Royally Ever After

By Loretta Chase

Now published together for the first time: Loretta Chase's beloved novellas Lord Lovedon's Duel from the Royal Bridesmaids anthology and The Jilting of Lord Rothwick from the Royal Weddings anthology

In Lord Lovedon's Duel, Chloe Sharp is prepared to protect her family's name, even to the death. When she hears the handsome Earl of Lovedon say her sister's royal marriage is a match made in money, she challenges him to a duel—for love and honor.

When the Marquess of Rothwick learns his fiancée, Barbara Findley, has broken off their engagement in The Jilting of Lord Rothwick, he rides out of London immediately to seek her out … and to win her back.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9780062393838

Loretta Chase

Loretta Chase has worked in academe, retail, and the visual arts, as well as on the streets—as a meter maid—and in video, as a scriptwriter. She might have developed an excitingly checkered career had her spouse not nagged her into writing fiction. Her bestselling historical romances, set in the Regency and Romantic eras of the early nineteenth century, have won a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s RITA®. For more about her past, her books, and what she does and doesn’t do on social media, please visit her website. LorettaChase.com

Book preview

Contents

Lord Lovedon’s Duel

Author’s Note

The Jilting of Lord Rothwick

An Excerpt from Dukes Prefer Blondes

About the Author

Also by Loretta Chase

Copyright

About the Publisher

Lord Lovedon’s Duel

Castle de Grey, Kensington

Wednesday 17 June 1835

"We’d best do it now, Chloe Sharp told her older sister. Say goodbye and bawl, so that we don’t make a spectacle of ourselves, or set Mama off."

Y-yes. Oh, Chloe, I’ll miss you so! Althea fell weeping on Chloe’s neck, heedless of the wrinkles and stains she made on two of London’s costliest dresses.

Bride and bridesmaid stood in a dimly lit passage that ran between the picture gallery, which extended the west wing’s full length, and the smaller of the two drawing rooms. The larger, the Gold Drawing Room, occupied the center of the first floor of the Duke of Marchmont’s Jacobean mansion. There hundreds of wedding guests were celebrating Althea’s marriage to Prince Louis of Massbeck-Holveg. From the passage, though, the merriment was practically inaudible.

This was the last time Chloe would see her sister for a long time. Her heart was breaking. Still, she made herself draw away.

That’s enough, she said. We don’t want the Beau Monde to see us with tear-streaked faces and crushed bows and creases. Come out into the gallery, where we’ll have some light, and I can put you back to rights.

She started to open the door to the gallery, but paused as a wave of masculine laughter spilled toward them. Althea stopped, too, and caught hold of Chloe’s arm. They both giggled the way they used to do when they were children, hiding to spy on grown-ups.

But everybody knows he was obliged to give up the girl he loved, somebody said. Mr. Crawford? Chloe had met so many aristocrats today that their names and faces were a hopeless muddle in her brain.

Which girl was that? another man said.

A sweetheart Prince Louis left behind in Massbeck-Holveg, Crawford said. Lovers torn asunder, you know, by Fate.

Althea inhaled sharply, her grip on Chloe’s arm tightening.

Love, gentlemen, is a luxury His Highness cannot afford, said a deep, drawling voice. Three royal castles in his speck of a country, and all of them falling to pieces. He doesn’t need love: He needs new chimneys.

Though Chloe had never heard that voice before today, she knew who it belonged to: James Bransby, the Earl of Lovedon.

A leader of fashion, one of Prince Louis’s dearest English friends, a favorite of the King and Queen, and famously whimsical, he was London’s most elusive bachelor.

The men went off again, into whoops this time, as though it was the wittiest thing they’d ever heard.

Come away, Chloe whispered to her sister. There’s a doorway to another room—

He’s hardly the first of the King’s cousins to come to England for a rich wife, Lovedon continued. For them, this sort of thing is merely a business transaction. Naturally he’ll put aside any personal disappointments with Teutonic fortitude, like the staunch patriot he is.

While he spoke, Chloe was aware of Althea’s breath coming faster and faster. She gave a small, choked cry, and let go of Chloe’s arm.

Though she wanted to push Lord Lovedon out of a window, Chloe had to tend to her sister first. She pulled Althea toward another doorway, an open one leading to one of the back staircases. Althea was sobbing again, this time in deep, painful gulps.

Chloe half-dragged her to the door on the other side of the landing, through the recently abandoned dining room, and into a pretty sitting room. Its lone window overlooked the splendid gardens that spread out for miles, it seemed, from the north front of the house. Thanks to the afternoon’s onslaught of rain, a grey haze shrouded the glorious vista Chloe had glimpsed this morning.

She grasped Althea by the upper arms and gently shook her. "Those men are drunk, she said. She was none too sober herself, she realized, as a wave of dizziness nearly toppled her. Firmly ignoring it, she went on bracingly, I was amazed to see how much champagne Lord Lovedon could pour down his throat and still stand upright. But you know what aristocrats are like: heads of oak, and hearts even harder."

It—it wasn’t a secret. Prince Louis told me he was poor—but he s-said he l-loved me.

"Which he does, as everyone can see—except Lord Lovedon and his dimwitted followers. But you can’t expect them to recognize a love match when they see one. Defective vision, you know, thanks to centuries of inbreeding—and the pox, too, probably. And don’t forget the gallons of champagne they’ve swilled, or the fact that they do nothing but gossip because they lack the mental capacity to carry

Reviews for Royally Ever After

[bookworm2bookworm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this book we have two novella's previously published in two different anthologies and if you've never read Loretta Chase (OMG! Where have you been for the last two decades?! LOL! Just teasing!), I think you should definitely go for this book.

Both stories are well written and although predictable at times, I found them entertaining.

In Lord Lovedon's Duel I loved the characters and their witty repartee. In The Jilting of Lord Rothwick I wasn't so fond of the hero, but in the end I did find the romance cute and sweet.

I'm not sure what your take on anthologies is, but I like them. If they're well put together they can be good and they are an awesome tool to introduce one to an author you've never read. There are times that no matter the great writing, if the plot is not feasible or the characters are weak, you'll find yourself abandoning the read. In this case, I enjoyed these two short stories and hope you will to.

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher

[billiebook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Too short. I liked both couples and would have enjoyed reading more about each of them. But, even a little amuse bouche of Loretta Chase is better than a full meal of a less-skilled author.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two short stories. They were OK. I couldn't remember much about them a month after reading them. I liked Lord Lovedon's Duel better than The Jilting of Lord Rothwick. Not much more to say.