To Swoon and to Spar

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Prologue 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 Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Acknowledgments ‘To Have and to Hoax’ Teaser About the Author Copyright Guide Cover Start of Content Title Page Dedication Prologue Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright III V VI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 
 
 “Instantly endearing, hilariously witty, and an absolute joy.” —India Holton, bestselling author of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
 A Novel
 To Swoon and to Spar
 Martha Waters
 Author of To Marry and to Meddle
 
 
 Also by Martha Waters
 To Marry and to Meddle
 To Love and to Loathe
 To Have and to Hoax
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Martha Waters
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 First Atria Paperback edition April 2023
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 Cover illustration and design by Vikki Chu
 Author photogrpah © Ryan Chamberlain
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Waters, Martha, 1988- author.
 Title: To swoon and to spar : a novel / Martha Waters.
 Description: First Atria Paperback edition. | New York : Atria Paperback, 2023. | Series: The Regency vows ; 4
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022037396 (print) | LCCN 2022037397 (ebook) | ISBN 9781668007907 (paperback) | ISBN 9781668007914 
 For Lisa and BriHo,
 who are the reason I write about friends who are like family.
 And for Jane,
 who will someday be old enough to read this.
 
 
 Prologue
 Trethwick Abbey, Cornwall, April 1818
 It was a dark and stormy night—or, rather, it should have been.
 In reality, it was a sunny, breezy afternoon—one of those mild April days that truly felt as though summer were properly on its way. It had been a wet, cold winter, and Penvale had more than once wondered why, precisely, he’d thought it wise to leave London to return to Cornwall in January, of all months.
 Today, however, he could not help thinking that the atmosphere would be well served by some of the bleak, stormy weather for which his ancestral home was so famed. Because he—Peter Bourne, seventh Viscount Penvale, owner of one of the oldest stately homes in all of England—was ghost-hunting.
 Penvale didn’t really believe in ghosts, of course. He was a practical man, not given to flights of fancy. There was simply no chance that a house—and certainly not his house—could be haunted.
 And yet here he was.
 “Did you hear that?” his wife asked.
 Penvale turned slowly, surveying their surroundings. “I did,” he said, squinting into the gloom. It might have been a sunny afternoon, but they were in one of the unused bedrooms on the third floor, the curtains drawn to prevent any light from entering, the furniture still covered