Courtship In The Regency Ballroom: His Cinderella Bride / Devilish Lord, Mysterious Miss

Courtship In The Regency Ballroom: His Cinderella Bride / Devilish Lord, Mysterious Miss
ANNIE BURROWS

His Cinderella BrideJasper Challinor, Marquis of Lensborough was a man well usedto getting exactly what he wanted–and he wanted Hester!Convinced that the redheaded, badly dressed waif was a poorrelation, the noble lord was about to receive the shock of his life…from a lady who would break all of his rules!Devilish Lord, Mysterious MissThe brooding Lord Matthison has still to recover from the deathseven years ago of Cora Montague, whose body was never found…So when he encounters a fragile-looking woman, the image of hisbetrothed, Matthison is convinced Cora is still alive. But whatshould he do to claim her…?

About the Author

ANNIE BURROWS has been making up stories for her own amusement since she first went to school. As soon as she got the hang of using a pencil she began to write them down. Her love of books meant she had to do a degree in English literature. And her love of writing meant she could never take on a job where she didn’t have time to jot down notes when inspiration for a new plot struck her. She still wants the heroines of her stories to wear beautiful floaty dresses and triumph over all that life can throw at them. But when she got married she discovered that finding a hero is an essential ingredient to arriving at ‘happy ever after’.

Courtship

in theRegency Ballroom

His Cinderella Bride

Devilish Lord, Mysterious Miss

Annie Burrows

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

In The Regency Ballroom Collection

Scandal in the Regency Ballroom –Louise Allen

April 2013

Innocent in the Regency Ballroom –Christine Merrill

May 2013

Wicked in the Regency Ballroom –Margaret McPhee

June 2013

Cinderella in the Regency Ballroom –Deb Marlowe

July 2013

Rogue in the Regency Ballroom –Helen Dickson

August 2013

Debutante in the Regency Ballroom –Anne Herries

September 2013

Rumours in the Regency Ballroom –Diane Gaston

October 2013

Rake in the Regency Ballroom –Bronwyn Scott

November 2013

Mistress in the Regency Ballroom –Juliet Landon

December 2013

Courtship in the Regency Ballroom –Annie Burrows

January 2014

Scoundrel in the Regency Ballroom –Marguerite Kaye

February 2014

Secrets in the Regency Ballroom –Joanna Fulford

March 2014

His Cinderella Bride

To Aidan, my own hero,

for always believing in me.

I wouldn’t have been able

to do this without you

Chapter One

Lady Hester Cuerden did not wait for anyone to answer the kitchen door of Beckforth’s vicarage. After thumping on it with her clenched fist a couple of times, she just pushed it open and marched straight in.

Caught in the act of hiding a book under her skirts, Emily Dean, the vicar’s daughter, looked up from her chair beside the fire in guilty shock. Her eyes widened when she realised that Hester was visibly trembling.

‘Whatever is the matter?’she asked, forgetting to conceal the worthless novel from her closest friend as she got to her feet.

Hester pulled off her gloves as she headed for the warmth of the kitchen fire. ‘C…cold…’ she said through chattering teeth. ‘And w…wet…’

‘And absolutely filthy!’ Emily grabbed Hester’s gloves before they had a chance to contaminate the freshly scrubbed deal table on which she had been about to deposit them, and ran with them instead to the sink in the adjacent scullery.

With numbed white fingers, Hester fumbled the buttons of her overcoat undone. Emily came back in time to see her drape it over the back of the chair she had just vacated and stretch her hands out towards the fire.

‘Where’s your bonnet?’ Emily asked as Hester tucked a wayward coil of her distinctive vibrant auburn hair behind her ear. ‘You came out in this weather without one?’

‘Of course not,’ Hester said. ‘I was prepared for any eventuality when I set out. I had a bonnet, and a shawl wrapped over it to keep the wind off, and a basket full of provisions over my arm. You want to know where they all are now? In the bottom of a ditch, that’s where.’

Emily blinked at the circle of greenish slime that was dripping on to the flagged floor from the uneven hem of Hester’s skirt.