Emilina's Conquest

By Lesley-Anne McLeod

Necessity dictates that Emilina Brook supplement her family's income by accepting a position as music teacher in a young ladies' academy. Fate decrees that she meet Dr. Secord Cardew while journeying by stagecoach to the school in a distant town. Dr. Cardew is in turn charming, unkind, amiable, callous, appealing, and occasionally rude. Emilina is drawn to him, but the real Dr. Cardew is a mystery. Is he a worthy admirer or does he have insuperable flaws? This title is published by Uncial Press and is distributed worldwide by Untreed Reads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Untreed Reads
• Release date: Mar 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9781601740717

Book preview

Emilina's Conquest

A Regency Novel Byte

By

Lesley-Anne McLeod

Uncial Press       Aloha, Oregon

2009

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-071-7

ISBN 10: 1-60174-071-9

Copyright © 2009 by Lesley-Anne McLeod

Cover art and design

Copyright © 2009 by Cait Shakoriel Bens

All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.

Published by Uncial Press,

an imprint of GCT, Inc.

Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com

Emilina's Conquest

Hard as it was to bid farewell to Altrincham, where she had lived all but five of her two and twenty years, it was harder still for Emilina Brook to part from her mother, her father, and her siblings at the Unicorn Inn. But the stage coach bound for Nottingham waited on no extended leave-taking and hesitated for no qualms. Emilina mounted the step with the help of the guard and had barely settled in her seat before the coach set off, inexorably, into the future. She could not even wave to her family. The last seat available facing the horses was a middle one.

Sunk in melancholy, she did no more than glance at her fellow passengers. She stared at the reticule in her gloved left hand and the handkerchief in her right, willing the tears that welled in her eyes to dissipate. Her misery was compounded by a shiver; the air in the coach was only a degree or so warmer than the late September chill that hung over the towns and countryside of Cheshire. Emilina huddled into her slate-blue worsted pelisse, and wished the brim of her best velvet bonnet concealed more of her face. More than anything she needed privacy to restore her spirits.

The other occupants of the coach seemed likewise preoccupied. She was granted the solitude she required as the carriage rumbled eastward, prior to making its southerly turn. By the time Cheadle had been reached, Emilina had reminded herself of the reasons for her departure. She was the eldest of five children who lived with their parents on a vicar's stipend. Thus she had felt it her duty