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Praise for the novels of
JOAN JOHNSTON
“Johnston warms your heart and tickles your fancy.”
—New York Daily News
“Joan Johnston [creates] unforgettable subplots and characters who make every fine thread weave into a touching tapestry.”
—Affaire de Coeur
“[Johnston is] a top-notch craftsman.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Romance devotees will find Johnston lively and well-written, and her characters perfectly enchanting.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Ms. Johnston writes of intense emotions and tender passions that seem so real that readers will feel each one of them.”
—Rave Reviews
“Johnston’s characters struggle against seriously deranged foes and face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to true love.”
—Booklist
“A guaranteed good read.”
—New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Graham
JOAN JOHNSTON
New York Times bestselling author of
The Hawk’s Way series,
The Benedict Brothers series,
which includes
OUTCAST
INVINCIBLE
and the Bitter Creek series,
which includes
THE COWBOY
THE TEXAN
THE LONER
THE PRICE
THE RIVALS
THE NEXT MRS. BLACKTHORNE
A STRANGER’S GAME
SHATTERED
Please visit her website at
www.joanjohnston.com
for a complete listing
of her titles and series.
JOAN JOHNSTON
INVINCIBLE
For Donna Hayes, Loriana Sacilotto,
Margaret O’Neill Marbury, Valerie Gray and Linda McFall.
A writer couldn’t ask for a better support team.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Letter to Reader
Acknowledgments
Prologue
How hard could it be to find spouses for her five grown children before she died? Bella supposed it depended on how long it took for her failing heart to give out. No one had ever accused the five Benedict children of being easy to handle. All of them over twenty-five, and not one of them ever engaged, let alone married.
That might have something to do with the lives they led as members of British royalty. Bella was actually Isabella Wharton Benedict, Duchess of Blackthorne. She certainly had her work cut out for her finding mates for four British-American lords and a lady. Bella corrected herself. Make that four gentlemen rogues and a spoiled rotten lady.
Could she do it? Did she dare try?
Bella stared out the window from her hospital bed at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, wondering where to start. She ran a brush through her shoulder-length black hair, which was threaded with more silver every day. She might be in the autumn of her life, but here in Virginia it was spring, when love blossomed.
Cardinals flirted in the flowering dogwood trees. Blue-and-black-and-yellow butterflies cavorted in the daffodils. Squirrels chattered at each other and played tag, tails flying. With any luck, her titled offspring would find themselves equally vulnerable to romance during this fertile season.
She threw the engraved silver brush onto the bedside table and turned her attention back to the doctor standing at the foot of her hospital bed. “What’s the verdict?”
“You’re still at about thirty percent heart function.”
That was actually good
