Miss Winthorpe's Elopement

Christine Merrill

Indulge your fantasies of delicious Regency Rakes, fierce Viking warriors and rugged Highlanders. Be swept away into a world of intense passion, lavish settings and romance that burns brightly through the centuriesDashing Duke, Bluestocking Bride! Shy heiress Miss Penelope Winthorpe was only trying to escape her bullying brother. She didn’t mean to wed a noble lord over a blacksmith’s anvil! Adam Felkirk, Duke of Bellston, had no intention of taking a wife. But then Penelope’s plight moved him. Now the notorious rake has a new aim – to shock and seduce his prim and proper bride.But the gorgeous Duke will be taught a lesson of his own as scholarly Miss Winthorpe becomes his seductive duchess!

It was his wife, most certainly. But transformed.

The gown was a pale green, and with her light hair and fair skin she seemed almost transparent. As she came towards him he imagined he was seeing a spirit, a ghost that belonged to the house, that had been there long before he had come.

And then the light from his lamp touched the gown, and the sarsnet fabric shifted in colour from silver to green again, and the silver sequins sparkled on the drape of netting that fell from her shoulder to the floor.

His friends would not call her a beauty, certainly. She was most unlike all the other women who were lauded as such. But suddenly it did not matter what his friends might say. It only mattered what he knew in his heart to be true. She looked as she was meant to look. And now that he had removed her from whatever magic realm she belonged to, he was overcome with the desire to protect her from the coarse harshness of the world around them.

Christine Merrill lives on a farm in Wisconsin, USA, with her husband, two sons, and too many pets—all of whom would like her to get off the computer so they can check their e-mail. She has worked by turns in theatre costuming, where she was paid to play with period ballgowns, and as a librarian, where she spent the day surrounded by books. Writing historical romance combines her love of good stories and fancy dress with her ability to stare out of the window and make stuff up.

Recent novels by the same author:

THE INCONVENIENT DUCHESS

AN UNLADYLIKE OFFER

A WICKED LIAISON

Author Note

I can’t point to any one place or idea that inspired me to write the story of Penny and Adam. But I started on a day when I really just wanted to sit by myself and read. That is probably why I have a book-loving heroine. There is nothing quite like the feeling of sitting down with a good book, although I can’t seem to read as many as I buy. Penny’s overstocked library is definitely inspired by my own.

I don’t normally use pictures as inspiration, but the little china figurine in Penny’s sitting room really exists. I don’t own anything like it, but I wanted something that would remind me of long afternoons I spent in an aunt’s living room, surrounded by ‘breakables’. I found just the thing, searching the internet: a figurine so fussy that it seemed the polar opposite of serious scholarship.

I hope you enjoy MISS WINTHORPE’S ELOPEMENT as much as I did. Come back soon, to discover what happens to Adam’s friend Tim.

MISS WINTHORPE’S ELOPEMENT

Christine Merrill

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Sean: For doing his homework on the Greek classics. Without you, honey, I’d have to do all my own research.

Chapter One

In the quiet of the library, Penelope Winthorpe heard the front doorbell ring, and set her book carefully aside, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She smoothed her sensible, bombazine skirt. Then she stood and strolled toward the front hall.

There was no reason to rush since hurrying would not change the results of the trip. Her brother had accused her of being too prone to impulsive actions. Seeing her hare down the hall every time the front door opened would reinforce his view that too much education and too much solitude were affecting her nerves.

But her package was two days late, and it was difficult to contain her