The Duchess Diaries: The Bridal Pleasures Series
Read The Duchess Diaries: The Bridal Pleasures Series Online
Authors: Jillian Hunter
Jillian Hunter in our lives.”
—
The Oakland Press
(MI)
PRAISE FOR THE
BRIDAL PLEASURES SERIES
A Bride Unveiled
“Sizzling sexual chemistry and rapier wit . . . a thoroughly romantic literary treat.”
—
Booklist
(starred review)
“Hunter draws the reader in with a compelling plot and engaging characters in this smoothly written tale of love lost and found.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“A sinfully sexy hero with a secret, a book-obsessed heroine in search of her own happy-ever-after ending, a delightfully clever plot that takes great fun in spoofing the literary world, and writing that sparkles with wicked wit and exquisite sensuality add up to an exceptionally entertaining read worthy of ‘Lord Anonymous’ himself.”
—
Booklist
(starred review)
“With humor and charm, sensuality and wickedness, Hunter delights.”
—
Romantic Times
“Ms. Hunter’s Boscastle series is one of the few historical romance series that I read. You’ll find lively characters, unusual plots, and an underlying sense of fun.”
—Fresh Fiction
“An unusual duke and a naive country gentlewoman sounds like a typical historical romance, but Ms. Hunter makes it so much more. These characters turn the ordinary into something special and kept me glued to the book.”
—Night Owl Romance
“This is the first in what looks to be a very promising, and extremely seductive, new quartet. Most of the focus is on the main couple, Samuel and Lily. This is as it should be; however, a bit of danger and suspense makes enough surprise appearances to keep things intriguing. Few can resist a novel by Jillian Hunter!”
—Huntress Book Reviews
OF JILLIAN HUNTER
“One of the funniest, most delightful romances I’ve had the pleasure to read.”
—Teresa Medeiros
“An absolutely delightful tale that’s impossible to put down.”
—
Booklist
“A sweet, romantic tale…full of humor, romance, and passion. Historical romance that is sure to please.”
—The Romance Readers Connection
“A lovely read.”
—Romance Reader at Heart
“Enchanting…a fabulous historical.”
—
Midwest Book Review
“[It] bespells, beguiles, and bewitches. If romance, magic, great plots, and wonderful characters add spice to your reading life, don’t allow this one to escape.”
—Crescent Blues
“Romantic and sexy.…Read it—you’ll love it!”
—
The Romance Reader
“Jillian Hunter’s ability to touch chords deep within readers’ hearts is what sets her apart and makes her and everything she writes a keeper.”
—
Romantic Times
“Ms. Hunter pens unique, fascinating stories that draw the reader right in. Impossible to put down.”
—
Rendezvous
“A master at wringing emotion from every page, Ms. Hunter explodes onto the scene with an extraordinary tale that combines brilliant writing with sizzling sexual tension.”
—The Speaking Tree
The Bridal Pleasures Series
A Bride Unveiled
A Duke’s Temptation
The Duchess Diaries
The Bridal Pleasures Series
SIGNET SELECT
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First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, February 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Maria Hoag, 2012
Excerpt from
A Duke’s Temptation
copyright © Maria Hoag, 2010
All rights reserved
EISBN: 9781101559611
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For my editor, Kerry Donovan.
Thank you for your excellent spot-on editing and brainstorming sessions and for always being there when I needed you. I appreciate all that you have done.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Accolades to the NAL Art Department for creating a cover more beautiful than I could ever have envisioned.
Thank you!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mayfair, London
1819
I
t was the best of balls; it was the worst of balls. It was the annual graduation ball honoring the Scarfield Academy for Young Ladies in London. It was an evening of hope, which Miss Charlotte Boscastle had resolved would not end in disgrace. It was an evening of beginnings and farewells.
As the academy’s head schoolmistress, Charlotte would receive accolades for her efforts in training another class of young ladies to enter society. She would be praised for any marriage proposals offered to her students as a result of their elite schooling.
She would also be blamed for any scandals she allowed to besmirch the academy’s name. Her archenemy, Lady Clipstone, the owner of a competitive although lesser school, had predicted to the newspapers that some social
misfortune was bound to occur during the event. Charlotte could take little comfort in the knowledge that she was surrounded by members of her own family—everyone in the ton knew how controversy tended to follow the Boscastles. It was said that whenever more than two Boscastles were gathered in one place, the devil came into active play.
Still, she was grateful that her cousin, the Marquess of Sedgecroft, had agreed to host the affair at his Park Lane mansion. She appreciated the fact that he had invited his battalion of friends to fill the ballroom and impress the girls.
The social futures of this group of young ladies were in Charlotte’s hands for one last evening. It fell upon her to put out any flames of attraction to the opposite sex before they could blaze into an impropriety.
“Miss Boscastle, may I go out into the garden?”
“No, Amy, you may not, as I have told you a thousand and one times. Not without an approved escort.”
“But it’s stifling in here.”
“Drink another lemonade.”
“Verity drank champagne.”
“Verity,” Charlotte said, searching the room for the academy’s recent charity-case and most trouble-prone pupil, “will be restricted to her room tomorrow. I knew I shouldn’t have allowed the younger girls to attend. How will they concentrate on class tomorrow? Miss Peppertree was right. Only the graduates should be invited to the ball.”
“Miss Boscastle, I broke my slipper. What should I do? May I ask the marchioness if I may borrow a pair of hers?”
Charlotte frowned. “If you can find her—without leaving the room.”
“Verity is standing on the terrace, miss.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she muttered. “Where is the Duchess of Glenmorgan? She promised she would stay close enough for me to call.”
Perhaps, after tonight, Charlotte might be able to draw a breath. For good or for evil, the graduates would venture forth into the world and assume the responsibility of their reputations upon their own shoulders. If it were possible she would have drawn out a complete map of pitfalls that a young lady might encounter after she left the academy. It would depict a narrow road intersected with various pathways marked, A
VENUES OF
F
ORBIDDEN
A
FFAIRS,
D
ARK
F
ORAYS INTO
D
ECADENCE—OR
R
UINED
R
EPUTATIONS.
Until dawn broke over the occasion, however, she was obligated to stand guard against any rogues who thought to take advantage of an inexperienced girl. She had her eye on one rogue in particular. He had looked at her only once. The Duke of Wynfield was without question the most elegant and hard-edged guest at the ball, and Charlotte wasn’t about to let him tempt one of her graduates or distract her from her duty.
She wondered whether he even remembered the last time they had seen each other, at the emporium in the Strand. They hadn’t exchanged a single word. Charlotte had been shopping for the academy that day. He had been shopping for a pair of strumpets, one draped over either elbow.
He had kissed one of the tarts on the neck—and merely smiled when Charlotte, at the opposite end of the counter, had gasped in shock.
She had returned to the academy hours later to record the incident in her diary, as was her wont, changing a detail here and there until,
en fin,
the actual event bore little resemblance to her fabricated but far more satisfying
version. She had been keeping a journal ever since she could hold a pen, and she enjoyed the art of exaggerating commonplace events.