Nicola Cornick - Desired

Nicola Cornick’s novels have received acclaim the world over

‘Cornick is first-class, Queen of her game.’

—Romance Junkies

‘A rising star of the Regency arena’

—Publishers Weekly

Praise for the SCANDALOUS WOMEN OF THE TON series

‘A riveting read’

—New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney on Whisper of Scandal

‘One of the finest voices in historical romance’

—SingleTitles.com

‘Ethan Ryder (is) a bad boy to die for! A memorable story

of intense emotions, scandals, trust, betrayal and all-

encompassing love. A fresh and engrossing tale.’

—Romantic Times on One Wicked Sin

‘Historical romance at its very best is

written by Nicola Cornick.’

—Mary Gramlich, The Reading Reviewer

Acclaim for Nicola’s previous books

‘Witty banter, lively action and sizzling passion’

—Library Journal on Undoing of a Lady

‘RITA ®Award-nominated Cornick deftly steeps her latest intriguingly complex Regency historical in a beguiling blend of danger and desire.’ —Booklist on Unmasked

Author Note

Welcome to Desired , book five in the SCANDALOUS WOMEN OF THE TON series! Desired is Tess Darent’s story. The outrageous dowager lady Darent has already been widowed three times and is looking for her fourth husband—but she is determined on a marriage in name only. Step forward Owen Purchase, Viscount Rothbury, who has desired the much-married marchioness for a long time. He is the protector Tess needs, but can he seduce her into realising that a true marriage is what she really wants?

Like the other books in this series, Desired is inspired by real-life events. Tess is a philanthropist and a reformer, and in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the reforming movement was pressing for political change in Britain. The government, however, was afraid of a revolution and sought to repress any opposition by throwing the reform’s leaders into prison. Tess, as a secret leader of the reform movement, is in the gravest danger.

I have loved writing all the books in this series! Be sure to visit my website at www.nicolacornick.co.uk and don’t miss the final book in the series, Forbidden !

Nicola Cornick

Don’t miss the rest of the latest Scandalous Women of the Ton trilogy , available now!

WHISPER OF SCANDAL

ONE WICKED SIN

MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT

DESIRED

Also available from Nicola Cornick

DECEIVED

LORD OF SCANDAL

UNMASKED

THE CONFESSIONS OF A DUCHESS

THE SCANDALS OF AN INNOCENT

THE UNDOING OF A LADY

DAUNTSEY PARK: THE LAST RAKE IN LONDON

Browse www.mirabooks.co.uk or www.nicolacornick.co.uk for Nicola’s full backlist

Coming soon, the next SCANDALOUS WOMEN OF THE TON series:

FORBIDDEN

Desired

Nicola Cornick

www.mirabooks.co.uk

To Kimberley Young with much gratitude

for all the years we worked together.

London, October 1816

Covent Garden: “Artful ways beguile the implicit rake.”

—Taken from

Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies .

IT WAS THE NIGHT HER LUCK finally ran out.

Tess Darent knew that the net was closing and that someone was coming to hunt her down. Tonight she could feel him very close behind her. Tonight, she knew instinctively, was the night she was going to get caught.

“Hurry!” Mrs. Tong, owner of the Temple of Venus bawdy house held out the borrowed gown to her with shaking hands and Tess grabbed it and slipped it over her head, feeling the sensuous slide of lavender silk against her skin. It was not a bad fit. She was surprised that Mrs. Tong had anything so tasteful in the wardrobe. Fortunate, because she would not be seen dead in any of the harlot’s gowns Mrs. Tong’s girls habitually wore. Even if she was currently hiding from the law, Tess had standards to maintain.

The bawd’s face was pale beneath her paint and powder, her eyes terrified. Out in the corridor the sounds of pursuit were getting louder—voices snapping orders, the tramp of booted feet, the crash as Mrs. Tong’s pieces of erotic statuary were knocked to the marble floor.

“Redcoats!” the bawd said. “Searching the house. If they find you here—”

“They won’t,” Tess snapped. She spun around, lifting the heavy fall of her red-gold hair so that Mrs. Tong could lace the gown. She could feel the bawd’s fingers trembling on the fastenings. Mrs. Tong’s fear was feeding her own. The panic filled her chest, stealing her breath. Her pursuer was so close now. He was nipping at her heels.

“Even if they do find me here,” she added over her shoulder, marvelling at the calm of her own voice, “what of it? My reputation is so bad no one will think it odd to find me in a whorehouse.”

“But the papers?” Mrs. Tong’s voice quavered.

“Hidden.” Tess patted the lavender reticule that matched the gown. “Never fear, Mrs. T. No one will suspect you of being anything worse than an avaricious old madam.”

“There’s gratitude.” Mrs. Tong sounded irritable. “Sometimes I wonder why I help you.”

“You do it because you owe me,” Tess said. Some months before she had helped Mrs. Tong’s son when he had been arrested at a political rally. Now she was calling in the debt.

“I’m no friend to the radical cause,” Mrs. Tong grumbled. She pulled the laces of the gown tight in a small gesture of revenge.

“The gown’s too big,” Tess wheezed, as the breath was pummelled out of her.

“Which is why you need the laces tight.” The madam gave them another sharp tug. She threw Tess a matching cloak of lavender-blue edged with peacock feathers and tiptoed across to the door, opening it a crack, finger to her lips.

Tess raised a brow. Mrs. Tong shook her head, closed the door softly and turned the key. “No chance,” she said. “They are all over the house like the pox. You’ll have to hide.”

“They’ll find me.” Fear clawed at Tess again. For all her defiant words she knew that it would be disastrous if she were to be caught now in possession of the papers. She would be thrown in prison. Everything she had worked for would be lost. The cold sweat trickled down her spine, prickling her skin.

“Buy me some time, Mrs. Tong,” she said. “They are a company of soldiers and this is a bawdy house. Distract them.”

She grabbed the jacket of the mannish suit she had been wearing on her arrival, extracted the little silver pistol from the pocket, forced it into the reticule along with the papers and pulled the drawstring tight. She tried on the exquisite pair of lavender slippers that matched the gown and winced. They were made for smaller feet than hers. She would have blisters by the time she reached home.

“There’s no way of distracting their captain,” Mrs. Tong said. “He don’t care for women.”

“Send him one of your boys then.”

“He doesn’t like boys either. War wound, they say. No lead in his pencil. Precious little pencil either, if it comes to that.”

“Poor man,” Tess said. “That’s quite a sacrifice to make for your country. Still, if sex fails, money usually talks. Make him an offer he cannot afford to refuse.”