The Complete Regency Bestsellers And One Winters Collection. Rebecca Winters

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Название The Complete Regency Bestsellers And One Winters Collection
Автор произведения Rebecca Winters
Жанр Короткие любовные романы
Серия Mills & Boon e-Book Collections
Издательство Короткие любовные романы
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781474095297



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rel="nofollow" href="#u0359b858-344a-5ec3-b4d8-edab76419e55"> CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       A Very Special Holiday Gift

       Dedication

       CHAPTER ONE

       CHAPTER TWO

       CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       EPILOGUE

       About the Publisher

       Regency Bestsellers Collection

       The Governess Game

       Tessa Dare

       Society’s Beauties

       Sophia James

       Rebellious Rakes

       Bronwyn Scott

       The Designs of Lord Randolph Cavanaugh

       Stephanie Laurens

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

       The Governess Game

      Tessa Dare

      For my children, the Darelings,

      because apparently I have a trend with this

      series—dedicating

      books to people I hope will

      never read them.

      My daughter served as a

      brilliant consultant on Rosamund and Daisy’s

      characters, and my ever-clever

      son taught me that some kids learn best in unconventional ways.

      Darelings, I love you both. I promise that

      out of all my books, this is the one and

      only page I’ll ever force you to read.

      (Bonus: I’ve now embarrassed you

      in front of thousands of strangers.

      Mom achievement unlocked!)

       Prologue

      Alexandra Mountbatten had common sense. That’s what her friends believed.

      The truth was, Alex had no sense at all—at least, not when it came to charming gentlemen with roguish green eyes. If she possessed any wisp of rationality, she wouldn’t have made such a fool of herself with the Bookshop Rake.

      Even now, more than half a year later, she could revisit the embarrassing scene and watch it unfolding, as though she were attending a play.

      The setting: Hatchard’s bookshop.

      The date: a Wednesday afternoon in November.

      The personages: Alexandra, of course. Her three closest friends: Nicola Teague, Lady Penelope Campion, and Emma Pembrooke, the Duchess of Ashbury. And, making his first appearance in a starring role (trumpet fanfare, please)—the Bookshop Rake.

      The scene proceeded thusly:

      Alexandra had been juggling a tower of Nicola’s books in one arm and reading her own book with her free hand. A copy of Messier’s Catalogue of Star Clusters and Nebulae, which she’d plucked like a pearl from the used-book section. She’d been searching for a secondhand copy for ages. She couldn’t afford to buy it new.

      One moment, she’d been blissfully paging through descriptions of astronomical nebulae, and the next . . .

      Bang. A collision of cosmic proportions.

      The cause remained unclear. Perhaps she’d taken a step in reverse, or maybe he’d turned without looking. It didn’t matter. Whosoever’s elbow jostled the other’s arm, the laws of physics demanded an equal and opposite reaction. From there, the rest was gravity. All her books fell to the floor, and when she looked up from the heap—there he was.

      Ruffled brown hair, fashionable attire, cologne that smelled like bottled sin—and a smile no doubt honed from boyhood as a means to make women forgive him anything.

      With affable charm, he’d gathered up the books. She’d been no help at all.

      He’d inquired after her name; she’d stammered.

      He’d asked her to recommend a book—a gift, he said, for two young girls. In response, she’d stammered yet more.

      He’d