One of our intrepid reporters, while on a walking tour near the coast of Lancashire, came upon a shocking sight. We feel it to be our duty to recount his experience – and thus to remind well-bred English ladies of the consequences of abandoning their virtue.

If, dear readers, you plan to visit that delightful area of the north, do not, we beg you, visit an inn known as the Diving Duck. It is patronized by the lowest sort of common people. Many of them are smugglers, who go to the Diving Duck to drink and carouse after a successful smuggling run. But that’s not the worst of it!

What will make you cringe with horror are not the smugglers, but the lady who plays the piano in the coffee room and sings vulgar songs. As if that were not bad enough, she resides in the Diving Duck and is exceedingly friendly with the patrons. Why, we all ask, would a lady demean herself in such a way?

The answer is sadly obvious. She has lost her reputation. In other words, she is ruined!

Our reporter recognized her as Miss D. W., cousin of the well-known rake, Lord G. He attempted to speak to her, but she ignored him most rudely. He then questioned the patrons of the inn about her, but their response was hostile to say the least. He was obliged to make his escape in a hurry!

What does their defense of the lady mean? We hesitate to conjecture further, but surely a ruined lady should retire to a life of loneliness and penitence, rather than expose her folly to a rightly censorious world! Has she no shame?

It seems not. Poor, foolish Miss D. W.! She serves as a dire warning to any lady tempted to misbehave. In the end, degradation and misery are the fate of those who step off the path of virtue!

Love and the Shameless Lady

Disgraced lady Daisy Warren serves ale in a tumbledown inn, sings crude songs for the smugglers, and writes romantic novels in her spare time. Shunned by her own class, she’s resigned to her lowly life—until someone tries to kill her.

Gentleman spy Sir Julian Kerr noses out seditionists and traitors. When he visits the inn to investigate two suspicious Frenchmen, he meets the lovely but hostile Daisy. He doesn’t intend to get involved with her—but then he learns that someone is threatening her life.

He must find out more—it’s part of his investigation. He needs to protect her—he’s a chivalrous man. More than anything, he just wants her. But will Daisy’s bitter past allow her to risk love again?

Love and the Shameless Lady is only 99 cents for the month of April!

https://books2read.com/love-and-the-shameless-lady

 

For more about Barbara Monajem and her books, go here: www.BarbaraMonajem.com