The Dangerous Mr Ryder. Louise Allen

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      Join favorite author

       Louise Allen

       as she explores the tangled love lives of

       THOSE SCANDALOUS RAVENHURSTS

      First, travel across war-torn Europe with

       The Dangerous Mr. Ryder

      Coming

      August 2008

      The Outrageous Lady Felsham

      September 2008

      The Shocking Lord Standon

      2009

      The Disgraceful Mr. Ravenhurst

      The Notorious Mr. Hurst

      The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst

      Author Note

      Jack Ryder first appeared—of his own volition—in No Place for a Lady, and took on a life of his own. I found myself wondering about him, what his background was, where he had come from, and I realized I needed to tell his story.

      Then I discovered that Jack is not alone—he has siblings, he has cousins, and some of them have a story to tell as well. So this is Jack Ryder’s tale, but it is also the first of the stories of THOSE SCANDALOUS RAVENHURSTS, and of how they, like Jack, find the loves of their lives.

      It is the start of a journey for me, and I hope you will come along and discover with me what befalls the Ravenhurst cousins.

      Louise Allen

      THEDANGEROUS MR.RYDER

      TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

       AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

       STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

       PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

      MILLS & BOON

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      Available from Harlequin^®Historical and LOUISE ALLEN

      The Earl’s Intended Wife #793

      The Society Catch #809

      Moonlight and Mistletoe #830

      A Most Unconventional Courtship #849

      Virgin Slave, Barbarian King #877

      No Place for a Lady #892

      *The Dangerous Mr. Ryder #903

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      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 Twenty

      Chapter Twenty-One

      Chapter Twenty-Two

      Chapter Twenty-Three

      Chapter One

      The evening of 7 June 1815

      No one had told him that she was beautiful. Jack Ryder crouched precariously in a stone window embrasure two hundred feet above the ravine river bed and stared into the candlelit room. Inside, the woman he had been sent to find paced to and fro like an angry cat.

      He kept his eyes fixed on the image beyond the glass as he wedged himself more securely into his slippery niche. Below, the void beneath the castle was shrouded in merciful darkness, the faint sound of the river floating upwards. Although his whole body was aware of it, he ignored the cold fingers of fear playing up and down his spine, knowing full well that if he let his imagination have full rein he would never be able to move at all. His studded boots ground on the stone, and he froze for a moment, but the sound did not seem to reach her.

      Jack gave himself a mental shake and began to work on the knot that secured the end of the long coil of rope around his waist. As it came free he gave it a jerk, flicking it outwards, and the whole length detached itself from the battlement high above and fell out of sight into the void.

      Now his only way down was through that window. Despite his perilous position, Jack had no intention of going through it until he had a chance to size up the woman inside. The woman he had been sent to bring back to England by whatever means he found necessary, including force.

      It was for her own good, as well as in the interests of both