Promised to an Earl

By Joyce Carroll

An unstoppable passion. A devastating pursuit. 

As four friends growing up in classic nobility, it's expected that some may fall in love. With everything stacked against them; Jacob pursues Amelia, his beautifully fragile childhood friend who is simply trying to live up to her fathers expectations. 

Their passion is undeniable, but Amelia's father reminds her of a major obstacle: her expectant, the French Earl. 

As time goes on, Jacob cannot hide from his twisted past, and Amelia is unable to escape her harrowing future. With the help of their friends Stephen and Francesca, they hatch a plan. Will their love be strong enough to prevail?

Discover a young woman's struggle and choose between the ultimate sacrifice or losing love forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joyce Carroll
• Release date: Aug 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781519922076

Book preview

Joyce Carroll

Chapter 1

They hadn’t always been in love, that much was true. They had known each other their whole lives, as noble children often do who grow up in London. There were four of them who frequented each other’s houses, occasionally visited the palace, and thought that they were living a life of luxury. Francesca was a minor Princess, so far down the line that half the country had never even heard of her. But because she was a Princess, her engagement had been made in her cradle to Stephen, a serious and foreboding Earl from Ireland who was the opposite of her in every way possible. Francesca’s twin soul was Jacob, second son to a Duke, goofy and constantly changing directions in life. The youngest of the four, Amelia, a fragile bird of a girl, was likely to inherit her father’s title of Countess seeing as her mother was long dead.

Jacob was wild and full of crazy ideas that others would have scolded him for, had it not been for his bright blue eyes and his beautiful smile. He had been mixed up in affairs before, romancing the town’s ladies and scandalizing his friends with stories and a grin. No one expected him to ever properly settle down, as second sons usually didn’t. They expected him to be with women, to have children, maybe even to marry, but his heart would never be calm. What they expected was and wasn’t how it turned out.

By 16, he had already fathered a child with a peasant girl who he once fancied himself in love with. At the very least, Laura was the mother of his daughter, and he would have to do the honourable thing and support them. But he couldn’t come to marry her and now his reputation was spoiled. Bastard children were not quite as damning to men as they were to women, but Jacob now came with baggage, which his father was not happy about.

Somehow, one day, the stars aligned. It was noon, and the four of them were having a picnic in the garden. He looked across the blanket at something Amelia said, and it was as though cupid had struck him. He nearly dropped the food he was holding, as she blinked her eyelashes at him, a small smile playing across her lips. They had been around each other all their lives, and here he was, in love, without