Lady Unveiled ~ The Cuckold Conspiracy
(Final in the Daughters of Sin series, book 5)
by Beverley Oakley
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GENRE: Historical Romantic Suspense (Regency)
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BLURB:
Four very different sisters compete for love during an exciting London season: a celebrated actress with a heart of gold, a shy yet daring wallflower, and the artistic, illegitimate daughter of a nobleman.
Caught up in a high-stakes game of intrigue and deceit orchestrated by their sister, the ton's reigning beauty, each must play their part to bring a dangerous traitor to justice while finding a man deserving of their love and special talents.
The gentlemen of the ton are about to discover a woman made just for them.
If you enjoy Delilah Marvelle and Liz Carlyle, you'll love Daughters of Sin, a series that combines sensuous Regency romance with lashings of mystery and intrigue.
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(Exclusive Excerpt):
Chapter One
Lucinda’s angry, discordant note on the piano brought Lissa’s head up sharply. It seemed her disgruntled charge had finally—like Lissa—had enough of the muffled and completely inappropriate giggles of Lord Beecham’s ‘special friend. For the last hour, Lissa had sat quietly sewing by the window, as well behaved as any good governess could be suffering such trials.
Meanwhile, seated on an elegant blue and silver silk-striped settee opposite the piano, Lord Beecham seemed wholly occupied with his increasingly regular guest, Lady Julia and, until now, impervious to his ward’s attempt to regain his attention.
Lissa slanted a glance at Lucinda. When Lucinda was angry she was not a pretty girl. Her peaches and cream complexion became red and mottled, her rose-bud shaped mouth flattened into a harsh, thin line and her normally luminous blue eyes seemed almost black beneath beetling brows. This was how she looked now as she hunched on the piano stool, glowering at Lady Julia—or Lady Ledger, wife of Sir Archie Ledger if she were happy to be properly identified, which, judging by the surreptitious fondling the pair were engaged in today, she would not.
Lady Julia, supposedly an earl’s daughter fallen on hard times, was supposedly Lucinda’s very young godmother. She arrived at Lord Beecham’s London townhouse at regular intervals, heavily veiled, to instruct Miss Lucinda Martindale in the musical arts though she could not—as far as Lissa could tell—play a note. At least, Lissa had never heard her play a note, though she’d heard a lot of other noise emanating from Lady Julia during her visits to his lordship’s bedroom between music lessons.
Finally, it seemed, Lucinda had got what she’d been after: Lord Beecham’s undivided attention.
“What an infernal noise!” he exclaimed, the dewy adoration as he’d gazed at Lady Julia instantly replaced by a thunderous scowl as he jerked his head round to look at Lucinda. “I spend a fortune on your musical education! Surely I should expect better than that!”
Lucinda’s mobile face went through a gamut of emotions: devastation then outrage, however her mouth remained a thin, tight line. It was quite obvious the girl was desperately in love with her benefactor into whose care she’d been placed the previous year upon the death of her parents and younger brother during a scarlet fever outbreak in their village. But while Lucinda was obstinate and demanding of her governess, she had never, as far as Lissa knew, openly challenged Lord Beecham.
Nevertheless, there was an underlying challenge now in the girl’s demure: “Perhaps Lady Julia would care to demonstrate how Pachelbel’s Canon in D should really sound.”
Lady Julia, who had attempted to discreetly put at least several inches between her thigh and that of his Lordship’s, smiled sweetly. “My dear, I don’t want to show you up.” She patted her bright golden hair. “Please, play it again. With just a little more practice you will have mastered it, and Lord Beecham and I are quite happy for you to entertain us while I continue to outline to him my hopes on how your general carriage, demeanor and…might I add without offence…character itself, might be improved sufficiently to make your come-out without undue embarrassment to either yourself or his Lordship.”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
About Beverley Oakley
Beverley was seventeen when she bundled up her first 500+ page romance and sent it to a publisher. Rejection followed swiftly. Drowning one’s heroine on the last page, she was informed, was not in line with the expectations of romance readers.
So Beverley became a journalist.
After a whirlwind romance with a handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met in Botswana, Beverley discovered her “Happy Ever After”, saved her heroine from drowning in her next manuscript and had her first Regency romance published in 2009.
Since then, she’s written more than fifteen sizzling historical romances laced with mystery, intrigue and suspense under the name Beverley Oakley.
She also writes psychological historicals, and Colonial-Africa-set romantic suspense, as Beverley Eikli.
With an inspiring view of a Gothic nineteenth-century insane asylum across the road, Beverley lives north of Melbourne with her gorgeous husband, two lovely daughters and rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgeback, Mombo, named after the Okavango Delta safari lodge where she and her husband met.
She loves it when readers get in touch, and you can find out more on her website: www.beverleyoakley.com
Or catch up with her here:
Twitter: @BeverleyOakley
And you can buy Lady Unveiled~The Cuckold Conspiracy here:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Beverley will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner, and a boxed set of the first 3 books of the Daughters of Sin series to another randomly drawn winner (US ONLY), both awarded via rafflecopter during the tour.
