Chaos' Consort: Heiresses of Eris, #1

By Lisette Giroux

 

 

As a Duke's daughter, Eleanor is being forced to take her place in society and finally marry. She doesn't need a husband, what she needs is a plan, but when that plan involves the Ton's most dangerous Duke she best not get tangled in her own trap.

 

At his club, Simeon, Duke of Northford felt a cold shiver down his spine. His scowls and aloof manner kept people at bay, much to his liking. Except for one green girl who always managed to get under his skin. He wondered what his old nemesis was doing these days since he hadn't seen her on the marriage mart.

 

Together they'll flout convention and set the Ton on fire. But not before each of them learns the lessons love has to teach them.

 

This steamy regency romantic comedy series will delight you if you are the type to laugh out loud at the antics of a "talking" dog, or cheer on difficult women overcoming obstacles, or scowl at men being nobcocks. This series is for the woman looking for laughs along with their steam, because is there any better place to laugh than in the arms of someone who loves you?

 

These girls are rebels who cross class lines like they skewer men's hearts. Oh but these men! It takes a strong man to love a difficult woman.

 

What others have to say about the book:

 

"Come join the fun, you will want to laugh through out the book."

  Babs on Amazon

 

"Delightful regency style romp… and oh that dog of hers!! Be sure to listen out for the music to be made."

Redhvn on Amazon

 

"Oh laugh out loud funny, funny! Read the story. It's a real hoot from beginning to end!"

VJP on Amazon

 

Author Interview:

 

Why write Regency Romance if you aren't going to write it "correctly"?

 

Because as much as I love Regency tropes the actual language and social customs are torturous. Have you read dear Jane? I mean all credit to her, she invented the novel as we know it and I adore anything that puts Colin Firth in breeches but to sit down and read one of her stories now is onerous. We don't speak like that anymore and there are hours of nothing to do. I love Regency love stories for the tension that the social mores of that time yield. But I also love a good laugh. These books give me the tropes I love, laughter, and women I can see myself and my friends in. These are women you can imagine hatching plans with and enjoying a good laugh at how it all turned out afterwards.

 

If the women aren't related how are they the "Heiresses of Eris"?

 

One of the Regency tropes I love is the informal "club", usually men bound together over a common distrust of women or some such nonsense which in the end they all get over. Eris is the Greek goddess of chaos. She's the one who started the Trojan War by tossing an apple into a group of goddesses that said "to the fairest". These girls cause their own sort of mayhem. None of them were comfortable in the roles society assigned them. All of them decided to take matters into their own hands. That they all met was fate. When they did, they dubbed themselves the Heiresses of Eris. They knew what they were  from the start.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eris Digital
• Release date: Dec 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386613718

Lisette Giroux

Best selling author L.C. Giroux writes smart, sexy, fun, romance novels. She writes books that are as much about the love of a family as about any one couple. Romance might be an odd fit after an architecture degree and careers in cosmetics and molecular biology but five minutes into their first date she knew she had met her future husband. More than twenty years later, a kid, their fair share of richer, poorer, sickness, and health, she still believes in a happy ending. When L.C. isn’t writing she is hanging out with her family and dogs who are a lot more fun than anything on television. She has lived in more college towns than is good for anyone over the age of thirty. She finds it fertile ground for more story ideas. Read excerpts of her work at www.lcgiroux.com

Book preview

Chapter One

ELEANOR PUSHED THE contraband book into her embroidery basket as her mother burst through the parlor door.

Have you seen this? Her mother thrust a plain white card towards her. She couldn’t imagine what on the unassuming card could be causing her mother such consternation.

No. What does it say?

This is a disaster. Mary Stills is engaged and to Earl Thrugood.

Oh, is that all? I knew about that. His grace was bragging to the boys. She can have him. She tugged at a loose thread on her crewel work hoping her mother would leave so she could get back to her book.

Young lady, this is serious. He has impeccable connections and comes from a very old family. I had hoped he might take an interest in you, maybe not as your first choice but as a secondary option. I know you could do better than an earl.

Mother, we’ve discussed this ad nauseum. I don’t intend on marrying.

You may have presented your opinion. I disagree and I am still your mother. Eleanor felt a cold shiver down her back. Her mother was not usually this focused.

Mother, Thrugood is a spendthrift and a gambler. Mary Stills is not very bright and dress obsessed but her father set her up with a handsome dowry. They are perfect for each other.

Nevertheless, I’ve indulged you long enough. You are now nineteen and you will enter the marriage mart before all the eligible men have been snapped up.

I hardly think of Thrugood as eligible.

My point exactly! If even that spendthrift is considered a catch... It doesn’t matter what you think. You will take your place in society and I will not hear otherwise.

But why? She hated the whining tone to her voice.

Eleanor, you know very well why. Did you somehow think you could run around like one of your brothers for the rest of your life? I have failed you as a mother letting you behave as they do.

Mother, I’m better than them at many of the things they do! With the exception of whoring, gambling, drinking, and other things too terrible to name.

Nonetheless, you are now nineteen. Why I was already married and with child at your age. Duchesses Winstock and Polgate have remarked repeatedly on your not making your bow and they are right. I have let this nonsense go on far too long. You will have your season and you will make a match. Her mother leaned closer showing just how focused she was. Or we will make one for you. Her mother had never used that kind of language before

Eleanor would have to make her mother understand. Mother be serious, who could I hope to match with? I’ve met all the available men through their associations with my brothers. You don’t really expect me to marry one of them knowing what I do about each. Jonathan drinks, Wilby gambles, Cline whores it up with every willing woman...

Eleanor! That language will not be tolerated!

That is what I mean. She threw her hands up in desperation. You see? I am not fit to marry. And if I did, would that man be willing to let me hunt, or fish, or borrow trousers to go riding? God forbid I should want to read!

Of course not, don’t be absurd.

Then I would have to sneak off behind his back to do those things. No doubt he would think I was having an affair and then it would all go to hell.

Eleanor! You must not curse! From this moment forward you will start to act the lady if I have to confine you to your room and feed you nothing but bread and water. And there will be no more visits by that band of friends of yours.

Bloody hell, this was serious. Mother! You can’t possibly be so cruel?

I had hoped that sending you off to finishing school would tame you a little. Instead, it gave you whole new ways to cause mischief. But you are right, to keep you from your friends would be cruel, but if you don’t come around I will. I swear I will.

Her mother dropped into one of the overstuffed chairs near the fireplace. The exhaustion from dealing with her only daughter showed clearly on the woman’s face. Her mother looked older to her all of a sudden. Was she really that difficult?

Mother? Why is it so important to you that I marry? Can’t Papa just give me a little cottage somewhere, and a stipend? If I had those I wouldn’t need a man to take care of me.

You girls and your modern ideas. Of course you need a man. Who will protect you? How will you survive without a man to manage things?

You do most of the managing around here and father is never around but for the odd dinner and then he is off again.

You would do well to marry someone like your father. He is a wonderful man, loyal, a man of his word. Her mother got a little misty-eyed but she never said she loved him. Eleanor’s dog Alderson was loyal and he was a better hunter than any of her brothers. Your father was a great help when I was... in desperate need.

And that is why you fell in love with him?

Of a sort, yes. But we both understood the needs of society. Your father would be duke after his father, he needed to be able to move in political circles. He needed a wife who was capable of functioning well on her own. We were a good match. You will see, marriage has its advantages.

Father got a woman to manage his house and hostess his parties, someone to bear him heirs, but what did you get out of the bargain?

Her mother sat stone still for a moment. Security, my dear. A roof over my head, an allowance that bought me beautiful dresses, and most importantly, my children. Your father has never denied me anything.

I’ve heard you say you loved to paint when you were younger and had to give it up.

I had four unruly young boys at the time. Sacrifices had to be made.

But what about your riding? Her mother looked at her in near shock. She tried to soothe the wounded look on her mother’s face by continuing. I overheard you talking to Ozzie once about how you used to love to gallop over the fields with your friend.

Your father never stopped me from riding, I did that myself.

Because he was happier without you doing it. He didn’t even need to ask, did he? You did it to yourself. Don’t you see? A woman is expected to chip little pieces of herself away to become the paragon of virtue, while the man can go on as he always has or worse if he marries a woman of wealth. And what can she do about it? Nothing. Her money is now his all because she was born without something dangling between her legs.

Eleanor!

But mother, please listen to me. I will die a thousand deaths trapped in a marriage.

You will adapt. That chipping away is how an artist carves a masterpiece. True, you will have to rein in parts of your exuberance, but you will have the joy of children.

I’d be happier with a good hunting dog.

Really Eleanor.

Sorry. There is not a man in the whole of England who will allow me to read what I like, when I like, hunt as I like, fish as I like. Why I can’t even get my brothers to share their blasted newspapers. It isn’t as if they do more than scan the headlines.

I’ve told you to just take the fashion and gossip sections, they never bother with those.

I want real news mother. I need to know what is going on in the world around me.

Eleanor, it does no good for a woman to be too informed. It is unseemly, next you’ll start trying to talk about a tax vote and scare off all potential suitors.

Why would I want someone who was scared off by my having an opinion? Mother, it isn’t like in your day. Truthfully, I think it probably is, more than I would like, and that is why I will never marry. Please believe me, being surrounded by men my whole life and not once having my opinion taken seriously, never once being consulted as to what I thought best for my own gender, my own person... How could you think I would want to spend the rest of my life like that?

Eleanor, my decision is final. Dresses have been ordered and we will have to go for a few fittings. Eleanor winced, she would not torture her rotten brothers with dress fittings. Though the thought of her hulking brother Edward trussed up in stays and being stuck with pins did bring a smile to her face. See, if you would give a man a smile like that I’m sure he’d let you read a little of his paper after he was done with it.

Eleanor jumped to her feet. Mother, please, you don’t know what you are asking of me.

It is no more than any other girl your age should do. I’m sure those girls you befriended will marry soon, not among the Ton of course, but Louisa is pretty enough and has a large dowry, the academic’s daughter is somewhat less... gifted, but I’m sure she will make a match among her kind. Then there is the other one...

Eleanor gritted her teeth. If her mother had one cross word to say about Virtue she would not be held responsible for her actions.

She is beautiful, though her unfortunate station in life makes that almost a moot point. Eleanor took in long drags of air to keep herself calm. Unfortunately, what her mother said was true. Being a duke’s by-blow would be one thing if she were acknowledged but no one knew who her father was, not even Virtue. Just that he was a duke who was looking after her of a fashion.

We have all agreed to never marry. It wasn’t quite that dramatic but the end result was the same.

Then you are all foolish. Her mother looked as if she had just sucked an unripe persimmon. I’m sure if you are a sweet and dutiful wife your husband will have no problem with those girls coming to call during social hours.

Social hours? My friendships will be relegated to afternoon calls. I suppose I should count myself lucky that he would let me see them at all.

Some won’t, it hasn’t done you any good mixing with the lower classes. True, the girls are well mannered enough when they’re here but still.

I will go to father with this. He won’t allow me to be bundled off to be broodmare to some fop.

Your father and I discussed this last night and we are in complete agreement.

Mother please! I’ll do anything... Short of tossing aside my friends.

Eleanor, my dearest daughter, I know you girls have your modern ideas but a husband and children can have a steadying influence in your life.

As long as I am willing to acquiesce to him at every turn. If I wanted him to vote a certain way on a bill before the House of Lords, I should persuade him to see the validity of my opinion? And I would be expected to give up any thoughts of voting myself?

Eleanor, women have never voted and I don’t know that they ever will. You girls and your ideas, really. The thought is laughable.

Why is it laughable?

Because men protect us from the realities of the world and I for one appreciate that. You would do well to also.

Mother, I’m not like you. I can’t close my eyes and pretend that I’ve disappeared. Her mother actually looked hurt at the jibe. I just mean...

I know exactly what you meant. You do not understand the value of my choices but you didn’t have to make them, I did.

But you want me to make the same choices?

No, I’m saying your father and I have decided it is time for you to choose a husband. At this point, we are giving you the leeway to make the choice yourself. If it becomes obvious you are stalling, then we will take matters into our own hands.

Suppose no one offers for me?

Her mother gave her a sidelong glance and then her face softened. Is that what you are worried about? Eleanor, you are a lovely girl and your father will give you a generous dowry, not too generous mind you, we don’t want to encourage that kind of man.

But what if no one comes forward?

Some man will. You have many excellent qualities and then there is the chance to align himself with our family. Many men would take you even without a dowry. I expect you will be married before the season is over.

I won’t.

You will. Now I won’t hear any more on the subject. I’ve already made an appointment with the modiste.

Eleanor threw herself face first on to the divan in an unladylike fit of pique. Please, not the modiste. I detest being stuck with pins and trapped inside all day.

Regardless, you will be going to the modiste tomorrow and then we will go for tea with the Duchesses Winstock and Polgate. The groan was out of her mouth before she could stop it. Her mother said nothing, just got up from her chair and left, taking the book with her. At least if her mother argued there was a chance Eleanor could persuade her but her quitting the field entirely meant there was nothing to be done but fight another day.

Chapter Two

THE MINUTE HER MOTHER left the drawing room Eleanor tossed her embroidery across it. She’d have preferred throwing it in the fire but being summer it would just have gotten sooty not singed. She despised embroidery. The damned needles always pricked her fingers. And to what end, so she could make pillows for her husband’s house? At least fishhooks brought you fish to eat.

Why can’t a woman stay unmarried? She asked no one in particular since her older brothers were off somewhere, no doubt having fabulous adventures. As if she alone should want to hitch herself to some idiot spendthrift earl. Why did men think all women wanted to get married? Real security, a home of one’s own and an income would do her quite nicely instead. She’d seen and heard her brothers talk about the women they danced with, more importantly, the women they would never be seen in polite company with. They must think her deaf and blind not to notice the way their eyes roved a crowd looking for the widows and mistresses. No, thank you. She would do all she could to avoid the fate of being married to someone like them.

Mother would be a tougher nut to convince. She was more excited about the upcoming season