Regina Scott - The Irresistible Earl

“We haven’t decided how long we’ll be staying in Scarborough. I’ll send word if we’re able to accept your kind offer.”

He inclined his head in acceptance of Miss Price’s dismissal, but his sister Phoebe’s face crumpled. “Oh, but you can’t leave! I just know we’ll be the best of friends!”

Miss Price’s smile was a gentle quirk of her peach-colored lips. “Then I’m certain our friendship will survive any absence. Good day, Lady Phoebe, my lord.”

He took Miss Price’s hand from his sister’s and bowed over it. “Your devoted servant, Miss Price.”

Chase could not shake the feeling that something wasn’t aboveboard with the redoubtable Miss Price. She hurried up the beach as if the very forces of hell were at her heels. In his experience, a person who ran had a reason.

What was hers?

started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t actually sell her first novel until she had learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published in 1998, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages including Dutch, German, Italian and Portuguese.

She and her husband of more than twenty years reside in southeast Washington State. Regina Scott is a decent fencer, owns a historical costume collection that takes up over a third of her large closet and she is an active member of the Church of the Nazarene. Her friends and church family know that if you want something organized, you call Regina. You can find her online blogging at www.nineteenteen.blogspot.com. Learn more about her at www.reginascott.com.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

If anyone serves, he should do it

with the strength God provides, so that in all things

God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

—1 Peter 4:11b

To those I love, who never gave up on me:

Larry, Kristin, Meryl, Marissa,

Ammanda, Emily, Mom and Dad

and, most of all, my heavenly Father.

Thanks for giving me a chance to shine.

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

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Yorkshire Coast, England, 1811

“Help! Help me!”

Meredee Price’s head jerked up at the cry echoing across the waters of the North Sea. She’d been so intent on scanning the golden sands that she’d lost track of everything else. But if someone was in trouble, she had to help.

She scanned the area, eyes narrowed against the summer sun. The sweep of shore below the town of Scarborough was crowded with fashionable ladies in fluttering muslin gowns and gentlemen in high-crowned hats, strolling and chatting under a cloud less sky. The clear waves brushed against the bathing machines lined up in the surf to allow refined ladies to take the treatment of dipping into the cool waters. Each lady was attended by two burly women bathers, every machine pulled by two docile horses. All seemed calm, congenial.

“Someone, help!”

There! A girl floundered in the water near one of the bathing machines. The two lady bathers who would normally be attending her were struggling to lower a red-and-white canvas hood over the exit door of the white wood box on wide brown wheels. Their charge simply hadn’t waited for their help. Already she’d plunged into water up to her chest. Whipping her honey-colored hair away from her pale face, she waved a thin hand at Meredee. “Help me!”

The cry pierced Meredee’s heart, and she took a step forward.

Behind her she heard a sharp intake of breath. “Where are you going?” her stepmother demanded.

Meredee smothered a sigh. Quickly glancing over her shoulder, she saw that Evangeline Price was still shivering from her dip. Mrs. Murdock, one of their bathers, had her strong arms around her to steady Meredee’s stepmother, and their other bather, Mrs. Lint, was standing ready to help, but Mrs. Price did not look comforted. Like Meredee, she stood in little more than a blue flannel shift, gray hair plastered to her thin cheeks, seawater streaming down her face and lapping at her waist.

“You haven’t had your treatment yet,” her stepmother protested. “And I will not pay our bathers to watch you look for shells!”

“It’s not that,” Meredee called. “Someone’s in trouble.”

“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Mrs. Murdock said in her booming voice, her vowels as long and fluid as the waters stretching out behind them. “Just put your foot down now, miss,” she shouted to the girl. “It’s not so deep here.”

But the girl was clearly becoming panicked. Barely keeping her mouth above the water, she flailed her arms. “Hurry! Please!”

Meredee could see the fear on the girl’s face, hear it in the sharp little cries. Surely someone should go to her aid! Mrs. Murdock evidently thought better of her words, for she started forward. But Mrs. Price held her back, clinging to her and Mrs. Lint as if afraid the sea would rise and swallow her too. And there was no help anywhere else. Up and down the beach, the dandies and fine ladies who flocked to Scarborough for the summer were staring, pointing.

“Will no one help?”

At the sound of the anguished cry, one of the horses reared in its traces. Meredee gasped as the wagon jerked and swung to one side, knocking one of the bathers into the waves with a splash. The other clung to her perch, face white, as the wagon teetered on two wheels, overshadowing the girl, who stared up at it as if in a trance.

Enough! Meredee didn’t wait another second. She waded over, seized the girl under the arms, and dragged her away from the wagon. Still the girl struggled, her slender body colliding with Meredee’s. Her fear was very nearly contagious. The sand shifted under Meredee’s feet; the waves broke against her back. The cold was nothing compared to the chill inside her.

Help me, Lord. I can’t lose someone else at Scarborough.

She widened her stance and tightened her grip. “You’re safe,” she said against the girl’s temple. “I have you.” She nearly cried out in relief when the girl went limp in her arms. “Just put down your feet.”

Wet skirts brushed hers as the girl complied.

“There,” Meredee said soothingly, as much to calm the girl as to settle her own pulse. “You see? We’re fine.”

She released her hold, and the girl turned to face her. Her eyes were deep brown and wide with shock. “Oh, thank you! You saved my life!”

Meredee shook her head, but, before she could protest, one of the girl’s bathers waded up. “Everything all right here?”

“This woman is a savior,” the girl declared. “I might have drowned if it wasn’t for her.”

The bather’s face tightened. Meredee knew that even a rumor that the bather had been negligent might keep others from patronizing her. Rumors flew fast in the little resort town and quickly grew out of proportion.