Lady Farquhar's Butterfly (32 page)

Major Angus
McCartney hopes that marriage to the unobtainable beauty whose
confident gaze about the ballroom once failed to register his
presence will offer both of them a chance to put the past to
rest.

Emily’s
determination to be faithful to Jack’s memory is matched only by
Angus’s desire to win her with honour and action. Sent to France on
a mission of national security, Angus discovers how deeply Emily
has been duped, but the secrets he uncovers lead them both into
danger. Can Angus and Emily unmask the real conspirators before
they lose everything?

The following
scene occurs when Emily receives Angus four months after his duty
visit during which he’s informed her that her fiancé has died.
During that previous visit he’s also told her a lie which, later,
comes back to haunt him after she’s become his ‘reluctant
bride’.

THE RELUCTANT BRIDE
EXTRACT

‘You see how
it is with me,’ she said harshly, smoothing the loose, unflattering
garment over her stomach. ‘I don’t wonder you are struck dumb,
Major. Nor do I know why my aunt, who has been at such pains to
keep me hidden, should have me flaunt myself before you.’

‘When I told
her I’d come from Kent she seemed to realise my interest was
sincere. ‘My–’

‘Commiserations? Condolences?’

The young
soldier bit his lip. ‘Did Captain Noble know?’

‘That he was
to be a father? No, Major McCartney. He was killed before even I
knew.’

‘I’m
sorry.’

‘Sorry that he
never knew? Or sorry for my predicament?’ Crossing the room she
lowered herself awkwardly into a chair, gesturing him to be seated
while she poured the tea that Mary had just brought in.

‘Both.’
Frowning, he leaned forward to accept the dainty china cup she
offered him.

‘What will you
do…?’ Clearly too embarrassed to complete the sentence, he coloured
once more.

Emily regarded
him with wry amusement. ‘You have no sisters, do you, Major?’

‘No, ma’am,’
he confirmed.

‘But you ask
me what I will do?’ She sipped her tea and said with the faintest
shrug, ‘I am ruined, of course.’

‘You were to
be married the week after I visited you, I recall.’ Quickly, the
young major added, ‘I’m not judging you, Miss Micklen. It was ill’
– he reddened further – ‘luck.’

END OF EXTRACT

Review:

Jen of the
Crafty Cauldron: ‘…This book has a slow boil. It starts as a
romance story and ends in a fantastic mystery/action storyline. I
was blown away at how much I liked this book. I really thought I
wouldn’t. The author has a way of snaring you before you even
realize. This is a great read. Definitely for the historical
romance buff like myself.’

OTHER BOOKS BY
BEVERLEY EIKLI INCLUDE:

After five
years of marriage, Adelaide has fallen in love with the handsome,
honourable husband who nurtured her through her darkest hours.

Now Adelaide’s
former lover, the passionate poet from whose arms she was torn by
her family during their illicit liaison in Milan six years
previously has returned, a celebrity due to the success of his book
The Maid of Milan.

High society
is as desperate to discover the identity of his ‘muse’ as Adelaide
is to protect her newfound love and her husband’s political
career.

If only the
men had not been childhood friends.

Published by
Choc Lit

March 2014

www.beverleyeikli.com

When spoiled
heiress Lady Sarah Miles assumes the identity of a drowned
governess to escape marriage to her best friend, James, she thinks
her troubles will be over within the fortnight.

Arriving at
the grand estate of reformist MP Roland Hawthorne to take charge of
the tortured widower's rebellious sixteen-year-old daughter, Caro,
Sarah unexpectedly forms a strong attachment to the occupants of
her new household.

But when
Sarah’s deceit plays into the hands of an unexpected adversary who
uses Caro as a pawn in a high stakes game of revenge, Sarah must
risk everything she holds dear including her love for Roland to
redeem herself.

‘
Dramatic,
heartfelt and unusual!’ Eikli sweeps you away into a dangerous
world where only the most daring player wins love.’ – Best-selling
romance writer, Anna Campbell.

When loyal and
determined Rose Chesterfield persuades London’s most eligible rake
not to call in a debt that would ruin her family, she never
expected marriage.

Guilty of an
innocent deception to win the heart of the man who’d intended to
make her his mistress, Rose is determined to prove her worth to her
new husband.

But her
beautiful, scheming sister-in-law Helena is intent on branding Rose
an adulterous diamond thief. Will Rose succeed in persuading
society – and her husband – that the truth is not what it
appears?

Regency
Romance shortlisted for an Australian Romance Readers' Award.

(New 2013
revised version.)

About the Author

Beverley Eikli
is the author of eight historical romances. Recently she won UK
Women's Fiction publisher Choc-Lit's
Search for An Australian
Star
competition with her suspenseful, Napoleonic espionage
Romance
The Reluctant Bride
.

She's been
shortlisted twice for a Romance Readers of Australia Award in the
Favourite Historical category — in 2011 for A Little Deception and
in 2012 for her racy Regency Romp Rake’s Honour, written under her
Beverley Oakley pseudonym.

Beverley wrote
her first romance when she was seventeen. However, drowning the
heroine on the last page was, she discovered, not in the spirit of
the genre so her romance-writing career ground to a halt and she
became a journalist.

After throwing
in her job on South Australia's metropolitan daily
The
Advertiser
to manage a luxury safari lodge in the Okavango
Delta, in Botswana, Beverley discovered a new world of romance and
adventure in a thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest
with the handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met around a camp
fire.

Nineteen years
later, after exploring the world in the back of Cessna 404s and
CASA 212s as an airborne geophysical survey operator during
low-level sorties over the French Guyanese jungle and Greenland's
ice cap, Beverley is back in Australia teaching in the
Department of Professional Writing & Editing
at Victoria
University, as well as teaching Short Courses for the
Centre of
Adult Education
and
Macedon Ranges Further
Education
.

If you enjoyed
Beverley’s books she’d be delighted if you rated or reviewed them
on social media.

Below are
Beverley’s links:

Website:
http://www.beverleyoakley.com/Beverley_Oakley/Welcome.html

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/beverley.eikli

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3275329.Beverley_Eikli