Involving Innocence

By Suzy Stewart Dubot

REGENCY ROMANCE - Nathaniel Bourne wants to marry into the aristocracy, the higher the better. He has made a fortune large enough to 'buy' Lady Innocence Manners but can it buy love?

This is not recommended to anyone under 18 as some intimate scenes are described.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzy Stewart Dubot
• Release date: Oct 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466038455

Suzy Stewart Dubot

An Anglo/American who has lived in France for nearly 40 years, she began writing as soon as she retired. She moved to London in 2012 and spent more than a year there with family. The spring of 2014, she returned to France, Her laptop has never had any trouble following her.Before retiring, she worked at a variety of jobs. Some of the more interesting have been : Art and Crafts teacher, Bartender, Marketing Assistant for N° 1 World Yacht Charterers (Moorings), Beaux Arts Model, Secretary to the French Haflinger Association...With her daughters, she is a vegetarian and a supporter of animal rights! She is also an admirer of William Wilberforce.(If you should read her book 'The Viscount's Midsummer Mistress' you will see that she has devoted some paragraphs to the subject in Regency times.)PLEASE BE KIND ENOUGH TO LEAVE A REVIEW FOR ANY BOOK YOU READ (hers included).

Book preview

This is dedicated to all those people, family included, who have encouraged me to write. Amongst them are my friends :

Clarissa, Olga, Jeanne, Christine, Danie, Isabelle and Diana

A special thanks to Philippe Doux and his sheep and Lionel Polion for taking me to see them.

Involving Innocence

Copyright © 2011 by Suzy Stewart Dubot

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

http://suzystewartdubotbooks.weebly.com

suzybazaarebooks.weebly.com

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Prologue

London - Summer, 1814

‘Was that it? A painful stab in the dark and then nothing…’

Innocence lay on her back looking up at the darkness. She squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to blot out the disappointing and rather degrading assault, and two tears found their way out of the corners of her eyes and slowly trickled down the sides of her face to behind her ears. Their cool progress distracted her for a brief instant from the thought that this was an example of what she might expect most nights of her life — because now she was a married woman.

Her husband was sleeping soundly next to her on his stomach. It had all happened remarkably quickly from the time that he had entered her bedroom until the time he had lifted himself from her and gone to sleep without further ado. She suspected that the wine, which he had consumed in ample amounts, had had its part of responsibility in the pathetic coupling, but, having been a virgin, she hadn’t really known what to expect. There had been no one to explain to her — but surely something better than that!

His large hand brushed her thigh as he shifted his position and then, like something with a mind of its own, the hand returned with more purpose to its movement. It came to rest on the soft skin of her thigh in a gently grasping motion and she heard him mutter, ‘my Lamb.’

It was too much to bear. In a slightly hysterical reaction, she laughed! Did he think he’d put his hand on a leg of lamb or was she merely a sacrifice? Why didn’t he go back to his own room instead of puffing alcoholic fumes at her?

‘Oh bother! If this was an example of the first night of the rest of her life with Nathaniel, she might have to take to drink too.’

Chapter 1

London – Spring, 1814 (three months earlier)

The man is persistent, if nothing else.

Frederick Manners fidgeted with the calling card as he spoke to his daughter. The bold black signature on the expensive ivory-coloured card shouted ‘nouveau riche.’

It is most annoying because I know for a fact that besides being persistent, he also happens to be extremely wealthy…

It had been the third morning in a row that the man had left his card.

Are we in such dire straits that you are forced to take a man’s wealth into account before receiving him, Papa? Innocence asked.

She sat across from her father at luncheon. She was surely the fairest and certainly the most rewarding of all his achievements; the daughter who had come to him when he thought it no longer possible. If all else crumbled around them, he had to make sure that she stood on firm ground.

It was his duty as her father.

There was no indication at first glance that either suffered from a deficit of funds, but upon closer scrutiny, the modesty of their apparel and lack of ornamentation might hint at harder times. It was, in reality, worse than that. The dining room itself had long ago given up its delicate porcelain and crystal, while the silverware was now only plated. The other rooms in the house had slowly parted with paintings and other decorative knick-knacks to fend off the most