Teasing Miss Atherby

Teasing Miss Atherby Willful WinterbournesNovella Sandra Sookoo © Copyright 2022 by Sandra Sookoo Text by Sandra Sookoo Cover by Dar Albert Dragonblade Publishing, Inc. is an imprint of Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc. P.O. Box 23 Moreno Valley, CA 92556 [email protected] Produced in the United States of America First Edition January 2023 Kindle Edition Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited. All Rights Reserved. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. License Notes: This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook, once purchased, may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. 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Without your support, there is no ‘us’, so we sincerely hope you adore these stories and find some new favorite authors along the way. Happy Reading! CEO, Dragonblade Publishing Additional Dragonblade books by Author Sandra Sookoo Willful Winterbournes Series Romancing Miss Quill (Book 1) Pursuing Mr. Mattingly (Book 2) Courting Lady Yeardly (Book 3) Teasing Miss Atherby (Novella) The Storme Brother Series The Soul of a Storme (Book 1) The Heart of a Storme (Book 2) The Look of a Storme (Book 3) A Storme’s Christmas Legacy A Storme’s First Noelle The Sting of a Storme (Book 4) The Touch of a Storme (Book 5) The Fury of a Storme (Book 6) Much Ado About a Storme (in the A Duke in Winter anthology) The Lyon’s Den Series The Lyon’s Puzzle Dedication To Faith Ann Kirk. Thank you for your support and for the positivity you bring to each day. Keep shining. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Publisher’s Note Additional Dragonblade books by Author Sandra Sookoo Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten About the Author Stay in Touch Chapter One February 9, 1820 Ettesmere House Grosvenor Square London, England Miss Louisa Atherby had been in London for nearly two weeks, and still her nerves felt strung too tight. Town was too loud, too crowded, and very much too restrained for her liking. If she’d had her druthers, she would be far from England, exploring the ruins of dead civilizations, and poking into all the hidden places of the world. But for the time being, the need to be with family, to find her niche within that, took top consideration. As a cousin a couple of times removed from the previous Earl of Ettesmere, Louisa had always enjoyed knowing there was family in England waiting for her, but since her parents were world travelers—her father being an archeologist who always had funding and backing by peers with more coin than sense—and her mother an artist who rendered beautiful paintings of tomb reliefs and ruins—her life until this point had been disjointed and scattered, depending on the season and where a dig was happening. But two years ago, just after Louisa had passed her twenty-ninth birthday, her parents died in a freak accident when the ceiling of an Egyptian tomb had come crashing down upon them and others of their party who’d been clearing passageways. Though she took comfort in the fact they’d perished instantly and together—while she’d been at one of the souks in Cairo with some friends—she missed them terribly every day that had gone by. Being suddenly alone had set her afloat, and that was when she’d made plans to travel to England and learn about her distant cousins, especially after the dowager countess had issued her an invitation to attend a midsummer ball last year. Which she’d missed due to travel complications and the need to do something with her parents’ estate. By the time she’d joined the Winterbourne clan at Ettesmere Hall in Berkshire, her cousins’ lives had apparently just been through various forms of upheaval. However, all was now well with them, and each of the cousins was happily wed with busy lives of their own. Once more leaving her in the proverbial cold and on the outside looking into a family network she longed for but didn’t quite fit into. There had been tentative plans for the Winterbournes to remove to London during the Christmas holidays last year, but that trip hadn’t materialized due to her cousin Gilbert having a second nuptial ceremony during that time to recommit to his wife. Theirs had been a rocky love story, indeed, and no one could fault them for wishing to lay a new foundation. Especially after the contretemps and drama of last autumn where he’d accidentally shot said wife and nearly mortally wounded his best friend. A faint smile curved her lips. The Winterbournes were willful, and they didn’t do things by halves, which was why she’d felt an immediate affinity with them. They weren’t perfect, but then, neither