A Less Than Perfect Lady. Elizabeth Beacon

      He looked like every girl’s dream and their chaperons’ worst nightmare.

      Even the blue coat, fawn breeches and top boots of a country gentleman did nothing to detract from the danger signaled by his sardonic mouth and fathomless dark eyes. Add in curling dark hair as black as a raven’s wing, and it was little wonder she had been momentarily dazed, she told herself.

      

      She could envisage him on the quarterdeck of a privateer, or grimly determined as he charged into battle like a latter-day Achilles—but tamed by velvet and ermine and sitting in the House of Lords? Something told her he would hate such ceremonial splendor. The very thought of it made her smile as she came out of her reverie to greet the latest Earl of Carnwood.

      

      “So the prodigal returns,” he remarked, with a smile that did little to soften his stern expression.

      

      A Less Than Perfect Lady

       Harlequin^®Historical

      Author Note

      I can’t resist spending time with stubborn, irresistible heroes and feisty, intelligent heroines who are just made for each other, if only they would realize it. No wonder I have loved losing myself in Harlequin’s compelling romances ever since I discovered them through reading the wonderful Sophie Weston’s first book, and loving it so much I just had to find more. Then Harlequin began publishing historical novels, and I was well and truly hooked. Since then I have always known I can enjoy the luxury of forgetting my worries for a while as their romances take me into a different world, and somehow things never seem quite so bad when I come back to earth!

      

      I finally found the confidence to write the stories that had been whizzing around in my head for years, and distracting me at all the wrong times—and somehow there was never any risk of them being other than historical romances. Today I still love reading other authors’ books, and the more I learn about writing, the more I marvel at their skill and ability in transporting us readers to exotic locations on deeply emotional journeys.

      

      Beginning a very different journey as an author has made me realize how much expertise goes into producing books that seem effortless, so I would like to dedicate this book to those wonderful Harlequin writers, past and present, and to the unsung editors who patiently hone their work so we can all dream a little when we need to.

      A Less Than Perfect Lady

      ELIZABETH BEACON

      Available from Harlequin^®Historical and ELIZABETH BEACON

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      ELIZABETH BEACON

      lives in the beautiful English west country, and is finally putting her insatiable curiosity about the past and her love of words to good use. After leaving school at sixteen, Elizabeth was sure she had blown her academic career by not paying much heed to lessons other than English and history, because she was reading historical novels under her desk! Imagine her surprise (and that of her long-suffering former teachers) when she graduated with an honors degree in English literature as a fairly mature student twelve years later. While she was an undergraduate, a course in creative writing made her think she might one day put her fertile imagination to good use, as well.

      After many stalled attempts to be sensible, Elizabeth has realized her ambition to write historical romances at last, and hopes anyone else who nurses an unlikely dream will take encouragement from her story and pursue it.

      Over the years Elizabeth has worked in her family’s horticultural business, become a teacher who sympathized too much with students who didn’t want to concentrate either, worked as a secretary and, briefly, tried to be a civil servant. She is now happily ensconced behind her computer, when not trying to exhaust her bouncy rescue dog with as many walks as the inexhaustible lurcher can finagle. Elizabeth can’t bring herself to call researching the wonderfully diverse, scandalous Regency period and creating charismatic heroes and feisty heroines work, and she is waiting for someone to find out how much fun she is having and tell her to stop it.

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter One

      The Honourable Mrs Miranda Braxton considered the visitor’s view of Wychwood Court, and found it even more imposing than she remembered. Through a veil of drizzle, the golden stones of the great Tudor mansion looked warm and welcoming after her five-year exile and she shifted in her seat to peer at it even more intently. It was impossible not to think of the folly of youth as she recalled how blithely she had left all this for the mirage Nevin Braxton had proved to be.

      All she needed to do this time was hold on to her composure and keep out of the way