Janice Preston - Scandal And Miss Markham

A scandalous journey...

Glassmaker’s daughter Thea Markham is devastated when her brother Daniel goes missing. Then a mysterious lord turns up asking questions about Daniel and offers to find him. Unsure she can trust the handsome peer, Thea dresses up as a boy and follows him!

Lord Vernon Beauchamp feels his life lacks direction. Meeting Thea gives him a renewed purpose. And when they are thrown together on their scandalous adventure, friendship soon gives way to desire...

Vernon stood at the washstand, shirtless, his back to her as he bent over the bowl.

The candlelight danced across unblemished skin and she watched, fascinated by the play of muscles across his shoulders and back, as he continued his ablutions. Her hands itched to touch, to stroke, to discover if his skin was as smooth as it looked. His breeches were stretched tight, outlining taut buttocks—thrust temptingly in her direction—and long, lean thighs. Her mouth dried as her skin heated. A thrilling sense of anticipation swirled in her belly, then slowed, arrowing in to the juncture of her thighs and provoking a strange restlessness.

An insistent need.

Thea resisted the urge to move, to turn onto her back, to push aside the covers, to extend her arms and invite him to hold her. How would it feel to throw aside morals and caution and pride and follow that craving? She lay motionless, still watching as Vernon hummed a tune she did not recognise under his breath, seemingly perfectly relaxed.

Desire.

She recognised it instinctively, although she had never before experienced it.

Author Note

Scandal and Miss Markham is the second of The Beauchamp Betrothals linked books, but it is a stand-alone story and it’s not essential to read Cinderella and the Duke first.

It is time for Lord Vernon Beauchamp—handsome, wealthy, darling of the ton and younger brother of Leo, Duke of Cheriton—to meet his match. But his life seems almost too perfect. A man like him—and he has featured in other books of mine, apart from Cinderella and the Duke —would surely just need to snap his fingers to win any woman he chose? But then I thought a bit more about his life and I realised he has always been Leo’s sidekick, always the second in command, and he is bored. He needs shaking out of his perfect life, and I knew just the woman to do it.

Enter Dorothea Markham, a glass manufacturer’s daughter with fascinating springy copper curls, a stubborn streak a mile wide and a penchant for acting first and repenting later—or not, as the case may be. She doesn’t need help from anyone when her brother fails to return home—least of all from a spoilt, wealthy aristocrat with a tendency to tease her...and to make her pulse leap alarmingly.

Enjoy the trip as Vernon and Thea embark on an adventure to find her missing brother and end up finding more than they bargained for.

Scandal and

Miss Markham

Janice Preston

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANICE PRESTONgrew up in Wembley, North London, with a love of reading, writing stories and animals. In the past she has worked as a farmer, a police callhandler and a university administrator. She now lives in the West Midlands with her husband and two cats, and has a part-time job as a weight management counsellor—vainly trying to control her own weight despite her love of chocolate!

Books by Janice Preston

Mills & Boon Historical Romance

The Beauchamp Betrothals

Cinderella and the Duke

Scandal and Miss Markham

The Governess Tales

The Governess’s Secret Baby

Men About Town

Return of Scandal’s Son

Saved by Scandal’s Heir

Linked by Character to Men About Town duet

Mary and the Marquis

From Wallflower to Countess

Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk.

To Mum.

I like to think you would be proud.

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

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Thea’s head snapped up at the sound of wheels crunching across the gravel outside Stourwell Court.

Daniel!

Hope erupted through her...it had been five days since her brother had gone out one day and not returned. She leapt to her feet and hurried to the salon window. A glimpse of a curricle drawn by a pair of blacks set her heart racing, and she flung her embroidery aside, gathered her skirts and ran for the door. Across the hall and through the front door she sped.

Please. Let it be him.

Doubts nipped at her as she sprinted down the steps to the now stationary conveyance, but she ignored them. She could not bear to let that prayer of hope fizzle and die. She shut her mind against the evidence of her eyes as she reached the foot of the steps and hurried to the curricle.

‘Daniel—’

Her eyes met those of the driver—a stranger—and she skidded to a halt, gravel spinning from beneath her feet.

‘Who are you? Where is Daniel?’ She raked the driver with her eyes and then switched her gaze to the horses. ‘Those are his—’

Her jaw snapped shut and her cheeks scorched. ‘Oh!’ Those doubts had caught up with her and knocked her flat. She bit her lip as sick disappointment flooded her, followed by the fear that had dogged her ever since her brother had failed to come home.

‘I beg your pardon, sir. I mistook your horses for those of my brother’s but I see, upon closer examination, they are not his.’

They were a pair of blacks, yes, but of far superior quality to Daniel’s, and a groom—another stranger—perched on the back of the curricle. And besides...

Fool! Daniel didn’t even take his curricle. He was on horseback.

And that had been her one ray of hope in this desperate mess, one that she clung to with all her heart: her brother had ridden away and not returned, but neither had Bullet, his grey gelding, whose homing instinct was powerful and who in the past had often carried his foxed rider safely home after a night spent drinking. Thankfully, though, Daniel had soon outgrown that wild behaviour.

And now Thea clung to her belief that whilst Bullet was missing, there was still hope.

The stranger appraised her with raised brows and she scowled back at him, irritated by the amused curl of his lips. She quashed the tug of attraction she recognised deep in her core. It was a very long time since she had allowed herself to be attracted to any man.

‘Your brother being Mr Daniel Markham?’

His voice was deep and cultured—that of a gentleman born. Thea had been subjected to enough elocution lessons to recognise that aristocratic drawl. She studied the driver, from the brim of his tall beaver hat to the toes of his shiny boots. What business could a man like this have with Daniel? Suspicions swirled. Did this stranger have something to do with Daniel’s disappearance? Daniel had been troubled before he disappeared, that much she did know. But, unusually, he had refused to confide in her.