Jane Lark - The Tainted Love of a Captain

A division of HarperCollins Publishers

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Harper Impulse an imprint of

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017

Copyright © Jane Lark 2017

Cover images © Shutterstock.com

Cover design by Books Covered 2017

Jane Lark asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

By payment of the required fees, you have been granted

the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access

and read the text of this e-book on screen.

No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted,

downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or

stored in or introduced into any information storage and

retrieval system, in any form or by any means,

whether electronic or mechanical, now known or

hereinafter invented, without the express

written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008139841

Version 2017-04-11

‘Jane Lark has an incredible talent to draw the reader in from the first page onwards’

Cosmochicklitan Book Reviews

‘Any description that I give you would not only spoil the story but could not give this book a tenth of the justice that it deserves. Wonderful!’

Candy Coated Book Blog

‘This book held me captive after the first two pages. If I could crawl inside and live in there with the characters I would’

A Reading Nurse Blogspot

‘The book swings from truly swoon-worthy, tense and heart wrenching, highly erotic and everything else in between’

BestChickLit.com

‘I love Ms Lark’s style—beautifully descriptive, emotional and can I say, just plain delicious reading? This is the kind of mixer upper I’ve been looking for in romance lately’

Devastating Reads BlogSpot

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page The Tainted Love of a Captain JANE LARK A division of HarperCollins Publishers www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright Harper Impulse an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Harper Impulse 2017 Copyright © Jane Lark 2017 Cover images © Shutterstock.com Cover design by Books Covered 2017 Jane Lark asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Ebook Edition © May 2017 ISBN: 9780008139841 Version 2017-04-11

Praise for Jane Lark PRAISE FOR JANE LARK Table of Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Praise for Jane Lark Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Epilogue Author’s Note Also by Jane Lark About the Author About HarperImpulse About the Publisher ‘Jane Lark has an incredible talent to draw the reader in from the first page onwards’ Cosmochicklitan Book Reviews ‘Any description that I give you would not only spoil the story but could not give this book a tenth of the justice that it deserves. Wonderful!’ Candy Coated Book Blog ‘This book held me captive after the first two pages. If I could crawl inside and live in there with the characters I would’ A Reading Nurse Blogspot ‘The book swings from truly swoon-worthy, tense and heart wrenching, highly erotic and everything else in between’ BestChickLit.com ‘I love Ms Lark’s style—beautifully descriptive, emotional and can I say, just plain delicious reading? This is the kind of mixer upper I’ve been looking for in romance lately’ Devastating Reads BlogSpot

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements I’d like to take the chance, before you begin, to say a thank you to the editor who discovered The Illicit Love of a Courtesan, the first of the Marlow Intrigues books, and believed in my writing and this series so much that she signed up all seven of the main books in the series. When I decided to offer HarperImpulse The Illicit Love of a Courtesan, as it had already been published through a small independent publisher I wasn’t sure HarperImpulse would want it. My belief was that previously published books were often not wanted and so I only sent a tentative email saying ‘would you be interested in seeing it?’, it wasn’t even a submission. I can’t tell you how surprised I was to then receive an email saying, yes, with an expression of absolute excitement. I was really surprised because I hadn’t sent the book, so Charlotte couldn’t have read it, but she’d said yes… I asked her then, ‘wouldn’t you like to read it before you say yes?’ The answer was, ‘I already have.’ Charlotte had bought and read the story. How wonderful! She has since then always believed in, and supported, my work and I cannot say how brilliant it has been to know I have had an editor who believes so wholeheartedly in my writing and is able to see what you see as readers. Thank you, Charlotte Ledger, for fulfilling my lifetime dream and giving me this amazing chance to get my stories out into the world and bringing my work to life. Thank you too, to Suzy, who has taken up the baton of editor and polished off the last two books. And thank you to my family for putting up with me spending all my time with a laptop in front of me! Plus, I ought to remember in this, my great-uncle Baba, the black sheep of my Grandma’s generation, who lived in the small family cottage next to hers in Mobley, near Berkeley Castle in England, the namesake for Harry’s nickname.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

Author’s Note

Also by Jane Lark