As Grizel’s hands fell away, she squared her shoulders. Įvidently they felt certain they would not leave this place empty-handed. But to come this far into the Lancashire wilderness, with so very many men. Since the riots at Oxford, the government had recalled the old act, passed before the Civil War, that allowed the king’s agents to search any house suspected to harbor traitors. “So many?” Nora cast her mind back to the letter she had received last week. She caught three distinct timbres, and then a fourth. Low voices rose on the cool night breeze, impossible to discern. And leave the window open.”Īs she impatiently submitted to Grizel’s nimble hands, she heard the household stirring back to life. King’s riders, approaching by night with no message sent ahead to announce them: the only conclusion was that they meant to take the household by surprise. “King’s riders, my lady,” she said over her shoulder. The next second, the maid crossed to open the window. Thank God for it: they had worn her to the bone. Her brother had finally returned, and she could surrender his cares to his own keeping. For a moment her heart swelled with relief: David, she thought. Nora was sitting at her dressing table, her maidservant Grizel braiding her hair for bed, when she heard hoofbeats on the road without.

But when war breaks out, Nora has no choice but to place her trust in her dearest enemy-and pray that love does not become the weapon that destroys them both… Excerpt Lady Leonora knows that Rivenham is the devil in beautiful disguise-and that the irresistible tension between them is as unpredictable as the dilemma in which Nora finds herself: held hostage on her own estate by Rivenham and the king’s men. But when tasked by the king to uncover a traitor, he discovers instead a conspiracy-and a woman whose courage awakens terrible temptations. Rivenham will let nothing-not the deepening shadow of war, nor the growing darkness within him-interfere with his ambition to restore his family to its former glory. Glittering court socialites and underworld cutpurses alike know that Adrian Ferrers, Earl of Rivenham, is the most dangerous man in London. In the vein of classic authors like Julia Quinn, Sarah MacLean, and Eloisa James, award-winning and USA TODAY bestselling author Meredith Duran is at her very best in this sensual and riveting tale of love lost and then found again.

At Your Pleasure by Meredith Duran