“You asked for an appointment,” Mr. Templeton counseled, “but that doesn’t mean the earl will keep it. His kind doesn’t have to be courteous.”
“Maybe he should recall that he’s not all that far above us.”
“Oh, Missy, be careful with your disparaging talk. If you’re not here at four o’clock, I’ll likely be searching for you at the local jail.”
“Don’t be silly. He wouldn’t have me…jailed merely for speaking out.”
“He’s dined at the palace with the king. That sort of experience tends to alter a fellow. He might do anything to you.”
“He won’t. He’s an officer in the army. He wouldn’t harm an innocent woman.”
“You just never know,” he ominously warned.
“I’ll be fine,” she insisted as a shiver of dread slithered down her spine.
Afraid that her courage might fail her, she leapt to the ground before she could change her mind.
“Good luck,” he said.
“I don’t need any luck,” she boldly retorted. “I have right on my side, and right will always prevail over injustice.”
She marched off, and he clicked the reins, his horses plodding away. As he departed, she felt terribly alone, as if she’d lost her last friend.
She gave in to a moment of weakness, to a moment of doubt, then she straightened with resolve.
“You can do this, you can do this,” she muttered over and over.
There had been a neighborhood meeting, and in a unanimous vote, she’d been elected to present their grievances to Lord Stafford, to seek some relief from Mr. Mason’s oppressive decrees. She would not return to Stafford without garnering concessions from the earl.
She climbed the steps and was about to knock, when suddenly, the door was jerked open.
“It’s about bloody time you arrived,” a man barked. He grabbed her and yanked her inside.
Passion’s Fury
Patricia Hagan
For April Jennings, betrayal by her own blood leads to the love of a lifetime.
After her father’s death at the start of the Civil War, April Jennings is stripped of her inheritance by her spiteful twin, and sent to a strict convent in the Georgia Mountains. But on the way to the convent, her captors agree to a horse race with dashing rogue Rance Taggart…and April is the prize. He wins easily, and April becomes his. And despite her anger and rage towards Rance, she finds her heart cannot resist the desire and love that smolder within.
Refusing to accept her fate, a stubborn April braves bloody battlefields, imprisonments, and defies her own heart in order to reclaim her birthright from her perfidious twin. And all the while she struggles against the knowledge that Rance, more than anything else, is where her destiny is leading her.
This Retro Romance reprint was originally published by Avon Books in July 1981.
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Passion’s Fury
Copyright © 2012 by Patricia Hagan
ISBN: 978-1-61921-015-8
Edited by Heather Osborn
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Originally Published by Avon Books: July 1981
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
Chapter One
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