Confessions of a Duchess

Confessions of a Duchess
Nicola Cornick

When a feudal law is invoked requiring all unmarried ladies to wed or surrender half their wealth, the quiet village of Fortune’s Folly becomes England’s greatest Marriage Market.Young, handsome and scandalously tempting, Dexter suspects duchess Laura has a hidden motive for resisting his charms…and he intends to discover it, by any means necessary.

A Brief Guide to Fortune’s Folly

The History and Antiquities of North Yorkshire by Lady Melicent Beaumont

Fortune’s Folly, population eight hundred and fifty-six, is a large village in north Yorkshire some twelve miles from the market town of Skipton. The village was originally called Fort-tun from the Old English, meaning a fort built on the site of an earlier farm. It is referred to as Fortune in a document from 1232 and has been known by that name ever since. The word Folly, from the Old French fol, meaning a fool, was added in 1455 when George Fortune, the lord of the manor, tried to repel a Lancastrian attack during the Wars of the Roses and accidentally blew up his own garrison instead.

The current lord of the manor is Sir Montague Fortune, baronet, who resides at Fortune Hall with his brother Thomas and half-sister Lady Elizabeth Scarlet. Sir Montague is considered by all the populace to be very much in the mould of his ancestor George Fortune.

Other major houses in the village are The Old Palace, once the property of the prior of Fortune and currently the residence of Laura, Dowager Duchess of Cole, and the attractive modern villa Spring House, which was recently purchased by the heiress Miss Alice Lister of Harrogate.

There is a lively social season in Fortune’s Folly that centres on the spa baths, the assembly rooms and the circulating library. There are two inns – The Granby Hotel, which is for the discerning visitor, and The Morris Clown for those slightly less plump of pocket and not too discriminating about the quality of their fellow guests. Whichever category you fall into, we hope you enjoy your visit!

Nicola Cornick’s novels

have received acclaim the world over

“A rising star of the Regency arena.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Nicola Cornick creates a glittering, sensual world of

historical romance that I never want to leave.”

—Anna Campbell, author of Untouched

“Ms Cornick has a brilliant talent for bringing her characters to life, and embracing the reader into her stories.”

—RomanceJunkies

Praise for Nicola’s previous books:

“A powerful story, rich, witty and sensual – a

divinely delicious treat.”

—Marilyn Rondeau, Reviewers International

Organization, on Deceived

“If you’ve liked Nicola Cornick’s other books, you

are sure to like this one as well. If you’ve never

read one – what are you waiting for?”

—Rakehell on Lord of Scandal

“RITA® Award-nominated Cornick deftly steeps her

latest intriguingly complex Regency historical in a

beguiling blend of danger and desire.”

—Booklist on Unmasked

Confessions of a Duchess

Nicola Cornick

www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)

To all the wonderful writers I have met through

the UK Romantic Novelists Association and the

Romance Writers of America

Upcoming titles inthe Brides of Fortune series

SCANDALS OF AN INNOCENT

UNDOING OF A LADY

Browse www.nicolacornick.co.uk for Nicola’s full backlist

Prologue

Go, take thine angle, and with practiced line

Light as the gossamer, the current sweep;

And if thou failest in the calm, still deep,

In the rough eddy may a prize be thine.

—Thomas Doubleday

Brooks’s Club, London, July 1809

“SHE REFUSED ME!”

Sir Montague Fortune swept through the library of Brooks’s Club, scattered the gambling counters on the faro table with the edge of his sleeve and gave no apology, and deposited himself in an indignant flurry in a chair beside the Earl of Waterhouse. He smoothed one shaking hand over his hair and beckoned impatiently to a club servant to fetch him brandy.

“Ungrateful minx,” he muttered. “That I, one of the Fortunes of Fortune’s Folly should seek to ally myself with the servant classes and be rejected!” He swallowed half the glass of brandy in one gulp and gave the assembled group a furious glare. “Do you know what she called me? A bibulous country squire with watery eyes!” He reached for the brandy bottle that the servant had thoughtfullyleft on a low table beside him, refilled his glass and frowned slightly. “What does bibulous mean?”