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MY LADY GLORIANA
Sylvia Halliday
Releasing Nov 24th, 2015
Diversion
In this twist on the Pygmalion story, a duke makes a wager that he can bed the uncouth Lady Gloriana. But the bet takes on a life of its own...
The year is 1725. Lady Gloriana Baniard is a beautiful fish out of water. Brought up on the mean streets of London, she is a brash, blunt, obscene force of nature. But thanks to a brief marriage to a disgraced aristocrat, she is forced to live with his noble family and endure the humiliating process of learning to be a lady. Rebelling, she runs away to Yorkshire, where she intends to be a blacksmith, a skill at which she excels. She knows she’ll need a manservant to front for her. When John Thorne appears, she hires him, stirred as much by his irresistible attraction as by his strength.
John Haviland, Duke of Thorneleigh, is an arrogant, indolent gambler and womanizer. Having seen Gloriana just once, he yearns to make her his own. When he learns she has run away from her family,
he makes a wild bet with his wastrel companions―he will find the lady and bed her. Disguised as a humble servant, he becomes her assistant, learning the blacksmith trade. The clash of wills between these two proud people creates more sparks than a blacksmith’s anvil, as Gloriana learns to be a lady, Thorne learns humility―and desire deepens to love.
he makes a wild bet with his wastrel companions―he will find the lady and bed her. Disguised as a humble servant, he becomes her assistant, learning the blacksmith trade. The clash of wills between these two proud people creates more sparks than a blacksmith’s anvil, as Gloriana learns to be a lady, Thorne learns humility―and desire deepens to love.
(John
Haviland, duke of Thorneleigh, has gone for a midnight walk
in the country.)
The night was
more glorious than he would have imagined. The sweet scents of new
grass and spring flowers filled the air with their delicate perfume,
soothing his troubled soul. Impulsively, he rolled up his sleeves,
then laughed and pulled off his shirt completely. He half-expected to
hear the voice of his long-ago nursemaid, chiding him for common
behavior that didn't suit the heir to an ancient
dukedom. Gentlemen didn't
go around half-clothed.
“Rest in peace, Nurse,” he
murmured, recalling her with tenderness. He'd stripped naked many a
time since those days—and for far less innocent reasons. It was a
mild night. Maybe he'd further scandalize Nurse’s memory by going
for a swim.
He felt young, adventurous, free—yet
strangely sad and melancholy. What had happened to the carefree lad
he once had been? What had turned him into this idle dissolute?
Surely there was a moment he had missed—a turning point that might
have taken him in a different, more satisfying direction.
No. Tonight, with the earth
wrapped in silvery moonlight, was for magic. He felt as though
something extraordinary was about to happen. Something that would
change his life, lead him to a path more splendid and glittering than
the moon-dappled one he now followed.
He pulled off his shoes and
stockings and stripped off his breeches. The sensual night air
caressed his nakedness like a harlot’s hand; he felt a quivering
and stirring in his groin. He suddenly ached for a woman. But not a
clumsy slattern, like the innkeeper’s wife. Nor even a perfumed
beauty who strolled St. James’s Park by day and slept on satin
sheets by night. He wanted a goddess, as magical and lovely as this
moon-kissed midnight.
He heard the soft whinny of a horse,
the gentle thud of hoofs upon packed earth. The sounds seemed to be
coming from the far end of the clearing. He shrank back against the
tree trunk, concealing his naked body, and waited. The woman galloped
onto the sand, magnificent upon her horse—a vision of perfection
that took his breath away.
His longed-for goddess.
Award-winning author Sylvia Halliday’s first historical novel, written as Ena Halliday, was chosen by Pocket Books to launch their Tapestry line. She subsequently wrote for Popular Library/Warner and Harlequin Historicals under the pen name of Louisa Rawlings, the name of her maternal great-grandmother. She has written for Kensington/Zebra under the pseudonym of Sylvia Halliday. She has published 14 historical romances. Her FOREVER WILD earned 5 stars from RT Book Reviews and Affaire de Coeur, and was a RITA finalist for the Romance Writers of America. Her latest offerings, published by Diversion Books, are MARIELLE (The French Maiden Series, #1), LYSETTE (The
French Maiden Series, #2), DELPHINE (The French Maiden Series, #3), DREAMS SO FLEETING, GOLD AS THE MORNING SUN, THE RING, and SUMMER DARKNESS, WINTER LIGHT.
FOREVER WILD, STOLEN SPRING, and PROMISE OF SUMMER, written by her as Louisa
Rawlings, are available from Samhain Publishing.
French Maiden Series, #2), DELPHINE (The French Maiden Series, #3), DREAMS SO FLEETING, GOLD AS THE MORNING SUN, THE RING, and SUMMER DARKNESS, WINTER LIGHT.
FOREVER WILD, STOLEN SPRING, and PROMISE OF SUMMER, written by her as Louisa
Rawlings, are available from Samhain Publishing.
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