A Michaelmas Wager: A Sweet Regency Romance: Seasons of Love, #2

By Emily Murdoch

How much would you gamble for love?

 

Rufus Lovell has been thrust unexpectedly into riches, and gained a new set of friends who delight in wagers and bets, with nothing too small or too big to gamble on – even marriage. So when a tipsy party joke becomes a wager on Rufus' marriage, he knows he should said no.

 

But Juliana Honeyfield, the unwitting and unknowing focus of the gamble, is not the simple and malleable young woman that Rufus' friends take her for.

 

She demands a lot more from her acquaintances, and the challenge of understanding this intriguing woman and keeping the truth of the wager from her starts to wear thin on Rufus.

 

Especially when his belief in marriage has already been so greatly rocked, and his family history is sunk in crime, alcoholism, and prison.

 

Will it be possible for Rufus to charm the winning Juliana?

 

Does he owe her the truth about his initial interest in her?

 

And who will eventually win the Michaelmas wager?

 

A Michaelmas Wager is a charming Regency romance novella about the unlikely consequences of spur of the moment decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Emily Murdoch
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215294598

Emily Murdoch

Emily Murdoch is a writer, a poet and a lover of books. There's never a time she's without a book. Her debut novel, If You Find Me, released in 2013 to global high praise and critical acclaim through St. Martin's Griffin and Orion/Indigo UK. If You Find Me, a Carnegie Medal 2014 longlister and a Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2014 finalist, has earned starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and School Library Journal; is a Young Adult Library Services (YALSA) Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) selection of 2014; was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice for June 2013; an Irish Times Editors’ Pick for 2013; an Editor’s Pick for UK’s The Bookseller 2013; a Booklist Youth Editors' Choice for 2013; and a Booklist Top Ten Pick of 2014. If You Find Me has also been nominated and included in numerous state awards/high school master reading lists, amongst those in: SC, TX, KY, RI, PA, WI, OR, DE, CT, SD, NH, OK, VT, and AR. If You Find Me was also a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Books of 2013 in the Best Debut Author and Best Young Adult Fiction categories, and was a finalist for the German Children's Literature Prize 2015, along with a finalist for the German Buxeholder Bulle Award 2015. If You Find Me has been translated and published in Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, and Vietnam, as well as in Braille. When she's not reading or writing, you'll find Emily caring for her horses, dogs and family on a ranch in rural Arizona, where the desert's tranquil beauty and rich wildlife often enter into her poetry and writing. Emily's other passion is saving equines from slaughter. She uses her writing to raise awareness of this inhumane practice, with the goal of ending the slaughter of America's horses and burros through transport to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. She provides sanctuary to abused and slaughter-saved equines who dazzle her daily with their gentle gratitude in exchange for security, consistency, food and love. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Emily hopes her penchant for writing will do just that. All-in-all, she's a lefty in a right-handed world, writing her way through life and smearing ink wherever she writes.

Book preview

A Michaelmas Wager

By Emily Murdoch

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2017 Emily Murdoch

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. All pictures are held by commercial license and may not be duplicated by anyone without express permission.

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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 return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

To all the people who I have tried to have married by Michaelmas.

To Granny, who was much in my thoughts as I wrote this book.

To Joshua, the man who took a wager on me.

To my readers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

A Christmas Surprise

Historical Note

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

But the vicar said that’s not my wife – that’s my daughter!

Guffaws rang out as Rufus Lovell, face flushed from wine, grinned round at his friends, his joke finally finished. A hand slapped him on the back as one of his companions brushed away a tear from his eye, and the chuckles did not recede for a good full minute.

Rufus you dog! Percival Quinn said beaming. Who knew that you had such a joke in you? Not even my brother Isaac is that quick witted!

Heads turned, and tongues tutted as the crowds gathered in Hyde Park stared to look at the group of young gentlemen making such a ruckus, and some parasols turned elegantly to block them from view. Rufus could see that their laughter was disturbing the May Day celebration held by Percival’s father, the Duke of Daventry, but he didn’t care. Drunk on friendship, if not a little wine, he felt as though he could take on the world.

You must tell us another. Anthony Griffiths shoved another glass of what looked like champagne into Rufus’ hand. Rufus my boy you seem to know them all!

Rufus grinned, his balance slightly shaken by the rough gesture and his cravat inelegantly twisted in the heat of the day. Whose idea had it been to have this year’s Daventry May Day party outside, anyway? He was sweltering under his linen shirt and silk waistcoat, and that was after he had managed to lose his jacket. Some of the ladies in their corsets must be near collapse.

Come on now, Rufus, another joke!

The statement from Nicholas Wingrave brought Rufus back to his party of friends: the four of them, his three best friends. He says best, of course: but four months ago he did not even know them. He glorified in their attentions like a sunflower glorifies in the sun.

Another joke? Rufus tried to steady his feet as he attempted to steady the conversation. Surely you have heard them all!

You mean there are not more? Nicholas looked genuinely shocked, and grabbed rudely at a glass from a silver platter that was being carried past them by a servant. Dear boy, you disappoint me. Didn’t your brother teach you any more skits?

Rufus winced though he tried to hide it from his friends, the most fashionable and talked about men in the tonne. He did not speak of his brother Hubert.

Anthony nodded, champagne dripping from the corners of his mouth and dribbling into his cravat, staining the white linen yellow. Yes, surely a few years in prison would have taught your brother a fine caper or two!

An elderly couple who had been standing close to the men now took definite strides away, and Rufus flushed.

Five months ago, he had not known them, except Percival Quinn to look at. Everyone knew the Daventry family, their five sons – Isaac and Percival especially, the two most likely to break a girl’s heart – but Rufus Lovell was just a second son of a tradesman who saw such people at the Assemblies and never even got within hearing distance.

That had all changed five months ago.

What did your brother do, anyway? asked Anthony lazily, staring indolently at a trio of young ladies, unchaperoned save for each other, strolling with flirtatiously lowered lashes – lashes that flashed upwards to gaze quickly at the group of young men as they went on their way to the punch bowl that stood in the middle of the party. Arson? Treason?

I do know another joke, said Rufus hastily, pushing back his dark hair from his eyes as the heat of the sun really started to play down on him. He would give anything to be able to remove his hat. There were three men, an Englishman –

No, we want to hear about Huey! Nicholas was now slurring, and it was becoming more and more difficult to ascertain exactly what he was saying. I can’t believe he rotted there for five years before he died of barrel fever!

Rufus winced again. Drinking himself to death – the barrel fever – was not the way that he had expected his older brother to die, and certainly not before he had reached his thirtieth year. But then Hubert had not taken the course expected of him by his family, and after joining a rather illicit group he quickly became the scapegoat for their crimes. Estrangement from his family had taught him nothing, gossip and slander had not brought him to his knees, and even a prison sentence had not darkened the perpetual smile that seemed to rest on Hubert Lovell’s face.

After going missing for so long it had come as quite a shock to the Lovell family to find their first born up before a judge. He had been lucky to escape the ships to Australia, but it had not helped him in the end. And so the Lovell fortune, built in trade and covertly spent in London in fashion, now belonged to Rufus.

And what a life he now had. New friends, new clothes, new parties now open to him. He could not have dreamed of this: but with new found money came new found expectations.

Let us leave off jokes, Rufus said in a bored tone, I weary of them faster than I weary of this gathering – apologies to the host!

Percival shrugged. No offence to be lodged with me, Rufus, it’s not my party. It’s hardly a crush, is it? I see hardly one pretty face amongst these girls, and I know that Father had a good deal of trouble with people being out of Town at this time in the season.

Oh tosh Percival, what nonsense you do talk! Anthony scoffed, his eyes still watching the trio of ladies who had been so alluring five minutes before. A gaggle of ladies now stood around the punch bowl, gossiping and sharing news. The tinkle of their laughter caught on the breeze. I could number two that I would not be averse to taking home with me.

The men laughed, and Nicholas slapped Anthony on the back. Only two?

At least two! Anthony repeated, a sly grin creeping over his face. And I’m sure that old Father Quinn is just keeping some of the best in reserve so as to tempt us to stay longer – just like he does with his wine!

Percival punched Anthony jovially on the arm. The less said about my Father’s hosting skills the better, I thank you sir! Anyway, I’m up for a wager if one of you are. How about it, Nick?

Nicholas, Rufus quickly saw, was a little worse for wear. Unlike the others, he was unable to hold his drink – and unwilling to pass it up when offered – and so was gazing a little off focus when he heard his name called, and turned to face his friends.

Me? He said blankly. What do you want with me?

A wager, said Percival smoothly. Rufus stared at him in admiration; there really was no situation that the Quinn family could not find themselves in that they could not master immediately. He had met Isaac, one of the younger Quinn sons at a card table a few days previously, and he was exactly the same – perhaps even better able to merge seamlessly into any background you placed him in.

Nicholas nodded, his face slightly blotchy thanks to the medley of heat and wine. A wager it is! I accept your bargain.

The friends laughed as Rufus tried to explain to the inebriated gentleman. No, Nick, there has been no wager set yet – do you not wish to know what it is that you have agreed to?

Doesn’t matter, said Nicholas calmly, as he hiccoughed. "Bound to lose anyway, Percival Quinn