Cinderella in the Regency Ballroom. Deb Marlowe

      About the Author

      DEB MARLOWE grew up in Pennsylvania with her nose in a book. Luckily, she’d read enough romances to recognise the true modern hero she met at a college Halloween party—even though he wore a tuxedo T-shirt instead of breeches and tall boots. They married, settled in North Carolina and produced two handsome, intelligent and genuinely amusing boys. Though she now spends much of her time with her nose in her laptop, for the sake of her family she does occasionally abandon her inner world for the domestic adventure of laundry, dinner and car pool. Despite her sacrifice, not one of the men in her family is yet willing to don breeches or tall boots. She’s working on it. Deb would love to hear from readers! You can contact her at [email protected].

      Cinderella

       in the

       Regency

       Ballroom

       Her Cinderella Season

       Tall, Dark and Disreputable

       Deb Marlowe

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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       In The Regency Ballroom Collection

      Scandal in the Regency Ballroom April 2013

      Innocent in the Regency Ballroom May 2013

      Wicked in the Regency Ballroom June 2013

      Cinderella in the Regency Ballroom July 2013

      Rogue in the Regency Ballroom August 2013

      Debutante in the Regency Ballroom September 2013

      Rumours in the Regency Ballroom October 2013

      Scoundrel in the Regency Ballroom November 2013

      Mistress in the Regency Ballroom December 2013

      Courtship in the Regency Ballroom January 2014

      Rake in the Regency Ballroom February 2014

      Secrets in the Regency Ballroom March 2014

Her Cinderella Season

      Author Note:

      For many years the Dreadnought Seamen’s Hospital provided health and welfare services to ‘all distressed seamen’ and the people who lived and worked in port communities. The hospital’s very first home was on board HMS Grampus, afloat on the River Thames. Here a small staff dedicated themselves to those who made their lives on the sea. They took in their first patients in 1821.

      By 1830 the hospital had outgrown the Grampus. The Royal Navy generously donated the ex-warship HMS Dreadnought, from which the hospital thereafter took its name. In 1870 the Dreadnought moved ashore in Greenwich. It became an important part of the local community, and treated sailors from all nations and locals alike until it closed its doors in 1986.

      I admit to fudging the dates a bit in Her Cinderella Season, when I had the staff of HMS Grampus taking J. Crump in several months earlier than the hospital officially opened its doors. Once I knew Crump and realised he was dying, I longed for him to end his days in a place of caring and dignity. I hope you’ll forgive the poetic licence.

      For my Grandpap—

      a real-life hero for the ages

       Chapter One

      Jack’s hand held steady, his aim unwavering. His pistol was pointed straight at Hassan’s evil heart. This time he would kill the bastard. This time he would.

      But something moved in the shadowy dreamscape. A soft rustle sounded, impossibly close—just as his sleeping mind had known it would. Not Aswan. Smaller. Jack caught the faint scent of gardenias just a moment before he felt the press of cold steel at his temple.

      A flood of fury and frustration swamped him. God damn it, now the innocent girl below him would die. He would die all alone up here in the pitch blackness of the Egyptian Hall gallery and an ancient treasure would fall into the worst of hands.

      As it always did, night after night, an indescribable flurry of movement erupted as Aswan intervened. A woman’s cry. A bright flash of light in the near darkness. And a searing pain that exploded in his arm and knocked him backwards.

      Someone loomed over him. The sinister face swam in the darkness, but somehow he knew it was not the woman who’d shot him, nor was it the villain Hassan—it must be Batiste. Captain Batiste, the silent, invisible mastermind behind much of the plot to hurt his friends. The shadow began to laugh, and an old, cold rage burned deep in Jack’s gut.

      ‘So disappointing, Jack,’ the figure whispered. ‘I expected more of you.’

      He scrambled backwards. It was not a stranger’s voice reaching for him out of the darkness, but his father’s.

      Gasping, Jack jerked awake.

      That damned dream again. He shook off the remnants of the nightmare and glanced at the clock on the wall—early afternoon. Had he fallen asleep in his chair? A heavy tome rested painfully against his injured arm. He tossed it on to the floor and scrubbed his free hand against his scalp, trying to chase away the fuzziness in his head.

      That night at the Egyptian Hall had not been his finest moment. Perhaps that was the reason he relived it repeatedly in his dreams. He heaved a massive sigh. He didn’t regret mixing himself up in Lord Treyford’s misadventures, and yet …

      Trey and Chione had taken their family back to Devonshire. Soon they would be leaving for Egypt, embarking on an adventure that Jack couldn’t help but envy. He’d held his breath, hoping to be asked along, but Trey and Chione were occupied with each other, and caught up in the wonder of what awaited them.

      Jack had been left behind and he’d found himself strangely unsettled. He pressed his good hand hard against his brow. His preoccupation with Batiste had grown, becoming something closer to obsession. The villain had slipped away on the tide, leaving Hassan and his other confederates to be caught up in Treyford’s net. The man’s escape nagged at Jack incessantly.

      He stood. He was due to meet Pettigrew, to test those devilishly bad-mannered bays the baron was trying to sell. Jack cast a rueful glance down at his arm. This was not the most reasonable course of action, but, damn it, the man had baited him. At any other point in his life, Jack would have ignored the baron’s desperate manoeuvre. Not this time. Instead he had risen like a trout