Marriage Made In Hope. Sophia James
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Название: Marriage Made In Hope

Автор: Sophia James

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Исторические любовные романы

Серия: Mills & Boon Historical

isbn: 9781474042390

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ 7951aa-3efc-5ec2-bb8d-f973781b0eb7">

      

       The Penniless Lords

       In want of a wealthy wife

      Meet Daniel, Gabriel, Lucien and Francis. Four lords, each down on his fortune and each in need of a wife of means.

      From such beginnings, can these marriages of convenience turn into something more treasured than money?

      Don’t miss this enthralling new quartet by Sophia James

      Read Daniel, Gabriel, Lucien and Francis’s stories in

       Marriage Made in Money

       Marriage Made in Shame

       Marriage Made in Rebellion

       Marriage Made in Hope

      All available now!

       Author Note

      I’ve loved writing The Penniless Lords series. Each of the four lords has his own particular set of problems, and Francis St Cartmail, the damaged Earl of Douglas, is no exception.

      Hounded by his past, and lonely with it, Francis finds his world turned around when he saves a woman from drowning in the Thames.

      Lady Sephora Connaught is suffocating in life even before she falls into the river, and when a stranger pulls her from certain death it’s as if she has crossed a threshold and everything has changed.

      Christine, who is Lucien’s sister, is next. I have written her story as a novella for a forthcoming Christmas anthology.

      Marriage Made in Hope

      Sophia James

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      SOPHIA JAMES lives in Chelsea Bay, on Auckland, New Zealand’s North Shore, with her husband, who is an artist. She has a degree in English and History from Auckland University and believes her love of writing was formed by reading Georgette Heyer in the holidays at her grandmother’s house. Sophia enjoys getting feedback at sophiajames.co.

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      Contents

       Cover

      The Penniless Lords

      Author Note

       Title Page

       About the Author

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Extract

       Copyright

       Chapter One

      London—1815

      Lady Sephora Connaught knew that she was going to die. Right then and there as the big black horse bucked on the bridge and simply threw her over the balustrade and down into the fast-running river.

      Her sister screamed and so did others, the sounds blocked out by the water as she hit it, fright taking breath and leaving terror. She exhaled from pure instinct, but still the river came in, filling her mouth and throat and lungs as the cloth of her heavy skirt drew her under to the darkness and the gloom. She could not fight it, could not gain purchase or traction or leverage.

      Ripping at her riding jacket, she tried to loosen the fastenings, but it was hopeless. There were too many buttons and beneath that too many stays, too much boning and layers and tightness, all clinging and covering and constricting.

      This was it.

      The moment of her end; already the numbness was coming, the pain in her leg from hitting the balustrade receding into acceptance, the light from above fading as she sank amongst the fish and the mud and the empty blackness. It was over. Her life. Her time. Gone before she had even lived it. Her hands closed over her mouth and nose so that she would not breathe in, but her lungs were screaming for air and she couldn’t deny them further.

      A movement above had her tipping her head, the disturbance of the water felt more than seen as a dark shape came towards her. A man fully dressed, his hand reaching out even as he kicked. She simply watched, trying to determine СКАЧАТЬ