It has come to the attention of the ton that the Honorable Miss Sophie Greenwood has returned to London accompanying her cousin Miss Mariah Randolph. I’m sure all our dear readers remember her scandalous departure from London two years ago, but for any newcomer to these pages, her father the Baron Canmore took the 20,000 pound sum he had promised on her marriage and sent it abroad on a venture to the spice islands.
Who marries in their first season, even as accomplished and lovely as this diamond of the first water? But when the ship went down taking her sum with it, the girl’s mother rushed to secure a match before the news reached all of London’s ears that the family is utterly broke. London has not forgotten her attempt, or the ignominious flight that follows.
Lady Sandbourne has the young cousins at her Mayfair home this season and declared she shall have them both married off by the end of season. An admirable sentiment, but Miss Sophie is working on leaving London in disgrace again, as all of Mayfair is discussing her attack on her person outside the homes of the city’s most illustrious residents.
As seen on the streets of Mayfair just yesterday
Anjanette’s cry was the only warning Sophie had before powerful arms closed around her throat. Sophie could do nothing as she watched Anjanette hitting the ground hard. A nasty voice filled her ears. “Tell me where to find Greyfriars and you’ll stay alive.”
The smell of the man was bad enough, something good came from being choked so she couldn’t breathe. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t lie to me, I’ve seen you wearing your finery. Tell me where to find him.” His hands tightened. “I’ve seen the letter. Tell me where he is.”
Just as she was about to run out of air, Anjanette finally found her tongue and started yelling. Sophie sank to the ground when she could suddenly breathe while the sound of heavy uneven footsteps ran quickly away. Strong hands helped her up as Lady Sandbourne and Mariah came at haste, along with most of the other residents of the street. Their manservants at any rate.
“Get away from her, you blackguard,” Roberts, Lady Sandbourne’s butler, ordered.
Sophie’s voice strained, the words unable to form.
Anjanette spoke instead. “He’s the one that saved her.”
Turning to look at her savior, it was no wonder Roberts was skeptical. The man’s strong jaw was covered in stubble, tanned as few gentlemen are in England making his piercing blue eyes stand out all the more. Sun had bleached his dark hair and she could smell the sea on him. Somehow, she couldn’t pull her eyes away from his.
“Thank you.” Sophie was finally able to whisper.
“You’re sure he isn’t the one?” Lady Sandbourne pressed.
Sophie shook her head forcing the words to come. “The man that attacked me stank. I’m sure you can smell it even now on my clothes. It was not the sea I smelled.”
Her rescuer smiled faintly. “Are you quite well? Nothing was stolen?”
A neighbor’s servant sniffed disdainfully. “Not from her, nothing to take.” The group broke up without orders, she was certain, so they could go report to their ladies how she made a spectacle of herself by being attacked.
Lady Sandbourne slipped in at her side fretting and clucking like a hen as Mariah helped Anjanette. “I can’t believe you were attacked outside my own home. Mayfair is supposed to be above that sort of thing.” She was escorted away from her mystery rescuer before she could find out his name to thank him properly.
“Did you see the one that saved her? He looked as disreputable as the man that attacked her must have,” Mariah announced once the door was closed.
Sophie saved her throat though Mariah’s disdain was unfounded. Sophie would stake the last of her reputation on that fact. A long sea voyage perhaps and he had just docked by the smell he carried. Not yet had time to shave.
“Fearful handsome, though.” Lady Sandbourne commented leaving Mariah to be scandalized, never expecting such a thing from her aunt.
All Sophie could think of in order to forget almost being strangled was the look in the man’s eyes. Even after it was mentioned she had nothing, those eyes kept smiling at her.
A Ruined Season
Sophie Greenwood went to London to have her season hoping to find a husband. If only they had told her that her father had lost all his money, but gossip spreads quickly around London and already everyone knew Baron Canmore’s scandal.
Now two years later, will Sophie ruin another season? No one seems to want to make staying scandal-free an easy task. Almost everywhere she turns someone is trying to make her the laughing stock. Fleeing London once more seems to be her only option. What hope is there for a life of her own?
To read all the latest gossip about Sophie soon to be ruined season, visit http://www.jennifermuellerbooks.com/rooms/id599gqj18/A-Ruined-Season-England-1814
Meet Jennifer Mueller
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya a few years back I traveled quite a bit and now I just wish I was. A lot of the places I’ve written about I’ve been to, a lot of them I haven’t. Rafting on the Nile in Uganda, living in a Montana ghost town, Puerto Rican beaches, African safaris, Mayan ruins, European youth hostels, forts on the Ghana coast all fill my scrapbooks. I still travel in my head every time I write even if I don’t get out as much as I wish. I currently live in the Pacific Northwest and look forward to filling many more pages.
Tammy Andresen lives with her husband and three children just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up on the Seacoast of Maine, where she spent countless days dreaming up stories in blueberry fields and among the scrub pines that line the coast. Her mother loved to spin a yarn and Tammy filled many hours listening to her mother retell the classics. It was inevitable that at the age of 18, she headed off to Simmons College, where she studied English literature and education. She never left Massachusetts but some of her heart still resides in Maine and her family visits often.
About the Book:
Duchess shall play piquet—and hopefully win! I won’t dance, or worse still, engage in mindless small talk and facile flirting with members of the opposite sex no matter how much Helena wants me to. She should know by now that I won’t play along. If she weren’t so dear to me, I would cry off but I am loath to hurt her feelings.
Georgiana Dudley, the ‘Ice Duchess’, has just emerged from mourning after a nine-year marriage of convenience to the Duke of Darby, her twin brother’s lover. Deeply hurt by a scoundrel a decade ago, Georgie swore she would never turn her head for any man, let alone another rakehell. But then she encounters the wickedly handsome and all too charming Rafe Landsbury, the Earl of Markham and against her better judgment, her interest is reluctantly aroused. An affair may be impossible to resist but dare she trust Lord Markham with her most intimate secrets… and her heart?
You might laugh, but it was 1822 when I left the workroom, and it wasn’t 1822 any more when I turned onto Gillinghall Street.
Blaise de Wolfe risks losing De Wolfe Hall unless he can prove his pure Norman ancestry and be eligible for a substantial renovation grant from the “Sons of the Conquest”, an exclusive club. He turns to family tree researcher Anne Smith, unaware of her Norman roots and consequent disdain for the male-only policies of the club. Sparks fly between them when she digs up some unexpected information about Blaise’s medieval ancestor, Gaetan de Wolfe.