Janice Preston - The Governess's Secret Baby

The beauty who tamed the beast...

New governess Grace Bertram will do anything to get to know her young daughter, Clara. Even if it means working for Clara’s guardian, the reclusive and scarred Nathaniel, Marquess of Ravenwell!

Nathaniel believes no woman could ever love a monster like him, until Grace seems to look past his scars to the man beneath... But when he discovers Grace is Clara’s mother, Nathaniel questions his place in this torn-apart family. Could there be a Christmas happy-ever-after for this beauty and the beast?

The Governess Tales

Sweeping romances with fairytale endings!

Meet Joanna Radcliff, Rachel Talbot,

Isabel Morton and Grace Bertram.

These four friends grew up together in Madame Dubois’s school for young ladies, where they indulged in midnight feasts, broke the rules and shared their innermost secrets!

But now they are thrust into the real world, and each must adapt to her new life as a governess.

One will rise, one will travel, one will run and one will find her real home…

And each will meet her soulmate, who’ll give her the happy-ever-after she’s always dreamt of!

Read Joanna’s story in

The Cinderella Governess

Read Rachel’s story in

Governess to the Sheikh

Read Isabel’s story in

The Runaway Governess

And read Grace’s story in

The Governess’s Secret Baby

All available now!

Author Note

The Governess’s Secret Baby is book four in The Governess Tales series, but it is a stand-alone story and can be enjoyed even if you haven’t read the previous three. If you have read the others, however, you will be pleased to know that the epilogue—an absolute joy to write—brings back all three couples from the other linked books to find out what has happened since the end of their stories.

I loved bringing to life the gothic Shiverstone Hall, nestled below Shiver Crag in the Yorkshire Dales, and Nathaniel, its reclusive, scarred and taciturn owner. Only a feisty heroine will do for Nathaniel, and Grace is certainly that: bold, impulsive and determined, but also rootless and plagued with hidden self-doubt.

Enjoy the emotional ups and downs as Grace helps Nathaniel find the courage to embrace life again, and Nathaniel proves to Grace that she is capable of being loved.

The Governess’s Secret Baby

Janice Preston

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANICE PRESTON grew 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 call-handler and a university administrator. She now lives in the West Midlands with her husband and two cats and has a part-time job with 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 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 my fellow authors

Georgie Lee, Laura Martin and Liz Tyner:

it’s been a pleasure collaborating with you, ladies, and I hope I’ve done justice to your characters in the epilogue.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Author Note

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Prologue

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

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

Prologue

Early October 1811

Nathaniel Pembroke, Marquess of Ravenwell, threw a saddle on Zephyr’s back, mounted up, and pointed the black stallion’s head towards the fell, the words of the letter searing his brain and his heart. As Zephyr’s hooves flashed across the ground the tears spilling from Nathaniel’s eyes evaporated in the wind and his roar of rage was heard by no man. The fells above Shiverstone Hall were avoided by local villagers and farmers alike, and that was precisely how Nathaniel liked it.

The great black’s pace flagged and, reluctantly, Nathaniel steadied him to a trot. The anger and the grief burning his chest had not eased—the hollow place where his shrivelled heart had struggled to survive this past nine years was still there, only now it was cavernous...a vast, stygian void. He should know by now grief could never be outrun. It cleaved to you like lichen clung to the rocks that strewed the dale below.

Hannah. Tears again clouded his vision and he blinked furiously, gazing hopelessly at the gunmetal grey of the sky. Dead. Never again to see his beloved sister’s face, or to hear her laugh, or to feel the rare human contact of her arms around him, hugging, reassuring. And David, Hannah’s husband of eight years and Nathaniel’s loyal and steadfast friend...his only friend. Also gone.

The raw lump in Nathaniel’s throat ached unbearably as the words of his mother’s letter—delivered as he had broken his fast that morning—reverberated through his brain: a carriage accident; Hannah and David both killed outright; little Clara, their two-year-old daughter, the only survivor.

You are named as Guardian to the child, my son. If I can help you, you know that I will, but I cannot, at my age, shoulder all responsibility for her upbringing. Neither will I live in that Godforsaken place you please to call home in order to help you with the task.

I urge you to come home to Ravenwell and we shall raise Clara together. It is time you took your place in the world again.

If you choose not to, however, then you must come and collect your ward. It is your duty and you owe it to your poor, dear sister to take charge of and care for the child she loved more than life itself.

Your loving

Mother

Nathaniel turned Zephyr for home, the realities of his dilemma bearing down on him. He could not deny the truth of Mother’s words—she was getting no younger and she would never be happy living at Shiverstone Hall—his cadet estate near the border between the North Riding of Yorkshire and Westmorland—nor would it be healthy for her. She lived most of the year at Ravenwell Manor, his main estate in the far more civilised countryside that surrounded the town of Harrogate, on the far side of the Dales.

But...he considered those alternatives, neither of which appealed. Go home to Ravenwell? He shook his head in dumb denial. Never. He could tolerate neither the memories nor the looks of sympathy from those who had known him before. Still less could he stomach the recoil of strangers at the sight of him.

By the time he rode into the yard behind Shiverstone Hall, his decision was made. He had one choice, and one choice only. He must fetch Clara and bring her to Shiverstone to live with him. His courage almost failed at the thought—what did he know about children, particularly one as young as Clara?

* * *

‘You have responsibilities, Nathaniel. You cannot continue to hide away. How are you ever to produce an heir otherwise? Not every woman will react like Miss Havers.’