The Wastrel and the Wallflower: The Ashbourne Legacy, #6

By Eliana Piers

She's a plain, ever-predicting, and ever-predictable wallflower.

He's the cheeriest man on the planet, with no real plans for his life.

 

When Lady Giselle is spotted cloud watching–documenting, to be precise–she crosses her fingers in hopes that the man will simply pass by. Like every other man has done in her past. Only, this man keeps staring at her until he's so distracted that he lands himself in the pond.

 

Felix, one of the Ashbourne brothers, is the happy-go-lucky, always smiling, friendly face. Except, of late, he's struggling with an unusual sense of ennui. All he wants is to go fly his kite and let his thoughts soar. Instead, he finds himself face down in a pond, and then face to face with love. He sees it immediately. But will she?

 

Can Felix reign in his feelings so as not to scare away the most beautiful, most intelligent woman he's ever met?

 

This is the sixth book in the steamy new regency series, The Ashbourne Legacy, that follows the seven mislabeled brothers of Snow White.

 

Read this novelette if you like sweet and spicy easy reads with witty banter and lovable characters.

 

The Ashbourne Legacy:

1. The Blighter and the Bluestocking
2. The Scoundrel and the Scientist
3. The Virgin and the Vixen
4. The Rogue and the Rose
5. The Rake and the Writer
6. The Wastrel and the Wallflower
7. The Spy and the Spinster

• Language: English
• Publisher: Self-Published
• Release date: Feb 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9781998281237

Eliana Piers

What makes people fall in love? Why do two people end up together? Every love story is unique, and I love love.

Book preview

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The Wastrel and the Wallflower is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. 

Copyright © 2024 by Eliana Piers

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 as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact author.

Cover image © Eliana Piers

Cover design Copyright © 2024 Eliana Piers

All rights reserved.

ISBN E-Book 978-1-998281-23-7

ISBN Print 978-1-998281-24-4

ISBN Audio 978-1-998281-25-1

Dedication

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To all y’all who, when asked the question, Do you think you are beautiful? hesitate to say yes.

Know this:

The answer is yes! Yes, you are beautiful.

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Contents

Author's Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Second Author’s Note

Stay Connected

Thank You

About the Author

Also By Eliana Piers

Read More Ashbourne Brothers

The Spy and the Spinster

Read More: Dukes for Christmas

A Beauty for a Duke

Read More: The Good Dukes

Good Duke Gone Cold

Author's Note

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Hello Beautiful Reader, 

Welcome to the Beau Monde. Most, if not all, of my books are part of an interconnected world with the Good Dukes, where it all started. This series, The Ashbourne Legacy follows the 7 brothers of Snow White, and it has some enchanting fairytale vibes for you.

If you like SHORT, SWEET & SPICY, you are in for a treat.

I love to write funny, easy, breezy stories where the characters learn things about themselves and the world around them, all the while continuing to reach for hope, joy, and above all, LOVE.  

Love always wins. Love never fails. 

You will always read a happy ending in my stories. 

I write to have fun, and so I make stories fit into a historical context, but I often take leeway with history. SO, if you are looking for a 100% accurate depiction of historical language and settings, please put this book down. You will be disappointed. And I don’t want that. You don’t want that. Neither of us wants you to be disappointed. Let’s just be happy. The world is a hard enough place as it is. 

IF, however, you don’t mind to sacrifice some historical truths in the name of LOVE and HUMOR, AND you want to read about some HOT men falling head over heels in love with some INTELLIGENT, STRONG, INDEPENDENT women, then read on, dear reader.

Much love, 

Eliana Piers

Chapter 1

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1816 England

One day earlier

WITH A REASONABLE DEGREE of certainty and enjoyment, Giselle would often make predictions. How many people would attend a house party. Who would be the life of the party. What jokes would be made. Who would laugh. Who would fake laugh. Whose heads the joke would fly over.

Her success rate at predicting events of the social realm were just slightly above average. Or perhaps, just average.

The only truly successful predictions she could make about society related to the male species. That is, she predicted with perfect accuracy, that handsome men would not dance with her, speak to her, and rarely (if ever) would they even notice her.

Of course, such a prediction could be made by many others in the ton. After all, she was a wallflower for a reason.

Giselle accepted her fate. She didn’t even mind it so much. She enjoyed time to herself and her thoughts. The less men spoke with her, the more time she could spend planning her next day’s tasks.

And the next day’s tasks almost always involved the weather. Which, to say the least, Giselle was also very good at predicting.

Predictions, predictions, predictions. It was all about looking at past evidence, analyzing data, noting patterns, crafting a reasonable conclusion, and the forecasting that the future would follow suit.

It was the way of the world. People didn’t change all that much. Humanity as a whole didn’t change all that much. Science didn’t change all that much. Though many might be tempted to refute that statement, the truth was that science was science, only its discovery and application changed. The world worked the way the world worked.

Gravity didn’t start acting up only once Newton observed the apple. No. Gravity had always been in full force. One day someone finally noticed it.

The same could be said of the sun, the stars, the ocean. Animals. Anything and everything science covered, was either discovered or waiting to be uncovered.

And that about covered it.

People could be a bit more fickle. Fashion changed. Language changed. Culture changed. It was a bit more challenging to keep up