Something About Emmaline: A Charming Regency Romance of Deception and Transformation in London High Society (Avon Romantic Treasures)

Something About Emmaline: A Charming Regency Romance of Deception and Transformation in London High Society (Avon Romantic Treasures)

Alexander Denford, Baron Sedgwick, is a gentleman to be envied. He lives a rakish life of well-celebrated ease and contentment and has one person to thank for his perfectly ordered existence—his dearest wife, Emmaline. She never complains about his mistresses or his penchant for late nights out. His friends are envious, but they don't know the truth—Emmaline doesn't exist. But when he starts receiving bills from London for clothes, shoes, hats and a staggering amount of other female accoutrements, he realises something is decidedly amiss. Posing as Emmaline isn't a stretch for the newly arrived Lady Sedgwick, she's been conning gentry for years. But as the popular baron's wife, she now has the one thing that has eluded her—entree into London's inner circles. Against Alexander's better judgment, Emmaline is impossibly fixed in his life. And suddenly Emmaline is challenging him to be the husband she deserves. Alexander Denford has the perfect wife. The fact that Lady Emmaline Denford is a mere figment of his imagination is, naturally, the primary reason for her perfection. Five years earlier, in an effort to stave off hordes of matchmaking mothers, the baron invented his fictitious wife. So far the arrangement has worked wonderfully, allowing Alex to lead the kind of orderly (though some would say dull ) life he favors. But when bills for goods ordered by Lady Denford suddenly start appearing, Alex sets off for London, where he discovers his "wife." This Emmaline is nothing like the quiet, nondescript woman he imagined; she is bold, beautiful, and all-too tempting. Even so, Alex intends to send the meddling minx packing, but Emmaline has other ideas. With a deliciously tart sense of wit and whimsy and a wickedly elegant style, RITA Award--winning author Boyle fashions another lusciously romantic, completely irresistible literary confection. John Charles Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Alexander Denford, Baron Sedgwick, is a gentleman to be envied. He lives a rakish life of well-celebrated ease and contentment and has one person to thank for his perfectly ordered existence—his dearest wife, Emmaline. She never complains about his mistresses or his penchant for late nights out. His friends are envious, but they don't know the truth—Emmaline doesn't exist. But when he starts receiving bills from London for clothes, shoes, hats and a staggering amount of other female accoutrements, he realises something is decidedly amiss. Posing as Emmaline isn't a stretch for the newly arrived Lady Sedgwick, she's been conning gentry for years. But as the popular baron's wife, she now has the one thing that has eluded her—entree into London's inner circles. Against Alexander's better judgment, Emmaline is impossibly fixed in his life. And suddenly Emmaline is challenging him to be the husband she deserves. Elizabeth Boyle has always loved romance and now lives it each and every day by writing adventurous and passionate stories that readers from all around the world have described as “page-turners.” Since her first book was published, she’s seen her romances become New York Times and USA Today bestsellers and has won the RWA RITA® and the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Awards. She resides in Seattle with her family, her garden, and her always-growing collection of yarn. Readers can visit her at www.elizabethboyle.com, or follow her own adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  www.avonromance.com www.facebook.com/avonromance  Something About Emmaline By Elizabeth Boyle HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Elizabeth Boyle All right reserved. ISBN: 0060549319 Chapter One For his first month home at Sedgwick Abbey, Alexfound himself left in blessed solitude. Instead of being there to greet him, his grandmother haddecided to remain at her sister-in-law's estate for an additionalmonth, most likely unable to leave until they hadcaught up on every bit of family gossip. Therefore, his summerbegan with no pestering talk of heirs, no lengthy discussionsof Emmaline's continued ill health, just a continuationof his perfectly ordered life that Jack had the audacity to call"boring." But eventually his grandmother had decided she could nolonger leave him to his lonely exile and had returned homelike a whirlwind, her herd of pugs trotting in her wake. Genevieve Denford, Lady Sedgwick, had been born inFrance, and the sixty-odd years she'd been in Englandhadn't diminished her Gallic presence in the least. His grandfather, another reluctant-to-be-wed Denford, had taken a trip to Paris in his late sixties and had broughthome (to the horror of his own heir apparent) a French wife. Given his grandmother's joie de vivre , Alex doubted hisgrandfather had stood a chance. A lesson to all unmarried English gentlemen, he'd decidedyears ago. Never venture across the Channel. Grandmère had greeted him merrily when he'd come into breakfast and hadn't stopped talking since. "And