Temptation Of A Governess. Sarah Mallory
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The Infamous Arrandales
Scandal is their destiny!
Meet the Arrandale family—dissolute, disreputable and defiant! This infamous family have scandal in their blood, and wherever they go their reputation will always precede them!
Don’t miss any of the fabulous books in Sarah Mallory’s tantalising new quartet!
The Chaperon’s Seduction Already available
Temptation of a Governess Available now
and look for two more sinfully scandalous stories, coming soon!
When I was very young I loved fairytales—especially the story of The Ugly Duckling, the little creature who did not fit in. This is how I saw Diana Grensham: a young lady who has been told from a very early age that she is unattractive. She has therefore hidden herself away from the world, living as a governess because, as she says, governesses are of no consequence.
When we meet Alex he is a privileged young man with looks, health and fortune—a sportsman with an eye for beauty. The world is at his feet and no one has ever opposed his will…until he meets Diana. Despite their differences, Alex is the one man who sees past Diana’s self-effacing shell to the spirited and beautiful woman inside. He gives her the confidence to believe in herself.
Alex changes, too. He learns that the hedonistic world he inhabits is not the one he wants to live in. He discovers that happiness lies with Diana, but after all he has done to alienate her how can she trust him? The ballroom scene at the end of Temptation of a Governess is one of the most touching I have ever written: so much hangs in the balance, and it is important that both Diana and Alex get it right. That is for you, the reader, to judge.
Temptation of a Governess
Sarah Mallory
SARAH MALLORY was born in the West Country and now lives on the beautiful Yorkshire moors. She has been writing for more than three decades—mainly historical romances set in the Georgian and Regency period. She has won several awards for her writing, most recently the Romantic Novelists’ Association RoNA Rose Award in 2012 (for The Dangerous Lord Darrington) and 2013 (for Beneath the Major’s Scars).
To Kathryn, my lovely editor,
and all the team at Richmond,
without whom these books would never happen.
Contents
The April sun shone down brightly on the low-slung racing curricle as it bowled through the lanes and Alex Arrandale felt the winter gloom lifting from his spirits. A gloom that had settled and remained with him since he had heard of the shipwreck that had taken the life of his brother James and made him, Alex, the eighth Earl of Davenport. He had neither expected nor wanted the succession. James was only two years his senior and, at thirty, everyone had thought there was plenty of time for him and his countess to produce an heir. That was why the couple had set out on their sea journey, sailing south to warmer climes that the doctors advised might help improve Margaret’s health and allow her to conceive and carry a boy child full-term. The couple already had a healthy little girl, but a series of miscarriages had left the countess very worn down.
They had never reached the Mediterranean, a storm off Gibraltar in October had run their ship aground and all lives had been lost. The news had reached Alex several weeks later and the depth of his grief had been profound. Even now, six months on, he still wore a black cravat as a sign of his loss. In all other aspects of his life his friends found him unchanged. He had spent the winter as he always did, at a succession of house parties where hunting, gambling and flirting were the order of the day. Only his closest friend saw anything amiss in his frantic pleasure-seeking.
‘Everyone thinks it is because you do not care,’ Mr Gervase Wollerton told him, in a moment of uncharacteristic perception. ‘I think you care too much.’
Perhaps that was so, thought Alex as he slowed and turned his high-bred team of match greys through the gates leading to Chantreys, but he had been earl for a while now and it was time he made a few