Lady Marianne and the Captain

LADY MARIANNE AND THE CAPTAIN THE SEDGEWICK LADIES BOOK III ISABELLA THORNE Mikita Associates COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2023 by Isabella Thorne All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CONTENTS Part I Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Part II Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Part III Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Part IV Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Author’s Note Also By Isabella Thorne Next book in The Sedgewick Ladies Series Sneak Peek of The Duke’s Daughter The Duke’s Daughter Sign up for my VIP Reader List! PART I CHAPTER 1 Lady Marianne Sedgewick, the middle daughter of the Earl of Ashbury jolted guiltily at the sound of footsteps in the corridor just beyond the library. Judging by the shadows lengthening on the lawn, visible from the large window that graced her favored nook in the book-filled sanctuary, a great deal more than five minutes of time had passed since she had picked up a heavy volume for ‘just a moment’. Of course, the siren’s song of information had been more of a temptation than she could overcome. She had known perfectly well that it would be so and now had no one but herself to blame if she was caught late and unprepared to entertain her father’s guests. Unprepared might be an understatement, she realized with growing dismay. She had at least had the sense to dress for dinner before slipping into the library, but had failed to realize that the prized leather-bound volume was coated rather thickly with decades’ worth of accumulated dust and grime which was now smeared liberally across the front of her once-spotless white muslin gown. “Oh, for Heaven’s sake,” she murmured, still setting the book aside with the gentleness and care that its advanced age merited, regardless of her ill temper. Marianne could hardly think of a worse time for such a thing to occur. Her elder sister, Arabella, had played the role of hostess for their father ever since their mother’s untimely demise years ago, but Arabella, now a baroness, the Right Honorable Lady Willingham, was no longer available for the task. Lord Sedgewick had undoubtedly taken Arabella’s skill and hard work for granted, and Marianne knew she was nearly as guilty of doing he same thing herself. Arabella had always indulged her preference for studying - and her distaste for conventional, stilted conversations, which had always struck Marianne as being impossibly pointless and dull. She had assured Arabella dozens of times that she was perfectly able to take up the mantle of hostess. After all, how hard could it be? She had said. There was a housekeeper to assign work to the maids and to ensure the rooms were ready, and the kitchen steward to see to the buying of the food. A cook and scullery maids prepared the feast. Footmen served it. With so many involved in the ordering of the evening, it didn’t seem that Marianne had much to do at all, but that statement was far from accurate. As hostess, she had the last word on all of it, and even with the servants’ help, she could not shirk her duty, and she could not call upon her sister. First of all, it would be the height of embarrassment that a person of her status and intellect could not host a simple party, and secondly, Arabella was simply not available. It really did not matter if she were up to the task or not, Marianne had determined. It would have been the height of selfishness to do anything to keep Arabella from marrying the unlikely, yet undeniable love of her life. Marianne had kept her worry about entertaining to herself. This party and all subsequent parties in her father’s house were Marianne’s responsibility. After all, she could not leave the task to Daphne. Her youngest sister would likely let the party goers fend for themselves while she went off on some adventure. The thought brought a wry smile to her lips and a welcome feeling of mirth to her heart. Everything had felt dismal and strange since Arabella’s wedding a fortnight ago. Marianne had been forced to acknowledge that her sister Arabella, now Lady Willingham, really - that would take a great deal longer than a mere fortnight to become accustomed to- had done a deal of unseen work to keep the household running smoothly. Marianne had actually had only the barest surface knowledge of everything involved in such an undertaking. However, she was not considered one of the brightest young women in England for nothing, she had told both herself and her father when he had dubiously informed her that he would be having guests to dinner that evening. She would simply apply her substantial intellect to the problems at hand and everything would work out splendidly. It had, too, until she had made the critical mistake of congratulating herself on how seamlessly the arrangements for the evening had come together. She had not even consulted Arabella once. Not that consulting Arabella was an option, as she was still away on her honeymoon trip, but the point, of course, was that Marianne had not needed to do so. Everything had been ready perfectly, with time to spare, and like a fool, she had decided to reward herself with a few moments’ solitude in the library. It had been sheer hubris, and anyone who had studied the classics as much as Marianne knew the inevitable consequences of hubris. It was a lesson learned in innumerable classics. “So much for all of