Love and the Single Heiress

Jacquie D’Alessandro Love and the Single Heiress

The second book in the Regency Historical series, 2004

This book is dedicated with my gratitude to John Hensley for all his kindness, support, and hard work on my behalf. My heartfelt thanks also to his top-notch team for making me feel so welcome: Dawn Doud, DeeAnn Kline, Pam Manley, Bev Martin, Carrie Murakami, Tracey Neel, Anna Shea-Nicholls, George Scott, and Susie Straussberger. Thank you all for showing me the Power of One.

And, as always, to my incredible husband Joe, for his steadfast love, patience, and support, and for always saying “you can do it” exactly when I need to hear it; and my wonderful, makes-me-so-proud son Christopher, “you can do it” Junior. I love you best!

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable help and support:

My editors, Carrie Feron and Erika Tsang, for their kindness, cheerleading, and wonderful ideas.

My agent, Damaris Rowland, for her faith and wisdom.

Martha Kirkland, for always knowing the answers to my research questions.

Jenni Grizzle and Wendy Etherington for keeping me going and always being up for champagne and cheesecake.

Brenda D’Alessandro, for being lots of fun, the world’s best shopper, and for walking three hundred city blocks without complaining (sort of).

Thanks also to Kay and Jim Johnson, Kathy and Dick Guse, Lea and Art D’Alessandro, JoBeth Beard, Ann Wonycott, and Michelle, Steve, and Lindsey Grossman.

A cyberhug to my Looney Loopies Connie Brockway, Marsha Canham, Virginia Henley, Jill Gregory, Sandy Hingston, Julia London, Kathleen Givens, Sherri Browning, and Julie Ortolon, and also to the Temptresses.

A very special thank-you to the members of Georgia Romance Writers, JoBeth Beard, Ana Payne, Judy Wilson, and Jeannie Pierannunzi.

And finally, thank you to all the wonderful readers who have taken the time to write or e-mail me. I love hearing from you!

Chapter 1

Today’s Modern Woman should strive for personal enlightenment, independence, and forthrightness. The perfect place to begin this quest for assertiveness is in the bedchamber…

A Ladies’ Guide to the Pursuit of

Personal Happiness and Intimate Fulfillment

by Charles Brightmore

“Scandalous, that’s what it is,” came an outraged male whisper. “My wife has somehow secured a copy of that deuced Ladies’ Guide.”

“How do you know?” came another gruff male whisper.

“Damned obvious, what with the way she’s been acting. Been spewing out nonsense about ‘today’s modern woman’ and ‘independence’ like a steaming teakettle. Just yesterday she marched into my private study and proceeded to question me regarding my gambling markers and the amount of time I spend at White’s!”

Sharp intakes of breath followed. “Outrageous,” muttered the gruff whisperer.

“Precisely what I told her.”

“What did you do?”

“Why, I marched her right out of my study, called for a carriage, and sent her to Asprey’s to pick out a new bauble to occupy her mind.”

“Excellent. I assume your strategy worked?”

“Unfortunately not as well as I’d hoped. Last night I found her awaiting me in my bedchamber. Gave me quite a turn, I tell you. Especially as I’d just left my mistress and was thoroughly worn-out. Bloody hell, a wife’s not supposed to make such demands, or have such expectations.”

“My wife did the same thing just last week,” came a third aggrieved whisper. “Entered my bedchamber, bold as you please, pushed me onto the mattress, then… well, I can only describe it as to say she jumped upon me. Completely deflated my lungs and damn near crushed me. As I lie there, immobile with shock, fighting for my very breath, she says in a most impatient tone, ‘Bump your arse a bit.’ Can you imagine such undignified goings-on? Then, just when I thought I couldn’t be more astonished, she demanded to know why I’d never…”

The voice lowered further and Lady Catherine Ashfield, Viscountess Bickley, leaned closer to the Oriental screen that secreted her presence from the gentlemen on the other side.

“… This Charles Brightmore must be stopped,” whispered one of the gentlemen.

“I agree. A disaster of gargantuan proportions, that’s what he’s brought upon us. Why, if my daughter reads that cursed Guide, I’ll never marry off the foolish chit. Independence, indeed. Completely insupportable. This Guide could well prove even worse than the uproar incited by that Wollstonecraft woman’s writings. Nothing but ridiculous reformists’ balderdash.”

Murmurs of agreement followed that pronouncement.

Then the whisperer continued, “And as for the bedchamber, women are demanding enough creatures as it is, always wanting a new gown or earbobs or carriage or the like. ‘Tis outrageous that their expectations should extend to that. Especially a woman of my wife’s age, who is the mother of two grown children. Unseemly, that’s what it is.”

“Couldn’t agree more. Should I ever find myself in the company of this Brightmore bastard, I’ll personally wring his bloody neck. Tarring and feathering is too good for him. Everyone I’ve spoken to feels certain that ‘Charles Brightmore’ is a pseudonym, and coward that he is, he’s refused to step forward and identify himself. The betting book at White’s is a frenzy of wagers on the subject of his identity. Damn it all, what sort of man would think, let alone write, such unseemly ideas?”

“Well, I stopped at White’s just before coining here, and the latest theory proposes the possibility that Charles Brightmore is in fact a woman. Indeed, I heard…”

The gentleman’s low-pitched words were drowned out by a trill of nearby feminine laughter. Catherine inched closer, all but pressing her ear to the screen.

“… and if it’s true, it would be the scandal of the century…” She heard some more unintelligible mumbling,