Georgie Lee - Regency Surrender - Debts Reclaimed

About the Author

A lifelong history buff, GEORGIE LEEhasn’t given up hope that she will one day inherit a title and a manor house. Until then, she fulfils her dreams of lords, ladies and a season in London through her stories. When not writing, she can be found reading non-fiction history or watching any film with a costume and an accent. Please visit www.georgie-lee.comto learn more about Georgie and her books.

Regency Surrender: Debts Reclaimed

A Debt Paid in Marriage

Georgie Lee

A Too Convenient Marriage

Georgie Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08570-0

REGENCY SURRENDER: DEBTS RECLAIMED

A Debt Paid in Marriage © 2015 Georgie Reinstein A Too Convenient Marriage © 2016 Georgie Reinstein

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author About the Author A lifelong history buff, GEORGIE LEE hasn’t given up hope that she will one day inherit a title and a manor house. Until then, she fulfils her dreams of lords, ladies and a season in London through her stories. When not writing, she can be found reading non-fiction history or watching any film with a costume and an accent. Please visit www.georgie-lee.com to learn more about Georgie and her books.

Title Page Regency Surrender: Debts Reclaimed A Debt Paid in Marriage Georgie Lee A Too Convenient Marriage Georgie Lee www.millsandboon.co.uk

Copyright

A Debt Paid in Marriage A Debt Paid in Marriage Georgie Lee

Dedication A special thanks to RWASD for your inspiration andmotivation.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

A Too Convenient Marriage

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

Epilogue

About the Publisher

A Debt Paid in Marriage

Georgie Lee

A special thanks to RWASD for your inspiration andmotivation.

Chapter One

London —spring 1817

‘What exactly do you think you are doing?’ Mr Rathbone demanded, his deep-blue eyes fixing on her through the wisps of steam rising from the copper bathtub. Dark-brown hair lay damp over his forehead. One drop escaped the thickness of it, sliding down his face, then tracing the edge of his jaw before dropping into the tub.

Laura slid her finger away from the trigger, afraid of accidentally sending a ball through the moneylender’s sturdy, wet and very bare torso. She had no intention of killing him, only frightening him into giving back the inventory he’d seized from her uncle Robert. Judging by the hard eyes he fixed on her, he wasn’t a man to scare easily.

‘Well?’ he demanded and she jumped, her nerves as taut as the fabric over the back of a chair.

When she’d slipped into the house determined to face him, she’d expected to find him hunched over his desk counting piles of coins or whatever else it was a moneylender did at night. She hadn’t expected to surprise him in his bath with a film of soapy water the only thing standing between her and his modesty. What had seemed like a good plan in the pathetic rooms she shared with her uncle and her mother, when hunger gnawed at her stomach and cold crept in through the broken window, now seemed horrible.

Laura settled her shoulders, shoring up the courage faltering under his steady stare. Beyond this humid room was nothing but ruin and poverty. She had no choice but to continue. ‘I demand you return to me the fabric you seized from my uncle.’

The moneylender raised his arms out of the water, disturbing the calm suds, and she caught sight of his flat stomach before the soapy water settled back over it. His hands rested on the curved sides of the tub. They were long but sturdy, like those of the delivery men who used to haul the bolts of cloth off the cart and into her father’s draper shop. Mr Rathbone’s were smooth and free of calluses, however, and, except for the red of an old cut snaking along one knuckle, the hands of a gentleman.

She took a step back, expecting him to rise from the water and rush at her. He did nothing except study her, as though appraising her market value. ‘And who exactly is your uncle?’

Laura swallowed hard. Yes, this was important information to impart if one was to make demands of a naked man. ‘Robert Townsend.’

‘The gambling draper.’ Neither shock nor surprise broke his piercing stare. ‘He came to me six months ago in need of a loan to pay a large debt accrued at Mrs Topp’s, among many other establishments. In return for my money, he put up the inventory of the draper business as collateral. When he defaulted, I seized the goods, as was my right pursuant to our contract.’