Ordinary Girl, Society Groom

NATASHA OAKLEY

Eloise Lawton has finally found the family she's never known. But now she's cast adrift in the high-society world where there's only one person Eloise can depend on: broodingly handsome Jeremy Norland.As family loyalties and secrets unravel, Eloise realizes that if she falls in love with Jeremy she's in danger of losing everything she's fought so hard to find. Will Eloise have the courage to risk it all?

Dear Reader,

Have you ever experienced the shock of discovering someone close to you has done something you’d have sworn blind they’d never do?

Jem and Eloise in my story have to deal with the fallout of just such a discovery. It’s an emotional journey for both of them, but by the end of this book they’ve a new compassion for human frailty and an understanding of how small decisions can have big consequences. Of course, they’ve also fallen in love, which is always fun to write!

I don’t know about you, but the idea of marrying into the landed gentry is a very beguiling idea. The United Kingdom is peppered with the kind of historic stately homes that would make any sensible girl drool.

Coldwaltham Abbey is entirely fictional, but the village of Coldwaltham is tucked away in the Sussex countryside. Nearby there’s the medieval town of Petworth and its late seventeenth-century mansion of the same name. It was while I was walking in the 700 acres of deer park landscaped by “Capability” Brown that this story was born.

Now, if only Jem Norland had been walking the other way….

With love,

Natasha

“I’m sorry—” she began, but he interrupted swiftly.

“Don’t.”

It held her silent. She knew exactly what he meant. They’d come too far together for any apology to be necessary. He knew so much of her journey…because he’d walked it with her.

A deeply compassionate, empathetic man. From the very first he’d made her feel safe. He did that now. She felt safe. Protected. Loved.

Loved. The truth imploded in her head. Laurence’s words echoed in her head, “a thousand small decisions” and then “as important as breathing.”

Ordinary Girl, Society Groom

Natasha Oakley

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

NATASHA OAKLEY told everyone at her primary school she wanted to be an author when she grew up. Her plan was to stay at home and have her mom bring her coffee at regular intervals—a drink she didn’t like then. The coffee addiction became reality and the love of storytelling stayed with her. A professional actress, Natasha began writing when her fifth child started to sleep through the night. Born in London, she now lives in Bedfordshire, England, with her husband and young family. When not writing, or needed for “crowd control,” she loves to escape to antique fairs and auctions.

Like Jem Norland in this book, Natasha owns a much-loved pewter-colored Aga stove. She’s a passionate cook and all the recipes from this book are on www.natashaoakley.com (http://www.natashaoakley.com).

Books by Natasha Oakley:

HARLEQUIN ROMANCE

3838—FOR OUR CHILDREN’S SAKE

3854—THE BUSINESS ARRANGEMENT

3878—A FAMILY TO BELONG TO

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE (#u65e9ba1f-cb83-51ea-85c4-0c50c631993a)

CHAPTER TWO (#u439ff55e-64c3-51aa-a8b2-a259b6375ae1)

CHAPTER THREE (#u7c131f81-6bf4-5314-af21-bfeb410bae07)

CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS true what people said—you were more alone in a crowd than any other place on earth. Eloise Lawton felt as lonely tonight as she ever had.

All she wanted to do was go home, run a bath and soak away her troubles. Instead she was here, making social small talk and avoiding the barbs of people who were fearful of what she might say about their dress sense. As well they might; she’d become more vitriolic of late. She couldn’t seem to help it.

Eloise shifted her weight from one leg to the other, acute