MISTLETOE, MARRIAGE, AND MAYHEM

 

ABOUT MISTLETOE, MARRIAGE, AND MAYHEM

In this collection of novellas, the Bluestocking Belles bring you seven runaway Regency brides resisting and romancing their holiday heroes under the mistletoe. Whether scampering away or dashing toward their destinies, avoiding a rogue or chasing after a scoundrel, these ladies and their gentlemen leave miles of mayhem behind them on the slippery road to a happy-ever-after.

***All proceeds benefit the Malala Fund.***

 

INCLUDING:

’Tis Her Season: A Royal Regard Prequel Novella, by Mariana Gabrielle

Charlotte Amberly would rather eat a lump of coal for Christmas dinner than marry the Marquess of Firthley, so when her parents cancel her London Season in favor of a rush to the altar, the feisty debutante takes husband-hunting into her own hands.

Alexander Marloughe, reluctant heir to a marquessate, would rather not spend his holiday dashing through the snow after a flibbertigibbet just out of the schoolroom, but no woman before Charlotte has ever led him such a merry chase.

 

Excerpt from ‘Tis Her Season by Mariana Gabrielle

“And you are certain the chit came here to London on a packet without an escort? Not even a maid? A girl Lady Noakes is sponsoring?”

The reporter looked up from the notes he was taking, doubts written plainly in the curl of his lip. Mr. Clemens at the Teatime Tattler would never have balked, but he hadn’t been willing to pay nearly as much as John Smithson knew this information was worth.

John responded with the guileless smile that had been beaten into him when just a small lad. “Would I say it were it not so? And she my own cousin and best friend to my sister?” 

John kept his blue-green eyes round and innocent. However much he wanted to laugh at the thought of Miss Nose-in-the-Air Amberly being brought down to size when this story hit the papers, he first had to convince the reporter and pocket the informer’s fee.

He was almost entirely certain his story was true, though he’d take the newspaper’s coin even if it were a lie from front to end. But the maid swore to it, and she’d been a witness when Charlotte appeared in Belgravia in a hack, when her father turned up in London days later—far too late—to retrieve his runaway daughter, and when John’s Aunt Minerva followed a few days after that.

Daisy had no reason to lie to John; since he’d heard his dear cousin showed up at Court with her great aunt, he’d been augmenting Lady Noakes’ chambermaid’s paltry salary by half a crown every few nights—for personal services rendered—and by now, she was more than half in love with him. Last night, after she gave him this toothsome morsel, the scene described in meticulous detail, and a generous offering of a different stripe about which it would be ungentlemanly to speak, Daisy had disdained any payment at all, but for a few more kisses.

 

***

 

Lady Noakes set her face in a still, hard mask, back straighter and neck stiffer than usual, eyes looking through the screaming banshee of a woman making the most inappropriate of scenes in her drawing room. Her bright, white hair, rather than being tucked underneath a proper cap, was styled in the manner of a much younger woman, with braids and curls and a set of emerald hair combs, the only part of her appearance that recalled youth. Certainly, the lines bracketing her mouth and the deep crevice between her brows added ten years to her advanced age of at least three score and ten.

“How could you have done it, Henrietta? My own daughter?” Lady Effingale whined. “It is the only chance I shall ever have to present her at Court, and you stole the privilege from me! Stole it just like a thief might!”

After a quarter-hour of similar complaints, she could not stand to listen to another word from the parvenu’s mouth.

“’Tis your daughter who has stolen from you, Minerva, and my name from me, for it is Charlotte who switched sponsors for her Drawing Room without providing anyone with the relevant facts. I am guilty only of foolishly upholding a filial duty to my great-niece, unaware of her capacity for treason. She is fortunate her scandal has not become known, in large part due to my impeccable lineage and reputation. You should be thanking me she did not ruin herself trying to appear before the queen alone, for you cannot believe this headstrong minx would balk at even that! Can you imagine what might have transpired had I not played chaperone? She’d have had no Court gown, no proper escort, and no reputation left to speak of. She’d have married a gypsy in Gretna Green by now! As it is, she has taken well and holds the interest of several appropriate gentlemen. For now.”

Minerva’s eyes slid sideways in a manner that recalled her brother, about whom nothin good was ever said. “I shall be pleased to take over the supervision of Charlotte’s prospects.” Her voice soured like week-old milk. “I am grateful you lent your name. I will do what I can to keep Charlotte’s crimes from reflecting poorly on you.” 

Lady Noakes laughter was sharp enough to cut through brick. “You will work miracles to accomplish that, when your degenerate nephew has the tale. I have a maid packing my trunks as we speak and will retire to the country at first light. I expect you will open your town house without delay and remove yourself and your family from my residence.”

Minerva didn’t even try to argue, simply nodded.

“Given your background, I suppose I should not be surprised you raised a daughter who would steal away in the night, travel for days unaccompanied by even a maid, forge correspondence, and misrepresent herself to the queen—to say nothing of her lies to me, her own flesh-and-blood.”

“My background! I am the daughter of a baronet!”

“You are the daughter of a soap merchant with a fortune large enough to buy a title, but not a peerage, and procure a viscount-by-marriage for his spoilt daughter. Do not get notions above yourself. I watched you climb as high as you have and make my nephew’s life a misery to get here. You brought nothing to this family but bad blood, and the way your daughter has turned out is proof of it! I am horrified she has used me so shamelessly, and you will both be lucky if I do not make a clean breast of it to the queen myself.”

Minerva paled. “Surely, you would not…”

The old woman poked a gnarled finger at her guest. “After the events of the past fortnight, you should not be sure I will or will not do anything. I would never have thought of such a thing in the past—my own family—but I had never in my life considered being manipulated in such an underhanded way.”

“Henrietta, please.”

“I hope you can salvage this disaster, Minerva, purely because she is Effingale’s get and he has always been among my favorites, but my advice to you is to pack that hoyden into a carriage in shackles and lock her into a nunnery before she turns up with child outside wedlock.”

After a long pause, Minerva cleared her throat and observed, “You say she has found some prospects?”

“None who will marry her fast enough to avoid what is coming, or who will still want her after it does. The gossip will break before I ever say a word, and your girl will be finished, and only if I am lucky, will I avoid a royal dressing down. Charlotte had her chance at a Season and has disgraced the entire family. Let her rue it all the years of her spinsterhood.”

 

HEAT RATING:

G to PG-13

 

BUY LINKS

Amazon: http://ow.ly/RJ4Cc
Amazon UK: http://ow.ly/RJ4Fx
Amazon Australia: http://ow.ly/RJ4Kd
Amazon Canada: http://ow.ly/RJ55t
Smashwords: http://ow.ly/RPqE9

Barnes & Noble: http://ow.ly/RPqwp

iTunes: http://ow.ly/RPqxW

Kobo: http://ow.ly/RPqA0

CreateSpace: http://ow.ly/RPqFD

Goodreads Reviews: http://ow.ly/RPqBl

ABOUT MARIANA GABRIELLE

Mariana Gabrielle is a pen name for Mari Christie, who is not romantic—at all. Therefore, her starry-eyed alter ego lives vicariously through characters who believe in their own happy-ever-afters. And believe they must, as Mariana loves her heroes and heroines, but truly dotes on her villains, and all bring hearts bruised, broken, and scarred long before they reach the pages of her books.

She is a professional writer, editor, and designer with almost twenty-five years’ experience, and a member of the Bluestocking Belles, the Writing Wenches, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She has written two Regency romances, La Déesse Noire: The Black Goddess and Royal Regard, as well as two Royal Regard prequel novellas: ’Tis Her Season and Shipmate, and will release a mainstream historical, Blind Tribute, in 2016.

Author Website & blog: www.MarianaGabrielle.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariChristieAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mchristieauthor
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/marichristie/

ABOUT THE BLUESTOCKING BELLES

The Bluestocking Belles’ books carry you into the past for your happy-ever-after. When you have turned the last page of our novels and novellas, keep up with us (and other historical romance authors) in the Teatime Tattler, a Regency scandal sheet, and join in with the characters you love for impromptu storytelling in the Bluestocking Bookshop on Facebook. Also, look for online games and contests and monthly book chats, and find us at BellesInBlue on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Come visit at www.BluestockingBelles.com and kick up your bluestockinged heels!

BLUESTOCKING BELLES ON THE WEB

Website and home of the Teatime Tattler: www.BluestockingBelles.com

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/BellesInBlue

Twitter: www.Twitter.com/BellesInBlue

Pinterest: www.Pinterest.com/BellesInBlue

Bluestocking Bookshop online storytelling: www.Facebook.com/groups/BluestockingBookshop

Amazon Author page: www.amazon.com/author/BellesInBlue

 

Support the Bluestocking Belles’ fundraising campaign for the Malala Fund:

www.classy.org/BluestockingBelles