Louise Allen - Scandal's Virgin

SEDUCED BY THE SCOUNDREL † † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** * Those Scandalous Ravenhursts ** The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

MARRIED TO A STRANGER † † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** * Those Scandalous Ravenhursts ** The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

FORBIDDEN JEWEL OF INDIA †† † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** * Those Scandalous Ravenhursts ** The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

TARNISHED AMONGST THE TON †† † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** * Those Scandalous Ravenhursts ** The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

FROM RUIN TO RICHES

UNLACING LADY THEA

*Those Scandalous Ravenhursts

**The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters

† Danger & Desire

†† Linked by character

and as a Mills & Boon ®special release:

REGENCY RUMOURS

and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series:

THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY

THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY

and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks:

DISROBED AND DISHONOURED

AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** * Those Scandalous Ravenhursts ** The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters † Danger & Desire †† Linked by character and as a Mills & Boon ® special release: REGENCY RUMOURS and in the Silk & Scandal mini-series: THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY THE OFFICER AND THE PROPER LADY and in Mills & Boon® Historical Undone! eBooks: DISROBED AND DISHONOURED AUCTIONED VIRGIN TO SEDUCED BRIDE ** Did you know that some of these novels are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

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

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To all my friends in the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Contents

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 One

April 1816—the park of Westerwood Manor,

Hertfordshire

Keep still! The circular image shook, swooped over immaculately scythed grass, across flower beds fresh with young growth, over a flash of bright blue cotton... There.

The watcher’s hand jammed so hard against the branch that the rough bark scored the skin from the knuckles. Yes. Glossy ringlets the colour of autumn leaves, determined little chin, flyaway brows over eyes that must surely be clear green. Beautiful. She is so beautiful.

And then the girl smiled and turned, laughing as she ran. The telescope jerked up and a man’s face filled the circle. Hair the colour of autumn leaves, stubborn chin, angled brows, sensual mouth turned up into a smile of delight.

‘Papa! Papa!’ The child’s voice floated back through the still, warm air. The man stooped to scoop her up and turned towards the house as she buried her face in the angle between neck and broad shoulder and clung like a happy monkey. Her laughter drifted on the breeze towards the woodland edge.

The telescope fell with a dull thud onto the golden drift of fallen beech leaves and the woman who had held it slid down the tree trunk until she huddled at its base, racked with the sobs that she had stifled for six long years.

* * *

‘You saw her then.’

‘How did you guess?’ Laura Campion let the door slam shut behind her.

‘Look at the state of you. All blubbered up. You never could get away with tears, my la—ma’am.’

Trust Mab to exhibit the delicate sensibility of a brick. The scratch of wicker on wood as the maid pushed aside the mending basket, the sharp tap of her heels on the brick floor, the creak of the chain as she swung the kettle over the fire, all scraped like nails on a slate. But the words steadied her as gushing sympathy never would have done. Mab knew her all too well.