Gayle Wilson - Raven's Vow

Cover Page

Excerpt “It’s quite impossible,” Catherine said softly. “My father would never allow such a match.” “Then you have no objection to my approaching him?” Raven asked calmly. “You intend to approach my father?” she repeated unbelievingly, incredulous that he didn’t seem to understand the width of the gap that lay between them. “Yes.” “With that proposition?” “Not couched in precisely those terms,” he said, amusement in his voice. “Simply as an offer for your hand.” “He’ll have you thrown out,” she warned. “Will he?” he asked, sounding interested. “I wonder how.” “By the servants,” she responded with deliberate bluntness, finally angered at his continual mockery of the reality of the world she lived in. Coal merchants, however wealthy, did not ask for the hand of the Duke of Montfort’s daughter. “I should like to see them try,” Raven suggested softly, and found that he really would. He’d damn well like to see them try…!

Dear Reader Dear Reader, When an American businessman and a British heiress agree to a marriage of convenience, both are in danger in Raven’s Vow, a dark new Regency novel from former March Madness/Romance Writers of America RITA Award nominee Gayle Wilson, the author of The Heart’s Desire. Don’t miss this exciting new tale from this talented author. Elizabeth Mayne, another March Madness/RITA Award nominee author, is also out this month. Lord of the Isle is a classic Elizabethan tale featuring an Irish nobleman who unwittingly falls in love with a rebel from an outlawed family. Ana Seymour’s Lucky Bride is a sequel to Gabriel’s Lady. Set in Wyoming Territory, it’s a delightful story of a ranch hand who joins forces with his beautiful boss to save her land from a dangerous con man. Our fourth title for the month, The Return of Chase Cordell, is a new Western from Linda Castle, who is fast becoming one of our most popular authors. It’s a poignant love story about a war hero with amnesia who rediscovers a forgotten passion for his young bride. Whatever your taste in reading, we hope you’ll enjoy all four of these terrific stories. Please keep an eye out for them wherever Harlequin Historicals are sold. Sincerely, Tracy Farrell Senior Editor Please address questions and book requests to: Harlequin Reader Service U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Title Page Raven’s Vow Gayle Wilson www.millsandboon.co.uk

Gayle Wilson GAYLE WILSON teaches English and history to gifted high school students. Her love of both subjects naturally resulted in a desire to write historical fiction. After several years as the wife of a military pilot, she returned with her husband to live in Alabama, where they had both grown up. You can contact her at: P.O. Box 342, Birmingham, AL 35201-0342.

Dedication For my beloved sister Joy

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

Epilogue

Copyright

“Then you have no objection to my approaching him?” Raven asked calmly.

“You intend to approach my father?” she repeated unbelievingly, incredulous that he didn’t seem to understand the width of the gap that lay between them.

“Yes.”

“With that proposition?”

“Not couched in precisely those terms,” he said, amusement in his voice. “Simply as an offer for your hand.”

“He’ll have you thrown out,” she warned.

“Will he?” he asked, sounding interested. “I wonder how.”

“By the servants,” she responded with deliberate bluntness, finally angered at his continual mockery of the reality of the world she lived in. Coal merchants, however wealthy, did not ask for the hand of the Duke of Montfort’s daughter.

“I should like to see them try,” Raven suggested softly, and found that he really would. He’d damn well like to see them try…!

Dear Reader,

When an American businessman and a British heiress agree to a marriage of convenience, both are in danger in Raven’s Vow, a dark new Regency novel from former March Madness/Romance Writers of America RITA Award nominee Gayle Wilson, the author of The Heart’s Desire. Don’t miss this exciting new tale from this talented author.

Elizabeth Mayne, another March Madness/RITA Award nominee author, is also out this month. Lord of the Isle is a classic Elizabethan tale featuring an Irish nobleman who unwittingly falls in love with a rebel from an outlawed family. Ana Seymour’s Lucky Bride is a sequel to Gabriel’s Lady. Set in Wyoming Territory, it’s a delightful story of a ranch hand who joins forces with his beautiful boss to save her land from a dangerous con man.

Our fourth title for the month, The Return of Chase Cordell, is a new Western from Linda Castle, who is fast becoming one of our most popular authors. It’s a poignant love story about a war hero with amnesia who rediscovers a forgotten passion for his young bride.

Whatever your taste in reading, we hope you’ll enjoy all four of these terrific stories. Please keep an eye out for them wherever Harlequin Historicals are sold.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to:

Harlequin Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

www.millsandboon.co.uk

teaches English and history to gifted high school students. Her love of both subjects naturally resulted in a desire to write historical fiction. After several years as the wife of a military pilot, she returned with her husband to live in Alabama, where they had both grown up.

You can contact her at: P.O. Box 342, Birmingham, AL 35201-0342.

For my beloved sister Joy

London, 1826

“What you need, Mr. Raven, is a wife.”

The tall man at the window turned, a slight indentation deepening the corners of the hardest mouth Oliver Reynolds had seen in his seventy years. He had learned through experience that the look John Raven was now directing toward him was intended to indicate amusement.

“A wife?” the American repeated, that amusement now touching the rich tones of his voice as it had marked the stern lips.

“Unless, of course,” the banker continued with the merest trace of sarcasm, “you have a duke hidden away somewhere in your family tree. Or an earl. Short of that, sir, I’m afraid…” The old man let the suggestion trail off. He had made his point, and he knew his client’s ready intelligence needed no more prompting.

Oliver Reynolds had been paid, extremely well paid, to guide this American nabob through the perils of London society, and the solution he had just broached to John Raven was really the best advice he had to offer.

“Three of my grandparents fled Scotland after the ‘45, half a step ahead of Cumberland’s butchers,” John Raven confessed. The mockery lurking in those strange, crystalline blue eyes proved his very New World lack of embarrassment over the mode of his ancestors’ departure from the Old. He had been born on the edge of the American wilderness and had watched the influx of settlers move across the land, always westward toward the great river. His country was changing, the vast forest tracts gradually giving way to farms and communities, the conquest of its wildness the result of the hard work of people like his parents and his grandparents.