“Enough of that talk or we’ll soon be scandalizing those fish.” She tsked him playfully, then turned more serious as she brushed a wind-ruffled lock from his brow. “When I’d first walked into the garden, it seemed as though something was on your mind. Would you like to tell me about it?”
“I was only thinking about a report I’d heard from one of Devine’s crew. Apparently, my father has remarried.”
“Oh?” Winnifred’s brows lifted. “Do you suppose he fell in love?”
He shook his head. “Shettlemane can only love money. Which means that this American widow must have a great deal of it.”
“Perhaps we should warn her, do you think?”
“She’s a widow six times over. I’m not entirely sure that she is the one who needs the warning. And when you came upon me, I was contemplating whether or not to send him a letter.”
Winnifred smoothed his worry lines with the soft pad of her thumb and rose up on her toes to press her lips to his. “I think you should. You can send your letter along with mine. Oh, and my aunt Myrtle wonders if we plan to return by Christmastide, as do my mother and father.”
“Whenever you should like to return, you need only say the word. I am ever at your beck and call for any sort of adventure.”
Gazing up at him, she wondered how she could love someone so deeply in such a short amount of time and, moreover, have him love her in return. Perhaps it was just like Asher had once said to her—that with all the rain they’d encounter something was bound to take deep root and blossom, and for them it was love. Simple as that.
It didn’t seem possible, but she grew more content every day. In fact, especially today.
She was fairly bursting with the secret news she’d had on her lips since morning. One of the maids in the house was also a midwife, and she’d confirmed what Winnifred had been suspecting for the past two months.
“Then again,” he said, cutting through her thoughts with a tone of uncertainty, and drawing her attention to the way his gaze softened on hers, “perhaps we should wait until after our child is born.”
“You cad!” She swatted at him as he held her, though wriggling, in his arms. “How long have you known?”
He chuckled, nipping at the frown on her bottom lip. “Winn, we haven’t spent a single day or night apart. It became fairly apparent when you stopped having your courses.”
“Hush!” she said, blushing to the soles of her feet, searching the garden to see if anyone was near. “You could have made known your suspicions.”
“To be honest, I suspected you were going to tell me this morning before sea bathing, and I was so overjoyed by the very thought that I was swept away in the moment . . . before, during and after.”
“Then you don’t mind lingering here awhile longer?”
“I only want to be wherever I can hold you, where I can feel every beat of your heart, hear every sigh, breathe in your sweet fragrance, and taste every kiss.”
“Even if there’s . . . quite a bit more of me as the months go by?”
Whatever fears she may have had were put to rest as he splayed his hand in a warm caress over her middle. “I cannot imagine anything more beautiful than seeing your lush body swell with my child, and I know I will love you all the more.”
And, in the end, that was all that mattered.
Acknowledgments
This book would never have been possible if not for the readers who wrote numerous emails, demanding that Asher Holt have a story of his own. So, with heartfelt gratitude, I want to thank each and every one of you for sending me emails for weeks, months, and even years after Asher Holt made his first appearance in the novella, Just Another Viscount in Love.
This book was a simple kidnapping an heiress story in the beginning, but one that needed to evolve. And so, next, I would like to thank Cathy and Jan for our brainstorming session at Buns & Roses that helped me work out the important details of consent in a kidnapping story.
I’d also like to thank my editor, Nicole, for reading the synopsis and being just as excited about this book as I was to write it. And another thank-you goes out to my agent, Stephanie, for all her hard work and for being a great sounding board.
I’m also grateful to my sisters for understanding when I disappear inside my cave for weeks, but are there to greet me when I step out for a breath of air. And special thanks go to Cyndi for being my second set of eyes and for her abundance of encouragement.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the woman who laughed at my idea to put a rabid badger in the story. Even after I explained how many hours I’d spent watching terrifying YouTube videos for research, she insisted that the book needed a horse named Victor instead. And, in the end, I think she was right. So, thank you, Mom.
My Kind of Earl
Don’t miss the next installment in The Mating Habits of Scoundrels, wherein a bluestocking on a quest for information stumbles upon the long-lost heir to an earldom . . . in the London underworld!
MY KIND OF EARL
Fall 2020
Who will this mysterious hero be? If you’ve read THE ROGUE TO RUIN, you’ve met him! If not, now is your chance . . .
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author VIVIENNE LORRET transforms copious amounts of tea into words. She is an Avon Books author of works including the Wallflower Wedding series, the Rakes of Fallow Hall series, the Season’s Original series, the Misadventures in Matchmaking series, and the Mating Habits of Scoundrels series. For more information on her books, sign up for her newsletter at vivlorret.net.
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Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
By Vivienne Lorret
The Mating Habits of Scoundrels Series
Lord Holt Takes a Bride
The Misadventures in Matchmaking Series
How to Forget a Duke
Ten Kisses to Scandal
The Rogue to Ruin
The Season’s Original Series
“The Duke’s Christmas Wish” (in All I Want for Christmas Is a Duke and A Christmas to Remember)
The Debutante Is Mine
This Earl is on Fire
When a Marquess Loves a Woman
Just Another Viscount in Love (novella)
The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series
The Elusive Lord Everhart
The Devilish Mr. Danvers
The Maddening Lord Montwood
The Wallflower Wedding Series
Tempting Mr. Weatherstone (novella)
Daring Miss Danvers
Winning Miss Wakefield
Finding Miss McFarland
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
lord holt takes a bride. Copyright © 2020 by Vivienne Lorret. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition APRIL 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-297657-4
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-297659-8
Cover design by Amy Halperin
Cover illustration © Jon Paul Ferrara
Avon, Avon & logo, and Avon Books & logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of Ame
rica and other countries.
HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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