The Marquis Takes a Bride
Read The Marquis Takes a Bride Online
Authors: M.C. Beaton
M. C. Beaton
is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series, as well as a quartet of Edwardian murder mysteries featuring heroine Lady Rose Summer, several Regency romance series and a stand-alone murder mystery,
The Skeleton in the Closet
– all published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full-time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now divides her time between the Cotswolds and Paris. Visit
www.mcbeatonbooks.co.uk
for more, or follow M. C. Beaton on Twitter:
@mc_beaton
.
Titles by M. C. Beaton
The Poor Relation
Lady Fortescue Steps Out • Miss Tonks Turns to Crime • Mrs Budley Falls from Grace Sir Philip’s Folly • Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue • Back in Society
A House for the Season
The Miser of Mayfair
•
Plain Jane
•
The Wicked Godmother Rake’s Progress
•
The Adventuress
•
Rainbird’s Revenge
The Six Sisters
Minerva
•
The Taming of Annabelle
•
Deirdre and Desire Daphne
•
Diana the Huntress
•
Frederica in Fashion
Edwardian Murder Mysteries
Snobbery with Violence
•
Hasty Death
•
Sick of Shadows Our Lady of Pain
The Travelling Matchmaker
Emily Goes to Exeter
•
Belinda Goes to Bath
•
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth Beatrice Goes to Brighton
•
Deborah Goes to Dover
•
Yvonne Goes to York
Edwardian Candlelight
Polly • Molly • Ginny • Tilly • Susie • Kitty • Daisy • Sally • Maggie • Poppy • Pretty Polly • Lucy • My Lords, Ladies and Marjorie
Regency Candlelight
Annabelle • Henrietta • Penelope
Regency Royal
The Westerby Inheritance • The Marquis Takes a Bride • Lady Anne’s Deception • Lady Margery’s Intrigue • The Savage Marquess • My Dear Duchess • The Highland Countess • Lady Lucy’s Lover • The Ghost and Lady Alice • Love and Lady Lovelace • Duke’s Diamonds • The Viscount’s Revenge • The Paper Princess • The Desirable Duchess • The Sins of Lady Dacey • The Dreadful Debutante • The Chocolate Debutante • The Loves of Lord Granton • Milady in Love • The Scandalous Marriage
Regency Scandal
His Lordship’s Pleasure • Her Grace’s Passion • The Scandalous Lady Wright
Regency Flame
Those Endearing Young Charms
? The Flirt • Lessons in Love • Regency Gold • Miss Fiona’s Fancy • The French Affair • To Dream of Love • A Marriage of Inconvenience • A Governess of Distinction • The Glitter of Gold
Regency Season
The Original Miss Honeyford • The Education of Miss Paterson • At the Sign of the Golden Pineapple • Sweet Masquerade ?The Constant Companion • Quadrille • The Perfect Gentleman • Dancing on the Wind • Ms. Davenport’s Christmas
The Waverly Women
The First Rebellion • Silken Bonds • The Love Match
Agatha Raisin
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
•
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener
•
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
•
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
•
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
•
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate
•
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
•
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison
•
Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
•
Agatha Raisin: As the Pig Turns
Agatha Raisin: Hiss and Hers • Agatha Raisin and the Christmas Crumble
Hamish Macbeth
Death of a Gossip
•
Death of a Cad
•
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Perfect Wife
•
Death of a Hussy
•
Death of a Snob
Death of a Prankster
•
Death of a Glutton
•
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Charming Man
•
Death of a Nag
•
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Dentist
•
Death of a Scriptwriter
•
Death of an Addict
A Highland Christmas
•
Death of a Dustman
•
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Village
•
Death of a Poison Pen
•
Death of a Bore
Death of a Dreamer
•
Death of a Maid
•
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Witch
•
Death of a Valentine
•
Death of a Sweep
Death of a Kingfisher • Death of Yesterday
The Skeleton in the Closet
Also available
The Agatha Raisin Companion
The Marquis Takes a Bride
M. C. Beaton
Constable & Robinson Ltd.
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
First electronic edition published 2011
by RosettaBooks LLC, New York
This edition published in the UK by Canvas,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2013
Copyright © M. C. Beaton, 1980
The right of M. C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-47210-132-7 (ebook)
Cover copyright © Constable & Robinson
To my friend, supporter and helper, Madeline Trezza, with much love.
Chapter One
Runbury Manor, home of Lord Charles and Lady Bemyss, had been designed by Robert Hooke in the seventeenth century and some uncharitable people said it had not been cleaned since.
It seemed, indeed, a fitting home for Lord Charles’ pack of senile and bad-tempered old hounds since it smelled like a kennel. Elderly dogs lay gasping and panting in front of the fire in winter and snored in various Chippendale chairs in the summer, only rousing themselves to nip some passing guest.
Lord Charles had once explained to his friends and neighbors that since he himself could no longer follow the hunt and preferred to take his ease in a comfortable chair, then it was only fitting that his old friends of the hunt—the ancient remnant of his pack of hounds—should do likewise.
His lady Priscilla was equally devoted to the smelly animals, often preferring to talk to them rather than to any human being. The dogs understood so much more.
The couple would have been perfectly happy had they not been burdened with one human responsibility in the shape of their granddaughter, Jennie.
Jennie’s parents had been taken by the cholera when she was still a baby and she could not remember them at all. She had been brought up by her grandparents, who were strict in some things and very lax in others.
She had been spared the rigors of an education, Lord Charles holding to the old-fashioned view that a female with an uneducated mind was a rare and beautiful thing, yet her social training had been severe. She knew how to curtsy with grace, how to manage a train, how to use a fan of any size, how to compliment a gentleman on his taste in snuff and how to listen to long and boring dissertations on hunting and agriculture with wide-eyed interest. Outside the Manor, however, she could run wild as she pleased and ride for miles around without the escort of a groom.
In the house, her duties were to help her grandmother in the still room and to eat everything on her plate at table. Any food left uneaten would be served to her at the next meal and, should she not eat it then, at the meal after that. She was taught to practice that cheese-paring economy so peculiar to the English aristocracy. Old clothes were never to be thrown away unless they were in rags and Jennie became an adept needlewoman—although she had little time to spend on her own clothes. When she was not sewing “white work” in long seams with all the mysterious rites of counter-hemming, running and felling, top-sewing and pointing, she was kept busy at her embroidery frame producing pictures in tent or tapestry stitch.
Provided she obeyed these rules of the house, her grandparents treated her with the same impatient kindness that they used to give their dogs when they were puppies.
In this unlikely atmosphere, Jennie bloomed like the rose. She had a mass of glossy black hair, a little heart-shaped face, wide hazel eyes and a petulant, at times willful, mouth. She had on occasion very pretty manners, a good deal of intelligence despite her lack of education, but was unfortunately inclined to sulks and temper tantrums. It was not because her grandparents were in any way indulgent, in fact they hardly noticed whether she was in a good mood or not, but she had been petted and indulged by her first cousin, Guy, for quite a number of her formative years.
Jennie had been in love with Guy since the days when she could only toddle after him. Guy was some five years older than Jennie, a slim young man of medium build with fair curly hair and an engaging boyish expression. He followed the sporting fashion of the Corinthians and ran around London with a set of wild young men who would have shocked Jennie to the core could she have seen them first-hand. But she only heard of their antics from Guy and thought that Guy and his circle must be the most dashing and elegant bloods in the world.
Jennie was, in fact, spoiled through neglect. Although she was fed and clothed, she was often lonely and had no books to pass the weary hours. She was often unsure of herself and had no one but Guy to turn to, her grandparents never understanding a word she said, immersed as they were in the narrow channel of their own lives. And like all neglected children, Jennie would throw scenes and temper tantrums as the only way she knew to satisfy her craving for love and attention.
Guy would soothe her and pet her and train her up in his own cynical worldly philosophy. And with only Guy to listen to her, Jennie grew more and more dependent on the young man for comfort and advice.
Guy was a regular visitor to the Manor. Like Jennie, his parents were dead. He lived in comfortable lodgings in St. James’ but found the Manor a useful retreat from duns and creditors. He never failed to try to borrow money from Lord Charles, although he was hardly ever successful, Lord Charles becoming unaccountably deaf when anyone so much as hinted that his lordship should even part with a farthing.