Amanda McCabe - Running from Scandal

She braced herself for the pain of landing on the hard floor—only to be caught instead in a pair of strong muscled arms.

The shock of it quite knocked the breath from her, and the room went hazy and blurry as the veil of her bonnet blinded her. Willing herself not to faint, Emma blinked away her confusion and pushed back the dratted veil.

‘Thank you, sir,’ she gasped. ‘You are very quick-thinking.’

‘I’m just happy I happened to be here,’ her rescuer answered, and his voice was shockingly familiar. A smooth, deep, rich sound, like a glass of sweet mulled wine on a cold night, comforting and deliciously disturbing all at the same time.

It was a voice she hadn’t heard in a long while, and yet she remembered it very well.

Two sisters, two scandals, two sizzling love affairs

Country girls at heart, Jane and Emma Bancroft are a far cry from the perfectly coiffed, glossy debutantes that grace most of Society.

But soon they come to realise that, country girl and debutante alike, no lady is immune to the charms of a dashing rogue!

Don’t miss this enthralling new duet from Amanda McCabe

It started with Jane’s story THE RUNAWAY COUNTESS

Already available

and continues with Emma’s story

RUNNING FROM SCANDAL

AMANDA McCABEwrote her first romance at the age of sixteen—a vast epic, starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class. She’s never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA® Award, RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma, with a menagerie of two cats, a pug and a bossy miniature poodle, and loves dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network—even though she doesn’t cook.

Visit her at http://ammandamccabe.tripod.com and www.riskyregencies.blogspot.com

Previous novels by the same author:

TO CATCH A ROGUE * * The Chase Muses † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

TO DECEIVE A DUKE * * The Chase Muses † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

TO KISS A COUNT * * The Chase Muses † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHARLOTTE AND THE WICKED LORD

(in Regency Summer Scandals )

A NOTORIOUS WOMAN † † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

A SINFUL ALLIANCE † † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

HIGH SEAS STOWAWAY † † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

THE WINTER QUEEN

(in Christmas Betrothals )

THE SHY DUCHESS

SNOWBOUND AND SEDUCED

(in Regency Christmas Proposals )

THE TAMING OF THE ROGUE

A STRANGER AT CASTONBURY ** ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

TARNISHED ROSE OF THE COURT

THE RUNAWAY COUNTESS ‡ ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

And in Mills & Boon ®Historical Undone! eBooks:

SHIPWRECKED AND SEDUCED † † linked by character ** Castonbury Park Regency mini-series ‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

TO BED A LIBERTINE

THE MAID’S LOVER

TO COURT, CAPTURE AND CONQUER

GIRL IN THE BEADED MASK

UNLACING THE LADY IN WAITING

ONE WICKED CHRISTMAS

AN IMPROPER DUCHESS

A VERY TUDOR CHRISTMAS

* The Chase Muses

†linked by character

**Castonbury Park Regency mini-series

‡ Bancrofts of Barton Park

Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

Running

from Scandal

Amanda McCabe

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When I was about eight I found a battered paperback copy of Emma in a bag of secondhand books at my grandmother’s house. I didn’t know anything about Jane Austen then (except a vague thought that she’d lived a long time ago and never got married!), but I was drawn in by the two girls in white gowns and feathered bonnets on the cover and started reading. I was dragged right into the world of Emma Woodhouse and her friends and family in Highbury, and refused to do anything else until I’d finished the book! Then I ran to the library and checked out all the Austen novels. That was the beginning of my Regency love, which goes on to this day.

For a long time I’ve wanted to try writing a story in the style of an Austen novel. Not in her writing style, of course—no one can copy that—but in what I loved so much about her plots: the life of English villages and country houses, the close bonds that can form between families (especially sisters) and friends in such places, the romances that blossom even when their prospects look bleak.

I finally found the right characters in my Bancroft sisters, Jane and Emma, and the happily-ever-afters they found at Barton Park with their handsome heroes. I started to feel as if I could have lived in that neighbourhood, too—it was such a fun world to spend time in, and I was sorry to say goodbye to it all. But I know Jane and Emma go on happily there!

And watch for a little epilogue story coming soon, where we see what happens when Melanie Harding and Philip Carrington find themselves unwillingly married …

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight