not in my right mind.’
She regarded him in silence, almost warily, until he spoke again.
‘Just listen and I will explain.’
Author Note
I never thought I would write a romance in which one of the protagonists lives under the shadow of the threat of an inherited disease! It isn’t a subject that immediately lends itself to images of happiness and passion. However, complex neurological disorders are an issue very close to my heart, and when I found myself wondering what it would be like to live two hundred years ago with one of these diseases I couldn’t let the idea go.
Although not identified in the book, the disease running in Thomas Hunter’s family is Huntington’s disease—a hereditary disorder of the central nervous system. If a parent is affected, his or her children will all have a fifty per cent chance of developing the disease. This we know today, from modern clinical research, but in 1820—when genetics and theories on modes of inheritance were far into the future—a disease that ran in the family would often be thought of as a curse. There was no way of knowing if you would be affected, and when I was planning this book I couldn’t let go of the thought of the unimaginable strain that lack of knowledge would put someone under.
I have tried to be as accurate as possible in Thomas’s descriptions of the disease his father and brother died from, but as with many illnesses it affects people differently. What I hope is accurate is Thomas’s journey to accepting the uncertainty his future holds, and allowing himself a little happiness on the way.
A Ring for the Pregnant Debutante
Laura Martin
www.millsandboon.co.uk
LAURA MARTIN writes historical romances with an adventurous undercurrent. When not writing she spends her time working as a doctor in Cambridgeshire, where she lives with her husband. In her spare moments Laura loves to lose herself in a book, and has been known to read from cover to cover in a single day when the story is particularly gripping. She also loves to travel—especially visiting historical sites and far-flung shores.
Books by Laura Martin
Mills & Boon Historical Romance
The Governess Tales
Governess to the Sheikh
Linked by Character
An Earl in Want of a Wife
Heiress on the Run
Stand-Alone Novels
The Pirate Hunter
Secrets Behind Locked Doors
Under a Desert Moon
A Ring for the Pregnant Debutante
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk.
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For Luke and Jack. You keep me smiling.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Introduction
Author Note
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
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
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Extract
Copyright
Chapter One
Rosa lifted her head from the pillow as the door opened and looked at the unappetising bowl of stew before turning her gaze to her odious cousin. He watched her as she dismissed first the dinner and then him, a cold contempt behind his eyes.
‘You should be grateful for the scraps I bring you,’ Antonio Di Mercurio sneered as he flung the bowl of brown slop on to the rickety wooden table. ‘Whores don’t deserve to eat with the rest of the family.’
‘Would it hurt you to be civil?’ Rosa replied in her broken Italian. She tried to remain aloof, but could already feel the anger threatening to take over. Her cousin had been needling her for the past four weeks, trying to provoke some kind of reaction, and Rosa knew it wouldn’t be long before he succeeded. There were only so many insults she could turn the other cheek to before retaliating.
‘Civil? Maybe you should work on being less civil. Might save the family from further shame in the future.’ Antonio laughed heartily at his joke, made the protective sign against the evil eye with his hands and turned to leave.
Rosa picked up the bowl Antonio had just set down and flung it at her malicious cousin, but he was already out of the room and the dinner splatted against the closed door. Letting out a growl of annoyance, Rosa flopped back on the bed and tried to relax. She knew she shouldn’t let Antonio upset her so much, but it was difficult being in a foreign country with people she didn’t know. The Di Mercurios might be her family on her mother’s side, but they didn’t act warm or loving. In the four weeks she’d been staying in the villa in Italy not one of them had said a single kind word towards her.
Rosa suddenly sat up straight and looked at the door. In Antonio’s haste to avoid her flying dinner he might have forgotten to lock it. She didn’t remember hearing the click or the grating of the metal key in the ancient lock. Hardly daring to hope, Rosa stood and crossed the room. She gripped the handle, wondering whether it was a trick, an unkind ruse planned by her cousin to give her the hope of freedom.
Knowing she couldn’t give up on even the slightest chance of escaping her imprisonment, Rosa pushed down on the handle and nearly cried out with happiness as the door opened. Quickly she glanced out into the corridor and saw it was deserted; the Di Mercurio family had no need to station a guard outside her door when they kept it locked all day and night.
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