Julia Justiss - The Smuggler and the Society Bride

“Justiss has crafted another Wellington family tale featuring Hal and Nicky’s good friend Sir Edward ‘Ned’ Greaves. The story is emotionally charged and heartwarming, as two lonely hearts fall in love, only to be ripped asunder by secrets and betrayal.”

— RT Book Reviews

“Justiss captures the true essence of the Regency period…The characters come to life with all the proper mannerisms and dialogue as they waltz around each other in a ‘most unconventional’ courtship.”

— RT Book Reviews

“With characters you care about, clever banter, a roguish hero and a captivating heroine, Justiss has written a charming and sensual love story.”

— RT Book Reviews

“Justiss rivals Georgette Heyer…by creating a riveting young woman of character and good humor…unexpected plot twists and layers also increase the reader’s enjoyment.”

— Booklist

“Julia Justiss has a knack for conveying emotional intensity and longing.”

— All About Romance

“With this exceptional Regency-era romance, Justiss adds another fine feather to her writing cap.”

— Publishers Weekly

A darkly dangerous stranger is out for revenge, delivering a silken rope as his calling card. Through him, a long-forgotten scandal is reawakened. The notorious events of 1794, which saw one man murdered and another hanged for the crime, are ripe gossip in the ton. Was the right culprit brought to justice or is there a treacherous murderer still at large?

As the murky waters of the past are disturbed, so servants find love with roguish lords, and proper ladies fall for rebellious outcasts until, finally, the true murderer and spy is revealed.

From glittering ballrooms to a Cornish smuggler’s cove; from the wilds of Scotland to a Romany camp—join with the highest and lowest in society as they find love in this thrilling new eight-book miniseries!

www.millsandboon.co.uk

The Lord and the Wayward Lady by Louise Allen—June 2010

Paying the Virgin’s Price by Christine Merrill—July 2010

The Smuggler and the Society Bride by Julia Justiss—August 2010

Claiming the Forbidden Bride by Gayle Wilson—September 2010

The Viscount and the Virgin by Annie Burrows—October 2010

Unlacing the Innocent Miss by Margaret McPhee—November 2010

The Officer and the Proper Lady by Louise Allen—December 2010

Taken by the Wicked Rake by Christine Merrill—January 2011

To my fellow “continuista” authors, Louise, Chris, Gayle, Annie and Denise and to the editors for allowing me to participate in the most exciting and enjoyable writing experience of my career.

Dear Reader,

My story introduces Lady Honoria Carlow, daughter of spymaster George Carlow, Lord Narborough, whose best friend was convicted and hanged for the murder of a third colleague. Now, nearly twenty years after that tragedy, someone seems bent on exacting revenge against all the families involved in the scandal.

All Honoria knows is that some unknown enemy devised a ruthlessly effective plan to ruin her, one so clever even her family believes it was her own recklessness that brought it about. Stunned and furious with her relations for dismissing her protests of innocence, she flees to her eccentric aunt in Cornwall. Despairing, unsure what she can do with the remnants of her life, she encounters the dashing free-trader known as “The Hawk.”

Gabriel Hawksworth agreed to become temporary captain of the Flying Gull as a favor to the army friend who saved his life. Upon meeting “Miss Foxe,” he wonders immediately why such a beauty is residing on the Cornish coast instead of in London, dazzling suitors. Gabe scents a scandal…and if Miss Foxe has been banished for being less than a lady, he’s just the man to tempt her to a little dalliance.

But as he delves into the mystery of Honoria, desire for a brief affair turns to fascination and then a compulsion to find the truth behind the event that destroyed her life. Even if that knowledge might mean losing her forever.

I hope you’ll find their story compelling!

Julia

May 1814. Sennlack Cove, Cornwall

The shriek of gulls swooping overhead mingled with the crash of waves against the rocks below as Lady Honoria Carlow halted on the cliff walk to peer down at the cove. Noting with satisfaction that the sea had receded enough for a long silvered sliver of sand to emerge from beneath its high-tide hiding place, she turned off the path onto the winding track leading down to the beach.

Honoria had discovered this sheltered spot during one of the first walks after her arrival here a month ago. Angry, despairing and brimming with frustrated energy, she’d accepted Aunt Foxe’s mild suggestion that she expend some of her obvious agitation in exploring the beauties of the cliff walk that edged the coastline before her aunt’s stone manor a few miles from the small Cornish village of Sennlack.

Scanning the wild vista, Honoria smiled ruefully. When she fled London, she’d craved distance and isolation, and she’d certainly found it. As her coach had borne her past Penzance towards Land’s End and then turned onto the track leading to Foxeden, her great-aunt’s home overlooking the sea, it had seemed she had indeed reached the end of the world.

Or at least a place worlds away from the society and the family that had betrayed and abandoned her.

One might wonder that the sea’s violent pummelling against the rocky coast, the thunder of the surf, and the slap of windblown spray and raucous screeching of seabirds could soothe one’s spirit, but somehow they did, Honoria reflected as she picked her way down the trail to the beach. Maybe because the waves shattering themselves against the cliff somehow mirrored her own shattered life.

After having been hurtled onto the rocks and splintered, the water rebounded from the depths in a boil of foam. Would there be any remnants of her left to surface, once she had the heart to try to pull her life back together?

Though Tamsyn, Aunt Foxe’s maid, had tacked up the skirts of her riding habit, the only garb Honoria possessed suitable for vigorous country walking after her hasty journey from London, the hem of her skirt was stiff with sand when she reached the beach. Here, out of the worst ravages of wind, she pulled back the scarf anchoring her bonnet and gazed at the scene.

The water lapping at the beach in the cove looked peaceful, inviting, even. She smiled, recalling lazy summer afternoons as a child when she’d pestered her older brother Hal to let her sneak away with him to the pond in the lower meadows. Accompanied by whichever of Hal’s friends were currently visiting, dressed in borrowed boy’s shirt and breeches, she’d learned to swim in the weed-infested waters, emerging triumphant and covered with pond muck.

The summer she turned seven, Anthony had been one of those visitors, Honoria recalled. A familiar nausea curdling in her gut, she thrust away the memory of her erstwhile fiancé.