Dealing with
The Viscount
Improper Wives for Proper Lords Book 1
By Clair Brett
Genre: Regency Historical Romance
Does she dare
gamble on the one man who wants her to go all in, or risk losing her most
important hand yet?
After making a
wager of marriage to settle her father’s gambling debts, Ella Bowen-Thorn
Renwick escaped the husband she foolishly began to fall for and disappeared
into the Scottish countryside carrying a secret. Four years later, and the
owner of her own bakery, she is still not free of the demands of men when a
violent and anonymous blackmailer threatens her, her livelihood… and her
daughter. And then, there is him…
Viscount Renwick
still mourns the wife he began to love before her untimely death-- that is,
until he discovers her alive and well living in Scotland. Now, Devon’s face to
face with the wife he thought he’d buried and the daughter he never knew
existed. He’d like nothing more than to welcome Ella back into his arms, but
mysterious and troubling incidents and a history with an unloving father have
Ella trusting no one.
Now he’ll do
anything, even make a wager he isn’t sure he can win, to reclaim what he lost.
But, if Renwick
convinces his wife he’s the husband she always dreamed of and the father their
daughter deserves, will the scandalous secret the blackmailer is holding
threaten their future together once more?
“You like being a
baker?” He asked with genuine curiosity and surprise.
"Well, the
hours are atrocious, but do I like making my own way? The answer is yes. I make
the decisions and there is no one to tell me what I am doing is wrong. It is a
good feeling."
"You know, it
is possible to depend on someone and not be frightened they would ridicule
you."
She turned then
and looked up at him. Was he saying he would never ridicule her? "I think
it is human nature for a man to always question a woman's decision.” They had
made their way to the folly which she hadn't realized was overgrown with vines
affording its occupants with complete privacy. He was calculating, she would
give him that.
"Two people
can have differing views on a topic without ridicule. I have seen it." He
helped her sit on the bench, then propped his booted foot on the seat next to
her and rested his arm on his raised knee leaning down to face her. "If
the two people see each other as equals it can work. Just like two business
partners."
"Do you
truly feel that marriage is a business venture?” She asked all innocent. She
gave him her best card face hoping not to give away the importance of his
answer. He studied her face. She knew he guessed his answer couldn't be so
simple as a yes, or no. After several moments he attempted to answer.
"Well, I
think that anytime two individuals are joined in a common goal, that yes they
must treat each other as a partner. I daresay the benefits far outweigh most
business ventures. Unfortunately, I can't answer past that, because I have
never spent much time considering what a marriage would entail, until now. I am
terribly out of my element here. You lived in a home with both parents for some
time what say you?” He had answered her question in such a way that he didn't answer
it at all. Blast!
Birds chirped as
they jumped among the vines of their haven. The air seemed heavy and warm. More
like a summer day than spring. He waited. She knew she couldn't answer him
using her own parents, because she would never want what they had. She would
not accept anything but a love match. Instead she spoke of the one example she
had. The baker and his wife who took her in when she needed it most.
"I do know
something of how a true marriage can work. It was not a Ton marriage. The two
people were a team as you said. They worked together every day listening to
each other, but it was more than that. You couldn't see it or even explain it,
but it was how they looked at each other. How they spoke to one another even
when they were disagreeing. I think it was very rare, and possibly
unattainable.”
He shifted and
turned to walk to the other side of the gazebo leaving a cool breeze in his
wake, making her shiver.
"You are
talking of a love match?" he asked with his back turned to her. She
couldn't read anything in his words.
Dragon keeper
and historical romance author, Clair Brett lives in NH with her hard working
husband, and two teenaged daughters. Her office staff during the day consists
of Cinta, a black cat and the matriarch of the fur babies, Mojo, a yellow
kitten who spends his day holding Clair down in her seat to get her word count in,
a boxer/beagle mix puppy named Willow, who sleeps next to her chair to make it
hard to do an Oreo run without doing a pee run as well, a hermit crab who keeps
to himself, and a bearded dragon, who is kind of upper management.
A former middle
and high school English teacher, Clair has had a lifetime love affair with
reading. Once she read Pride and Prejudice as an extra read in high school, she
was hooked. Clair began pursuit of publication when she was a new mother in
need of a hobby. Her oldest daughter will be graduating in 2017, so you do the
math. Clair is a firm believer that a reader finds a piece of who they are or
learns something about the world with every book they read. She wants her
readers to be empowered and to have a refreshed belief in the goodness of
people and the power of love after reading her work.
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