The Making of His Marchioness


 
 
 
 Clara drew in a deep breath, hoping it would help her think, but she could still feel Roger’s arms around her.
 Still feel how he’d kissed the top of her head. At that moment, she’d wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold on. Just hold on.
 That made no sense.
 All it did was frustrate her even more. Spinning back around to face her friend, Clara held up one finger. “I awoke to discover he’d kidnapped my child right from under my nose.”
 Suzanne set her pen in the holder and rose from her chair. “He did not kidnap your child. He took her downstairs and fed her breakfast.”
 “Without my knowledge.”
 Suzanne let out an exasperated sounding sigh. “Roger hasn’t been able to do anything right in your eyes since we stepped foot in England.”
 Clara opened her mouth, but closed it again when she couldn’t come up with a reply.
 “Your daughter lights up when she sees him, even your dog adores him, but you can’t find a single thing to like about him. Not one.” Suzanne shook her head.
 “I just want our lives to be normal again,” Clara said. That won’t happen living in a marquess’s home. Nor being hugged by him. Even if it felt so amazing. So real.
 
 
 Author Note
 Thank you for picking up the second book in the Southern Belles in London series. I’ve had fun writing this series about young women being transported halfway around the world, where they find their heroes.
 Research for each and every book I write is always interesting, but during Clara and Roger’s story, I discovered that the International Exhibition of 1862 took place in London from May to November. It was a sensational event that attracted millions of visitors and had exhibits from countries around the world. One of the exhibits that drew great excitement was a “refrigerator” that made ice. That invention would have been of great interest to Roger, so I had to find a way to make mention of it.
 I hope you enjoy Clara and Roger’s journey of getting to know each other and, ultimately, admitting that they both do deserve the love they’d found together.
 
 
 LAURI ROBINSON
 The Making of His Marchioness
 
 
 
 A lover of fairy tales and history, Lauri Robinson can’t imagine a better profession than penning happily-ever-after stories about men and women in days gone past. Her favorite settings include World War II, the roaring twenties and the Old West. Lauri and her husband raised three sons in their rural Minnesota home and are now getting their just rewards by spoiling their grandchildren. Visit her at laurirobinson.blogspot.com, Facebook.com/lauri.robinson1 or Twitter.com/laurir.
 Books by Lauri Robinson
 Harlequin Historical
 Diary of a War Bride
 A Family for the Titanic Survivor
 The Captain’s Christmas Homecoming
 Southern Belles in London
 The Return of His Promised Duchess
 The Making of His Marchioness
 The Osterlund Saga
 Marriage or Ruin for the Heiress
 The Heiress and the Baby Boom
 Twins of the Twenties
 Scandal at the Speakeasy
 A Proposal for the Unwed Mother
 Sisters of the Roaring Twenties
 The Flapper’s Fake Fiancé
 The Flapper’s Baby Scandal
 The Flapper’s Scandalous Elopement
 Visit the Author Profile pageat Harlequin.com for more titles.
 
 
 To my amazing editor, Carly, who has been my editor since my second book with Harlequin. This is now my fiftieth book, and my gratitude for all you’ve done is endless.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Epilogue
 Excerpt from Beguiling Her Enemy Warrior by Lucy Morris
 
 
 Chapter One
 1862
 It took nearly all her strength for Clara Walton to walk up the sloped bank at the wharf from where they’d just disembarked the ship that had brought them from America to England. She held on tighter to her daughter in her arms and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Annabelle would be there to meet them. It would be wonderful to see her lifelong friend. To thank her for sending someone to find them and bring them here to stay with her until the war ended.
 A safe place, where Abigail, who was only a year and a half old, could sleep in a real bed and have plenty to eat.
 All of that should make Clara happy, but she couldn’t find it. Happiness. How could she? She’d left her home, the last tangible bits that held memories of her family. Of her husband and the life that they’d made together.
 Other than her daughter. Abigail was her everything. All she had, and that was the reason she was here. In England, along with Suzanne and Sammy, the dog who had been walking beside her but paused to wait while she stopped to catch her breath.
 Suzanne, her dearest friend who had agreed that coming here was what they had to do, paused, too.
 ‘Here,’ Suzanne said, holding out her arms. ‘Let me carry Abigail for a little while.’
 Because her arms were trembling, making her fearful that they might give out at any moment, Clara released her daughter to her friend. ‘Thank you.’ She didn’t have the energy to say more, but thought about all they’d been through, and how walking up this small hill should be easy, not taxing.
 Taxing had been the death of her husband, immediately followed by the death of her father and in-laws the night that the entire town she’d gown up in had been burned to the ground. Taxing had been trying to live through a war, scrounging for food every day and having to keep Abigail and Sammy quiet inside the root cellar whenever soldiers had been nearby. Taxing had been having to climb up the rope ladder hanging over the side of the large ship