by Eloisa James
“God, no. It’s perfect.”
“I wanted them in the nursery, all of them, watching over the baby.” She pointed. “The fifth angel is my father.”
“Lord Gray had a mustache?”
“They were quite fashionable when he was young. My mother says he cut a dashing figure.”
Parth’s kiss said everything he couldn’t put into words, and when he raised his head, Lavinia’s eyes were brimming with happy tears.
So he lifted her up, because no matter how much Lavinia teased him for it, he loved carrying his wife. Down the hall and into their bedchamber.
“Have you any plans for the rest of the day, Mrs. Sterling?”
Lavinia giggled. “None at all.”
He pushed open the door and, once inside, kicked it shut behind them. “You have plans now.”
He dropped her on the bed and bent over, cupping her face in his hands. “I love you.” The words were so deep and true that they must have been engraved on his heart.
“You’re my Perfect Parth,” his wife whispered. “I love you.”
A Note about Addiction, Seamstresses, and Anglo-Indian Children
I came up with the plight of Lady Gray, Lavinia’s mother, having been struck by the similarities between the opiate crisis of the late 1700s and the crisis that America is going through today. Sadly, it would have been all too easy for Lady Gray to obtain drops specially calibrated for ladies, containing powerful tinctures of opium. Before 1868, when these drugs were finally regulated, nearly every “patent medicine” contained some form of opium.
Lavinia’s work as a personal shopper—or trousseau consultant—also sprang from the present. Modistes in the Georgian era wielded tremendous power, and I thought it was fascinating to consider how an enterprising and talented lady might have thwarted the less honorable of them by choosing her own fabric and trimmings. As you may know, the position of seamstress was difficult and ill-paid. I couldn’t save Lady Gray from the consequences of her addiction, but I was happy to give Mary and Tabitha quite a different future.
And I wanted to say something about Parth’s parents. We now regard the history of Anglo-Indian marriages through a Victorian lens, when such cross-cultural unions were disdainfully regarded. That was not the case in the late 1700s. To quote a fascinating article in the Guardian, written by William Dalrymple, English culture was “far more hybrid, and had far less clearly defined ethnic, national and religious borders, than we have all been conditioned to expect.” In the 1780s, more than one-third of British men in India left their possessions to their Indian wives and Anglo-Indian children. Like Parth, a great many such children grew up in England; for example, Lord Liverpool, the prime minister from 1812–1827, was of Anglo-Indian descent.
In writing this novel, I benefited from the expertise of academic colleagues knowledgeable in Anglo-Indian relations, and learned a great deal from history books such as those written by Mr. Dalrymple. I would especially recommend his White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India for those readers interested in learning about the true story of a love affair that took place in Hyderabad between James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa Begum.
The marvelous author Sonali Dev suggested a historically appropriate name—Uma—for Parth’s mother; I learned a great deal from her explanation of the religious connotations of various Indian names.
Finally, an expert reader gave many thoughtful hours to this manuscript, paying particular attention to Parth and his childhood. Her critique pointed to lines in which I unwittingly used negatively charged descriptions, and I am deeply grateful for her expertise.
Acknowledgments
My books are like small children; they take a whole village to get them to a literate state. I want to offer my deep gratitude to my village: my editor, Carrie Feron; my agent, Kim Witherspoon; my Website designers, Wax Creative; and my personal team: Kim Castillo, Franzeca Drouin, Leslie Ferdinand, Sharlene Martin Moore, and Anne Connell. My husband, daughter Anna, and (occasionally) my son Luca cheerfully debated plot points with me, for which I’m endlessly grateful. In addition, people in many departments of HarperCollins, from Art to Marketing to PR, have done a wonderful job of getting this book into readers’ hands: my heartfelt thanks go to each of you.
Announcement page to Reluctantly a Lady
RELUCTANTLY A LADY
Coming 2019 from Avon Books
A wager pits an adventure in disguise
against a scandalous night with a rake
in the light-hearted, sexy, new Wildes of Lindow Castle romance
by New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James
Lady Betsy Wilde’s first season was triumphant by any measure,
and a duke has proposed—but before marriage,
she longs for one last adventure.
No gentleman would agree to her scandalous plan—
But Lord Jeremy Roden is no gentleman.
He offers a wager.
If she wins a billiards game, he’ll provide the breeches.
If he wins . . .
she is his, for one wild night.
But what happens when Jeremy realizes that one night will never be enough?
About the Author
ELOISA JAMES is a New York Times bestselling author and professor of English literature who lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. She is the mother of two and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight. Visit her at www.eloisajames.com.
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By Eloisa James
Born to Be Wilde
Too Wilde to Wed
Wilde in Love
Seven Minutes in Heaven
A Gentleman Never Tells (a novella)
My American Duchess
Four Nights with the Duke
Three Weeks with Lady X
Once Upon a Tower
As You Wish
With This Kiss (a novella in three parts)
Seduced by a Pirate (a novella)
The Ugly Duchess
The Duke Is Mine
Winning the Wallflower (a novella)
A Fool Again (a novella)
When Beauty Tamed the Beast
Storming the Castle (a novella)
A Kiss at Midnight
A Duke of Her Own
This Duchess of Mine
When the Duke Returns
Duchess by Night
An Affair Before Christmas
Desperate Duchesses
Pleasure for Pleasure
The Taming of the Duke
Kiss Me, Annabel
Much Ado About You
Your Wicked Ways
A Wild Pursuit
Fool for Love
Duchess in Love
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.
born to be wilde. Copyright © 2018 by Eloisa James, Inc. 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 AUGUST 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-269241-2
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-269247-4
C
over art by Anna Kmet
Cover photography by Michael Frost Photography
Cover design by Amy Halperin
Avon, Avon & logo, and Avon Books & logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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