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He must have sensed her presence.
He suddenly turned and looked straight at her. She found herself catching her breath, because he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life.
He smiled at her, put his finger to the brim of his hat and tilted it toward her. Her answering smile lit her face, as if she had suddenly met someone she had known long ago and hadn’t seen for a while.
“Esme, how could you?” Rosemary took Esme’s arm and almost dragged her away.
Esme looked back over her shoulder and discovered the young man was staring after them….
A Desirable Husband
Harlequin®Historical
MILLS & BOON
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MARY NICHOLS
Born in Singapore, Mary Nichols came to England when she was three, and has spent most of her life in different parts of East Anglia. She has been a radiographer, school secretary, information officer and industrial editor, as well as a writer. She has three grown children and four grandchildren.
A Desirable Husband
MARY NICHOLS
Available from Harlequin® Historical and MARY NICHOLS
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Marrying Miss Hemingford #199
Bachelor Duke #204
Dear Deceiver #213
An Unusual Bequest #218
The Reluctant Escort #226
Talk of the Ton #236
Working Man, Society Bride #244
A Desirable Husband #251
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Captain Oliver Worthy is a confirmed bachelor—so falling in love with Eleanor Massie is about the last thing he intends! But in the turbulence of a national emergency, Eleanor is everything he needs…. The captain finds the woman of his dreams!
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For years, Valerian Inglemoore lived a double life on the war-torn Continent. Now he has returned, knowing exactly what he wants—the woman he once gave up! But Philippa Stratten is not the naive debutante he knew, and she’s suspicious of his intentions…. Now the rake battles for love and honor!
#930 HIGH SEAS STOWAWAY—Amanda MCCabe
Meeting Balthazar Grattiano years after their first fateful encounter, Bianca Simonetti finds he has sailed the seas, battled pirates and is captain of his own ship. Bianca is shocked that her old infatuation has deepened to an irresistible sexual attraction…. Enemies become lovers….
#252 THE MAJOR AND THE COUNTRY MISS—Dorothy Elbury
Returning hero Major William Maitland is on the strangest mission—hunting down his uncle’s lost heir. In Warwickshire he discovers the beautiful but secretive Georgianne Venables, who may prove to be his personal Waterloo…. Drawn together by the major’s mystery….
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
Chapter One
March 1850
‘Are we nearly there?’ Esme turned from watching the countryside flying past the carriage window at a speed that would have frightened her had she been a young lady given to attacks of the vapours, which she certainly was not.
It was not her first ride in a train because she had travelled by this means the short distance from her home in Luffenham to Leicester to visit her married sister, Lucy, but that went at the pace of a snail. This was the first time she had undertaken such a long journey, and without her parents, too. Lucy had intended to accompany her, but five-year-old Harry had gone down with a cold and she would not leave him. So here she was, being escorted by her brother-in-law, who had business in town, and Miss Bannister, her old governess, who was going to act as companion and maid.
‘Not long now,’ Myles told her. ‘Are you tired?’
‘Not especially, I’m simply impatient to arrive.’ Papa had said he could not give her a Season—at least, not one befitting the daughter of the Earl of Luffenham—and she would have to take her chances on finding a husband among the local
