Stephanie Laurens: The Trouble with Virtue: A Comfortable Wife / A Lady By Day

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens and rising star Alison DeLaine bring you two tales of passionate temptation…and decorum overthrown.

A Comfortable Wife

Miss Antonia Mannering has made plans that include her long-ago friend Lord Philip Ruthven. She knows Philip is popular with the ladies, but he has never married. Might he now be ready for a wife? If she could only prove that she could run his home, not disgrace him in Society and be a comfortable wife, surely he would propose to her. But when love enters the equation, Antonia might be getting more than she bargained for….

A Lady by Day

Recovering from scandal, Josephine, Countess of Mareck, has secured a second chance at respectability. And she certainly will not risk it for Sir Noah Rutledge, who’s returned to London from the Mediterranean to secure a new business venture. But when Noah confronts Josephine and puts her secrets at risk, he stirs a most unexpected desire. With the ton watching closely, she must be careful not to fall for an unsuitable man. Unless love proves stronger than Society….

www.StephanieLaurens.com

www.AlisonDelaine.com

Praise for the novels of

“All I need is her name on the cover

to make me pick up the book.”

—New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard

“Laurens’s writing shines.”

—Publishers Weekly

“An interesting and absorbing plot…

an exciting and appealing romantic mystery.”

—FreshFiction.com

“The sensual tension simmers…and, as always,

Laurens delivers the delicious heat as they fall in love.”

—Michelle Buonfiglio, myLifetime.com

“Laurens spices up her superbly sensual,

elegantly written love story with a generous measure

of splendidly entertaining.”

—Booklist

“A fast-paced, action-packed, historical romance. Stephanie Laurens has another winner on her hands.”

—The Romance Readers Connection

“Danger, intrigue and seduction aplenty—

will leave you satisfied yet hungry for more.”

—Romance Reviews Today

Other must-have reads from

#1 New York Times bestselling author

Stephanie Laurens

An Unwilling Conquest

A Lady of Expectations

The Reasons for Marriage

Fair Juno

Impetuous Innocent

Four in Hand

Tangled Reins

And coming soon from Alison DeLaine

A Gentleman ’Til Midnight

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A COMFORTABLE WIFE A Comfortable Wife

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A Comfortable Wife

Dear Reader,

In writing An Unwilling Conquest, the third book in the Lester trilogy, one character, Philip, Lord Ruthven, positively begged to be made a victim of love. His attitude as displayed in An Unwilling Conquest could not go unanswered—and that’s how A Comfortable Wife came about. Miss Antonia Mannering was the young lady who had Philip most determinedly in her sights. As a husband. The possibility of love never entered her head—she was far too levelheaded, and she knew Philip too well. She was looking for a husband, and by now he should be looking for a wife—to her, their aims were compatible. All should have been terribly comfortable, except…

What happens when love gets stirred into their equation is told in A Comfortable Wife. I hope you enjoy seeing Philip succumb to a passion that becomes more precious than anything else in his life.

Stephanie Laurens

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 ONE

“THIRTY-FOUR, MY DEAR HUGO, is a decidedly sobering age.”

“Heh?” Startled from somnolence, Hugo Satterly opened one cautious eye and studied the long-limbed figure gracefully lounging on the opposite carriage seat. “Why’s that?”

Philip Augustus Marlowe, seventh Baron Ruthven, did not deign to answer—not directly. Instead, his gaze on the summer scenery slipping past the carriage window, he remarked, “I would never have thought to see Jack and Harry Lester competing over who would provide the first of the next generation of Lesters.”

Hugo straightened. “Tricky prediction, that. Jack suggested laying odds but Lucinda heard of it.” Hugo grimaced. “That was the end of it, of course. Said she wasn’t about to have us all watching her and Sophie, counting the days. Pity.”

A fleeting smile touched Philip’s lips. “An uncommonly sensible woman, Lucinda.” After a moment he added, more to himself than to his friend, “And Jack was lucky with his Sophie, too.”

They were returning from a week’s house party at Lester Hall; the festivities had been presided over by Sophie, Mrs Jack Lester, ably seconded by Lucinda, now Harry Lester’s bride. Both recent additions to the Lester family tree were discreetly but definitely enceintes, and radiant with it. The unabashed happiness that had filled the rambling old house had infected everyone.

But the week had drawn to its inevitable close; Philip was conscious that, despite the calm and orderly ambiance of his ancestral home, there would be no such warmth, no promise for the future, awaiting him there. The idea that he had invited Hugo, a friend of many years, confirmed bachelor and infrequent rake, to join him solely as a distraction, to turn his thoughts from the depressing path he saw opening before him, floated through his mind. He tried to ignore it.

He shifted in his seat, listening to the regular pounding of his carriage horses’ hooves, firmly fixing his attention on the ripening fields—only to have Hugo ruthlessly haul his problem into the light.

“Well—I suppose you’ll be next.” Hugo settled his shoulders against the squabs and gazed at the fields with unruffled calm. “Dare say that’s what’s making you glum.”

Narrowing his eyes, Philip fixed them on Hugo’s innocent visage. “Surrendering to the bonds of matrimony, walking knowingly into parson’s mousetrap, is hardly a pleasant thought.”

“Don’t think of it at all myself.”

Philip’s expression turned decidedly sour. A gentleman of independent means and nought but distant family, Hugo had no need to wed. Philip’s case was very different.

“Don’t see why you need make such a mountain of it, though.” Hugo glanced across the carriage. “Imagine your stepmother’ll be only too happy to line up the young ladies—all you need do is look ’em over and make your selection.”

“Being no less female than the rest of them, I’m certain Henrietta would be only too glad to assist. However,” Philip continued, his tone tending steely, “should she be mistaken in one of her candidates, ’tis I, not she, who will pay the price. For life. No, I thank you. If mistakes capable of wrecking my life are to be made, I’d rather make them myself.”