Playing the Rake's Game

Playing the Rake's Game
Bronwyn Scott

REN DRYDEN HAS A SPARK SHE CAN’T RISK IGNITING…Emma Ward is in trouble. The devilishly handsome part-owner of her beloved Caribbean sugar plantation has arrived and clearly he doesn’t trust her. But his eyes promise pleasures she can only imagine. Maybe there’s a way to get him on-side…Ren Dryden might be fresh off the boat from London, but he knows when a woman is playing him – and when she’s as intriguing as the alluring Emma he’s more than happy to play back!But several sultry nights and shared secrets later Ren realises just how high the stakes are in this game of seduction!Rakes of the Caribbean: sun, sand and sizzling seduction!

RAKES OF THE CARIBBEAN

Sun, sand and sizzling seduction

Notorious rogues Ren Dryden and Kitt Sherard used to cut a swathe through the ton, but they were too wild to be satisfied with London seasons and prim debutantes.

Now they’ve ventured to the sultry Caribbean to seek their fortunes … and women strong enough to tame them!

Ren meets his match in spirited Emma Ward. Relish their seductive battle of wits in PLAYING THE RAKE’S GAME Available January 2015

Kitt has never met a woman as unconventional as Bryn Rutherford. Enjoy their scorching chemistry in BREAKING THE RAKE’S RULES Available February 2015

And look out for the Mills & Boon

Historical Undone! eBook CRAVING THE RAKE’S TOUCH Already available

You won’t want to miss this sizzling new series from Bronwyn Scott!

BRONWYN SCOTT is a communications instructor at Pierce College in the United States, and is the proud mother of three wonderful children (one boy and two girls). When she’s not teaching or writing she enjoys playing the piano, travelling—especially to Florence, Italy—and studying history and foreign languages.

Readers can stay in touch on Bronwyn’s website, www.bronwynnscott.com (http://www.bronwynnscott.com), or at her blog, www.bronwynswriting.blogspot.com (http://www.bronwynswriting.blogspot.com)—she loves to hear from readers.

AUTHOR NOTE

I hope you enjoy the new locale for this mini-series: the sunny Caribbean! There was plenty of British activity in the Caribbean not just in the eighteenth century, when Britain tamed the waters against piracy, but in the nineteenth century too.

Ren’s story is set against the backdrop of Barbados entering into its era of emancipation. His story comes right after the abolition of slavery—which had some significant anticipated and unanticipated repercussions.

One of the big issues which was anticipated dealt with wages and labour. Would it ruin the plantations’ abilities to make a profit if labourers had to be paid? To offset this, the British parliament gave the planters what we might today call a ‘financial incentive package’. They also set up the apprentice system. One historian notes that the system was meant to instruct newly freed slaves in the management of wages while helping planters access a ‘stable labour force’. Needless to say what worked well in theory was soon abused by the planters, who were bemoaning the loss of their power.

Another concern was political: the Plantocracy feared that freed slaves would want to vote and, of course, those votes would outnumber the white vote. And the final, perhaps somewhat unlooked-for consequence of emancipation was the finite availability of land. Freed slaves who wanted to be landowners and farm their own land simply didn’t have access to it. On an island, land is finite.

This is the scenario Ren Dryden enters when his story opens. He thinks a plantation in the Caribbean will be the answer to his family’s own financial problems, only to realise he’s inherited far more than he bargained for. I hope you enjoy Ren’s story, and learning a little about the context in which it is set.

Playing the

Rake’s Game

Bronwyn Scott

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

For my awesome staff on the Disney Fantasy:

Gabriella and Nicolas, who kept us fed, and Puhl, who had to clean my kid’s stateroom every day and still greeted me happily every morning.

Contents

Cover (#u3d604e17-e8f6-542b-b560-7fc5e415296b)

Introduction (#uc2fa96ec-5db2-5341-a006-fae41692d400)

About the Author (#u015a1fb5-f9db-5a36-94f8-0cb29903243c)

Author Note (#u455bb640-daf7-5310-9686-b569ea2c49ad)

Dedication (#uc03a573c-4f7b-539d-a130-f75fd1569bba)

Chapter One (#u44d9aba6-4bbb-5228-b14e-bf640a2d88fd)

Chapter Two (#u6c611618-2f22-5ac4-b6c7-348f234c493c)

Chapter Three (#u5d5648e0-3630-5f33-81e3-f42f16d161c8)

Chapter Four (#u7080f89b-3a79-56a8-ad46-d433f9df4e1e)

Chapter Five (#u51cb5231-0fd6-5ee3-8e3c-bfc8fa4e9f6d)

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)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)