Excerpt & Giveaway: A Kiss for Lady Mary by Ella Quinn
A
Kiss for Lady Mary
The Marriage Game # 6
The Marriage Game # 6
By:
Ella Quinn
Releasing
May 26th, 2015
Kensington
Books
Blurb
Ella Quinn’s bachelors do as they like and take what they want. But when the objects of their desire are bold, beautiful women, the rules of the game always seem to change…
Ella Quinn’s bachelors do as they like and take what they want. But when the objects of their desire are bold, beautiful women, the rules of the game always seem to change…
Handsome,
charming, and heir to a powerful Viscount, Christopher “Kit”
Featherton is everything a woman could want—except interested in
marriage. So when he hears that someone on his estate near the
Scottish border is claiming to be his wife, Kit sets off to
investigate.
Since
her parents’ death, Lady Mary Tolliver has been hounded by her
cousin, a fortune-hunting fool after her inheritance. Refusing to
settle for anything less than love, Mary escapes to the isolated
estate of rakish bachelor, Kit Featherton. Knowing he prefers Court
to the country, she believes she will be safe. But when Kit
unexpectedly returns, her pretend marriage begins to feel seductively
real…
Excerpt
A couple of
days later, Mary joined her grandmother and aunt in the dower house’s
elegant but cozy morning room. Small paintings and miniatures
encompassing generations of Tollivers covered the walls and surfaces.
In the Queen Anne style, the furniture was old, but comfortable.
Long windows
gave a view over the rose garden and the marble fountain in its
center. The curtains had recently been changed from the velvet used
during the colder seasons to a cerulean blue watered silk trimmed
with gold braid. Even though they were experiencing one of their few
warm days this spring, a log spat and popped in the fireplace.
In fact, the
only disturbing part of the normally tranquil atmosphere was the
conversation.
Doing her best
to keep her jaw from dropping in shock, Mary stared at her
grandmother. The older woman’s thick silver hair was face held few
lines. Her gaze seemed as sharp as ever. Generally she was the
picture of health, except for this recent burst of incipient
insanity, for that was all it could be.
Mary opened
her mouth, then closed it again. Several moments passed in silence as
she struggled to make sense of what she thought she’d heard. After
rejecting retorts such as, Grandmamma,
are you feeling quite well? Or, are you sure you wouldn’t like a
nice room in Bedlam? And
finally unable to come up with another way to ask her question, she
simply voiced the nicest thought in her mind. “Surely I have not
understood you properly. You want me to do what?”
“Well, I
think it’s a wonderful idea.”
Mary shifted
her gaze to her aunt. Perhaps madness had always run in the family
and it had been kept a secret so as not to ruin them socially. After
all, who would deliberately marry into a family where lunacy was
rampant?
“He has a
face like a fish.” Aunt Eunice opened her eyes wide and moved her
lips in a fair imitation of a fish.
“Hake.”
Grandmamma nodded decisively. “It’s the way his eyes protrude.”
Mary closed
her eyes, repressing a shudder. “I agree, but surely there must be
less drastic measures I can take.”
Grandmamma
leaned forward and pounded her silver-headed cane on the floor. “He
may look like a fool, my girl, but he’s canny, and, if what Cook
told me is true”—Mary should have expected that— “which I
have no doubt it is, he almost caught you a few days ago.”
“Yes, well.”
Not the cleverest of replies. Surely, she could think of something
more to say. “I got away from him,” she ended lamely.
“This time.”
Grandmamma’s lips thinned.
“And every
other time previously.” Mary let out a frustrated huff.
Unfortunately, her grandmother did have a point. It was becoming more
and more difficult to evade her cousin. “Did Barham receive an
answer to his last letter to Uncle Hector?”
After a few
moments, during which Grandmamma turned so red it appeared as if she
would have apoplexy, Aunt Eunice replied, “Yes. But it won’t
serve. Barham said Hector continues to insist your father promised
you would marry Gawain, and he will not release your funds until
either the marriage takes place—”
“In which
case that spendthrift, Gawain,” Mary almost growled, the anger in
her voice surprising her, “would control everything.”
“Or you turn
five and twenty.”
Her aunt’s
voice interrupted her silent railing. “I’m sorry. What did you
say?”
“When the
trust ends,” Eunice replied patiently.
“Unless you
plan to spend the next two years inside the house,” Grandmamma
said, emphasizing her speech with another loud thump of her cane,
“you will do as your aunt and I advise.”
Mary eyed the
silver headed stick. What would her grandmother do if she hid it?
Still, what they were suggesting was complete insanity. “But I—”
“He’s
found you everywhere we’ve tried to hide you, my dear.”
Eunice stared
at Mary, a compassionate look on her face. “Drastic times call for
drastic measures.”
Mary slowly
shook her head. “I don’t think I could pretend to be someone else
for that long a time.”
“But you
won’t have to pretend.” Her aunt beamed. “That is the
brilliance of the plan! You can be yourself . . . with a slight
change in your last name for the time being.”
“We’ve
been very careful,” her grandmother said as calmly as if she were
choosing a dinner menu, “to select a remote area where there are no
important families.”
There was
something very wrong about all of this. “May I ask who the owner
is?”
Her
grandmother waved her hand as if dismissing her question. “The less
you know for time being, the safer you’ll be if Gawain comes
sniffing around.”
Grandmamma
tapped her cane for at least the fourth time. Mary’s fingers itched
to grab the thing away and throw it in the fireplace. “It’s
decided. We’ll leave early tomorrow morning.”
Ella Quinn lived all over the United States, the Pacific, Canada, England and Europe before finally discovering the Caribbean. She lives in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands with her wonderful husband, three bossy cats and a loveable Great Dane.
Thank you for hosting A KISS FOR LADY MARY!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome!
DeleteSounds good and I like the cover.
ReplyDeleteSounds good and I like the cover.
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