A Ring For The Pregnant Debutante. Laura Martin

      

      From baby bump to marriage vows!

      Rosa Rothwell knows her pregnancy is scandalous. She will do anything to protect her baby, even staging a daring escape from her family’s Italian home. Rosa has no idea what the future holds—until a handsome but infuriating stranger offers his help.

      Convinced his family is cursed, Lord Hunter believes he’s far better off alone. But the pregnant debutante’s sweet nature touches him deeply. Can he confront his demons at last, and give them both a new future...as husband and wife?

      ‘I have a proposition for you,’ he said, choosing his words carefully. ‘I would like you to listen to what I have to say and think before you give me an answer.’

      Rosa smiled at him, but her expression turned serious as she studied him.

      ‘I think we should marry.’

      Rosa almost choked as he said the words.

      ‘Don’t jest, Thomas,’ she said. ‘I know I am unmarriageable, but please don’t poke fun.’

      ‘I’m completely serious.’

      ‘Why would you want to marry me? You’re not in love with me. You barely know me.’

      All very good points, but he knew enough.

      ‘You need to marry, and soon, or the child you carry will be illegitimate for ever.’

      ‘That’s not what I asked. I know why I’m in desperate need of a husband.’ Rosa grimaced. ‘But no man in his right mind would take me on.’

      ‘Maybe I’m not in my right mind.’

      She regarded him in silence, almost warily, until he spoke again.

      ‘Just listen and I will explain.’

       Author Note

      I never thought I would write a romance in which one of the protagonists lives under the shadow of the threat of an inherited disease! It isn’t a subject that immediately lends itself to images of happiness and passion. However, complex neurological disorders are an issue very close to my heart, and when I found myself wondering what it would be like to live two hundred years ago with one of these diseases I couldn’t let the idea go.

      Although not identified in the book, the disease running in Thomas Hunter’s family is Huntington’s disease—a hereditary disorder of the central nervous system. If a parent is affected, his or her children will all have a fifty per cent chance of developing the disease. This we know today, from modern clinical research, but in 1820—when genetics and theories on modes of inheritance were far into the future—a disease that ran in the family would often be thought of as a curse. There was no way of knowing if you would be affected, and when I was planning this book I couldn’t let go of the thought of the unimaginable strain that lack of knowledge would put someone under.

      I have tried to be as accurate as possible in Thomas’s descriptions of the disease his father and brother died from, but as with many illnesses it affects people differently. What I hope is accurate is Thomas’s journey to accepting the uncertainty his future holds, and allowing himself a little happiness on the way.

      A Ring for the Pregnant Debutante

      Laura Martin

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      LAURA MARTIN writes historical romances with an adventurous undercurrent. When not writing she spends her time working as a doctor in Cambridgeshire, where she lives with her husband. In her spare moments Laura loves to lose herself in a book, and has been known to read from cover to cover in a single day when the story is particularly gripping. She also loves to travel—especially visiting historical sites and far-flung shores.

      Books by Laura Martin

      Mills & Boon Historical Romance

      The Governess Tales

      Governess to the Sheikh

      Linked by Character

      An Earl in Want of a Wife

      Heiress on the Run

      Stand-Alone Novels

      The Pirate Hunter

      Secrets Behind Locked Doors

      Under a Desert Moon

      A Ring for the Pregnant Debutante

      Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk.

      MILLS & BOON

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      For Luke and Jack. You keep me smiling.

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Introduction

       Author Note

       Title Page

       About the Author

       Dedication

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven