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The Undoing of a Lady – Nicola Cornick
"Secrets, blackmail, murder, a scandal-prone young heiress and a duty-bound man in need of money set the tone for the emotionally charged last book in the trilogy."
-RT Bookreviews
On Sale: July 28, 2009
Series: Brides of Fortunes Folly - Book Three
HQN, 384 pp, Regency
ISBN-10: 0373773951
The Village of Fortune’s Folly is the marriage mart of England!
When unscrupulous village squire Sir Montague Fortune discovers that he can revive all the ancient taxes in the village of Fortune’s Folly he causes uproar amongst the populace, for the medieval Dames’ Tax will allow him to take half the dowry of every unmarried woman in the village unless she weds within the year. Soon the village is bustling with fortune hunting bachelors out to persuade the ladies that it would be preferable to marry them than to lose their fortunes…
The most outrageous debutante of them all is about to meet her match!
When her childhood friend Nathaniel, the Earl of Waterhouse, betroths himself to a pea-brained heiress, Lady Elizabeth Scarlet decides to save him from making a big mistake by kidnapping him on the night before his wedding. But when unexpected passion flares between herself and Nat, Lizzie is seduced and ruined. With Nat insisting on marriage to save her reputation, can the fiery beauty win her husband’s love – after their marriage?
From Chapter One
It was a beautiful night for an abduction.
The moon sailed high and bright in a starlit sky. The warm breeze sighed in the treetops, stirring the scents of pine and hot grass. Deep in the heart of the wood an owl called, a long, throaty hoot that hung on the night air.
Lady Elizabeth Scarlet sat by the window, watching for the shadow, waiting to hear the step on the path outside. She knew Nat Waterhouse would come. He always came when she called. He would be annoyed of course – what man would not be irritated to be called away from his carousing on the night before his wedding – but he would still be there. He was so responsible; he would not ignore her cry for help. She knew exactly how he would respond. She knew him so well.
Her fingertips beat an impatient tattoo on the stone window ledge. She checked the watch she had purloined earlier from her brother. It felt as though she had been waiting for hours but she was surprised to see that it was only eight minutes since she had last looked. She felt nervous, which surprised her. She knew Nat would be angry but she was acting for his own good. The wedding had to be stopped. He would thank her for it one day.
From across the fields came the faint chime of the church bell. Midnight. There was the crunch of footsteps on the path. He was precisely on time. Of course he would be.
She sat still as a mouse as he opened the door of the folly. She had left the hallway in darkness but there was a candle burning in the room above. If she had calculated correctly he would go up the spiral stair and into the chamber, giving her time to lock the outer door behind him and hide the key. There was no other way out. Her half-brother, Sir Montague Fortune, had had the folly built to the design of a miniature fort with arrow slits and windows too small to allow a man to pass. He had thought it a great joke to build a folly in a village called Fortune’s Folly. That, Lizzie thought, was Monty’s idea of amusement, that and dreaming up new taxes with which to torment the populace.
“Lizzie!”
Read the full excerpt on Nicola’s website→
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