Marrying the Royal Marine

Marrying the Royal Marine
Carla Kelly

From Ugly Duckling to Beautiful SwanIllegitimate Polly Brandon has never felt like more than an ugly duckling. So she’s amazed when Hugh Philippe Junot pays her such close attention as they sail for Portugal.Under ordinary circumstances she knows this distinguished Lieutenant Colonel of Marines would never have looked at her, but having his protection for the journey is comforting – and something more that she’s afraid to give a name to.Should she trust what she sees in Hugh’s eyes – that she’s turned from ugly duckling to beautiful, desirable swan?

You are cordially invited to the weddings of Lord Ratliffe’s three daughters as they marry their courageous heroes

A captain, a surgeon in the Royal Navy and a

Royal Marine prove true husband material in

this stirring Regency trilogy from Carla Kelly

MARRYING THE CAPTAIN

THE SURGEON’S LADY

MARRYING THE ROYAL MARINE

Praise forCarla Kelly, recipient of a Career Achievement AwardfromRT Book Reviewsand winner of two RITA

Awards

‘A powerful and wonderfully perceptive author.’

—New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

‘Kelly has the rare ability to create realistic

yet sympathetic characters that linger in the mind.

One of the most respected … Regency writers.’

—Library Journal

‘Carla Kelly is always a joy to read.’

—RT Book Reviews

‘Ms Kelly writes with a rich flavour that

adds great depth of emotion to all her

characterisations.’

—RT Book Reviews

About the Author

CARLA KELLY has been writing award-winning novels for years—stories set in the British Isles, Spain, and army garrisons during the Indian Wars. Her speciality in the Regency genre is writing about ordinary people, not just lords and ladies. Carla has worked as a university professor, a ranger in the National Park Service, and recently as a staff writer and columnist for a small daily newspaper in Valley City, North Dakota. Her husband is director of theatre at Valley City State University. She has five interesting children, a fondness for cowboy songs, and too many box elder beetles in the autumn.

Novels by the same author:

BEAU CRUSOE CHRISTMAS PROMISE

(part of Regency Christmas Gifts anthology)

MARRYING THE CAPTAIN*

THE SURGEON’S LADY*

*linked by character

MARRYING THE ROYAL MARINE features

characters you will have met in MARRYING THE

CAPTAIN and THE SURGEON’S LADY

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

Marrying the

Royal Marine

Carla Kelly

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

To Lynn and Bob Turner, former U.S. Marines.

Semper Fi to you both.

Prologue

Stonehouse Royal Marine Barracks,

Third Division, Plymouth—May 1812

Black leather stock in hand, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Philippe d’Anvers Junot, Royal Marine, stared into his mirror and decided his father was right: he was lonely.

Maybe early symptoms were the little drawings that deckled Hugh’s memorandum tablet during endless meetings in the conference room at Marine Barracks. As Colonel Commandant Lord Villiers covered item after item in his stringent style, Hugh had started drawing a little lady peeking around the edge of her bonnet. During one particularly dull budget meeting, he drew a whole file of them down the side of the page.

Hugh gazed more thoughtfully into the mirror, not bothered by his reflection—he knew his height, posture, curly brown hair, and nicely chiselled lips met the demands of any recruiting poster—but by the humbling knowledge that his father still knew him best.

He had written to his father, describing his restlessness and his dissatisfaction with the perils of promotion. While flattering, the promotion had bumped him off a ship of the line and into an office. I know I should appreciate this promotion, he had written, but, Da, I am out of sorts. I’m not sure what I want. I’m sour and discontented. Any advice would be appreciated. Your dutiful, if disgruntled, son.

A week later, he had read Da’s reply over breakfast. He read it once and laughed; he read it again and pushed back his chair, thoughtful. He sat there longer than he should have, touched that his father had probably hit on the matter: he was lonely.

Damn this war, he had thought then. The words were plainspoken as Da was plainspoken: My dear son, I wrote a similar letter to your grandfather once, before I met your mother, God rest her soul. Son, can ye find a wife?