A Deal with the Marquess of Scandal

A DEAL WITH THE MARQUESS OF SCANDAL A STEAMY HISTORICAL REGENCY ROMANCE NOVEL DAPHNE BYRNE CONTENTS Before You Start Reading… Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Epilogue Extended Epilogue Preview: A Spinster for the Wicked Duke 1. Aspendale Summer House Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Also by Daphne Byrne About the Author BEFORE YOU START READING… Did you know that there’s a special place where you can chat with me and with thousands of like-minded bookworms all over the globe?! Join Cobalt Fairy’s facebook group of voracious readers and I guarantee you, you’d wish you had joined us sooner! Let’s connect, right NOW! Just click on the image above! ⇧ ABOUT THE BOOK “If you agree to fake court me, then I will help you to find out who the author of the gossip column is.” Lady Marina has a guilty pleasure: she enjoys reading gossip columns. And when her favorite author writes a devastating column about her, Marina is determined to find her. But the problem is that the man who owns the printing shop the author uses is none other than the Marquess of Woodworth… A man whom Marina absolutely loathes. Even though Leonard does not care for marriage, he finds himself falsely betrothed to the infuriating Marina. But the real trouble begins when he cannot stop thinking about kissing her… CHAPTER 1 LONDON, MAYFAIR, THE DOWAGER DUCHESS OF HEREFORD’S HOME Spring, 1820 “It has come!” Lady Marina Turner said with wide eyes as she spotted the footman walking into the breakfast room. He carried a silver tray with a long, cream-colored paper on it—Finchley’s Gossip Column. Marina grinned as she held out her hand for it. The footman bowed when he neared her seat, and she snatched the paper from the tray with alacrity. “Thank you, Hawkins!” she cried, opening the paper with pleasure. “It is always a bright, sunny day when the gossip column comes!” “It comes nearly every day,” her sister, Susan, said drily from across the breakfast table. “If only the whole of London knew how excited you get about gossip columns, Marina, you would certainly lose your reputation as an intelligent, level-headed woman.” “Oh, Susan, you will not keep me from my pleasures,” Marina replied, not caring that her enjoyment of gossip columns did not exactly fit with her said reputation. “I think it rather vulgar, Marina, that you should so enjoy hearing about the misfortunes of others,” her mother, the Dowager Duchess of Hereford, said from the head of the table. She was reading over a bit of correspondence as she spoke. Marina put down her beloved column and looked at her family. It was only her, Susan, and her mother now. Her brother Colin, the Duke of Hereford, had married his beloved Thalia Rousseaux two years ago, and they had moved to the main house in London. She, her sister, and mother now lived in one of the other family homes in London, and Marina couldn’t be happier for them. Thalia was a dear, and her brother had become far less irritating now that he had his wife to keep him in line. “It is not rejoicing in the misfortunes of others, Mother,” she said, narrowing her gray eyes. “It is the enjoyment of free writing. Since we do not know their identities, people here may write as they wish.” She put down the column and tapped at it with her finger. You, of all people, should understand such a thing, Susan. They write such clever, witty statements and make their audience laugh out loud. I, in particular, love this author: a Lady Banbury. It is a false name, of course,” she said with a smile, looking down at the paper. But her smile fell when she spotted her name on the page. Her very own name. That was not that unusual, but what came after it was. Her mouth began to move as she read the words. “Are you all right, Marina?” Susan asked. Marina’s head was swimming. “Dear God,” she said. “My favorite author. Why would she write this?” “What is it?” Susan asked, now sounding concerned. “Yes, dear, what is it?” her mother enquired, putting down her letter. Marina, in a daze, cleared her throat and held the paper up a little higher. The Lady Marina Turner, sister to the Duke of Hereford, has found herself in a strange position this Season. She, now twenty-six, has not found a husband, and by the looks of things, she never will. Frittering her time away on pamphlets, books, and good causes, the spinster Lady Turner will just have to declare her lack of ability to snare a husband this year, leaving the other debutantes to have a chance. Not that she was stealing their chances anyway. Once, it was thought that after her rakish brother’s marriage went through, she would find a way to the aisle herself. But no, she continues forward. It only makes sense, however, for who would marry a spinster bluestocking? She put down the paper, and from across the table, Susan snatched it up, reading the words for herself in disbelief. “By God,” Susan whispered, her dark eyes wide with horror. “Mother, look!” She handed the pamphlet to her mother while Marina leaned back in her seat, afraid she might fall to the floor if she wasn’t careful. “Marina? What is this?” her mother asked, and Marina noted her mother’s growing sense of fear. Dear God, no. She already has enough to deal with me and the pointless Season. “I don’t know,” she replied. Her voice sounded scratchy and thin. The