Tarnished Rose of the Court

Tarnished Rose of the Court
Amanda McCabe

BOUND BY ROYAL COMMAND! A dangerous mission at Queen Elizabeth’s bidding is Celia Sutton’s chance to erase the taint of her brother’s treason. Her life is at risk if she’s discovered – and so is her heart when she learns her co-conspirator is also her one-time seducer: brooding and mysterious John Brandon!John can’t believe the change in Celia – what’s happened to the carefree English rose she once was? Leaving Celia was the only thing to do, but now guilt tears at his soul. He has to heal the sadness in her past, and he’s not above using anything – from expert seduction to royal favours – to achieve his goal…

Praise for Amanda McCabe:

A NOTORIOUS WOMAN ‘Court intrigue, poison and murders fill this Renaissance romance. The setting is beautiful …’ —RT Book Reviews

A SINFUL ALLIANCE ‘Scandal, seduction, spies, counter-spies, murder, love and loyalty are skilfully woven into the tapestry of the Tudor court. Richly detailed and brimming with historical events and personages, McCabe’s tale weaves together history and passion perfectly.’ —RT Book Reviews

HIGH SEAS STOWAWAY ‘Smell the salt spray, feel the deck beneath your feet and hoist the Jolly Roger as McCabe takes you on an entertaining romantic ride.’ —RT Book Reviews

‘What has happened to you, Celia?’ he said roughly.

‘What do you mean?’ she gasped. She went very still and stared at the hard angle of his jaw above the high collar of his doublet. A muscle flexed there and his lips were pressed in an angry line.

‘You look like the Celia I remember,’ he said. One hand slid slowly down her arm, rubbing her velvet sleeve over her skin until he touched her bare wrist. Something flared in his eyes as he felt the leap of her pulse, and he twined his fingers with hers.

Celia was too frozen to pull away. She felt like the hawk’s prey, in truth—mesmerised as he swooped closer and closer.

‘You’re even more beautiful than you were then,’ he said, his voice softer and deeper. ‘But your eyes are hard.’

Celia jerked in his arms. ‘You mean I am not the foolish, gullible girl who can be lured by a man’s pretty words? I have learned my lesson well since we last met, John, and I’m grateful for it.’

About the Author

AMANDA McCABE wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen—a vast epic, starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class. She’s never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA

, RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers’ Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma, with a menagerie of two cats, a pug and a bossy miniature poodle, and loves dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network—even though she doesn’t cook.

Visit her at http://ammandamccabe.tripod.com and www.riskyregencies.blogspot.com

Previous novels by the same author:

TO CATCH A ROGUE* (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) TO DECEIVE A DUKE* (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) TO KISS A COUNT* (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) CHARLOTTE AND THE WICKED LORD (in Regency Summer Scandals) A NOTORIOUS WOMAN† (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) A SINFUL ALLIANCE† (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) HIGH SEAS STOWAWAY† (#ulink_fb7a84e8-c0fa-597f-b680-1a1ac17484c5) THE WINTER QUEEN (in Christmas Betrothals) THE SHY DUCHESS SNOWBOUND AND SEDUCED (in Regency Christmas Proposals) THE TAMING OF THE ROGUE

And in Mills & Boon

Historical Undone! eBooks:

SHIPWRECKED AND SEDUCED†

TO BED A LIBERTINE

THE MAID’S LOVER

TO COURT, CAPTURE AND CONQUER

GIRL IN THE BEADED MASK

UNLACING THE LADY IN WAITING

ONE WICKED CHRISTMAS

* (#ulink_d43ad49b-7372-5b09-b014-61a3c5b087e3)The Chase Muses trilogy † (#ulink_d43ad49b-7372-5b09-b014-61a3c5b087e3)linked by character

Did you know that some of these novelsare also available as eBooks?Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk

Author’s Note

When I wrote my book The Winter Queen—the story of Anton Gustavson and Rosamund Ramsay—I was very intrigued by Anton’s cousin Celia Sutton. She seemed so unhappy, so haunted, and I wanted to know why! I wanted to know what had happened to her, and what it would take to make her believe in love again.

I so enjoyed spending time with her and her gorgeous hero in this story. I also enjoyed researching the story’s setting and learning more about Mary Queen of Scots. I knew quite a bit about her late life in English captivity, but not much about her early days back in Scotland after years in France. It was fascinating to read about this time in her very complex and tragic life, but very hard not to shout warnings at her not to marry Darnley!

Her life does indeed slide into disaster after her marriage, just as Queen Elizabeth predicts. For a detailed look at the events surrounding her marriage and its violent unraveling I like Alison Weir’s Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley.

Celia and John’s part in the tale is fiction, of course, but much of what happens to them and the people they meet is part of history. Mary and Darnley, Elizabeth and Burghley—and their disagreements over Mary’s marriage—Mary’s four Marys, the terrible weather on Darnley’s journey to Scotland, Mary’s efforts to recreate a French Court in the rougher environs of Scotland, her religious feud with John Knox, even her excursions out into the city dressed in men’s clothes, are all things I enjoyed incorporating into the story. It also seemed like the perfect backdrop for Celia and John’s tumultuous romance!

If you’d like to read more about this period, there are many, many sources on Mary Queen of Scots. Here are just a few I enjoyed:

—John Guy, The True Life of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland (2004) —GW Bernard, ed., Power and Politics in Tudor England (2000) —J. Keith Cheetham, On the Trail of Mary Queen of Scots (1999) —Roderick Graham, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots: An Accidental Tragedy (2009) —Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots (1969) —G. Donaldson, All the Queen’s Men: Power and Politics in Mary Stewart’s Scotland (1983) —M. Swain, The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots (1986) —Jane Dunn, Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens (2003) —Caroline Bingham, Darnley: A Life of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Consort of Mary Queen of Scots (1995) —James Mackay, In My End is My Beginning: A Life of Mary Queen of Scots (1999) —Alison Plowden, Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stewart: Two Queens in One Isle (1984) —S. Haynes, ed. State Papers of William Cecil, Lord Burghley —JS Richardson, The Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse (1978)

Plus the guidebook to Holyrood, now available at the palace—the photos were invaluable!

Tarnished Rose

of the Court

Amanda McCabe

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

To the Martini Club—

Alicia Dean, Christy Gronlund, Kathy Wheeler!

Thanks for the inspiration,

and for always keeping Friday nights fun …

Chapter One

Whitehall Palace, December 1564

It was him.

Suddenly dizzy, Celia Sutton reached out to steady herself against the panelled wall of Queen Elizabeth’s presence chamber. The thick crowd had pressed in around her again, obscuring her view with a sea of jewelled velvet and embroidered satin. The nervous laughter and high-pitched chatter as they waited anxiously to petition the Queen sounded like a flock of birds in her ears, buzzing and formless.

She rubbed her hand over her eyes and looked again, standing on tiptoe to try and peer over the crowd. She could no longer see him. Not even that tiny glimpse of his tall figure by the door. The flash of his careless grin. He was gone.