Deceive Not My Heart

Deceive Not My Heart

The Louisiana Ladies Series

Book One

by

Shirlee Busbee

New York Times Bestselling Author

DECEIVE NOT MY HEART

Reviews & Accolades

"One of the best romance writers of our time."

~Affaire de Coeur

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ISBN: 978-1-61417-476-9

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Please Note

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © 1984, 2013 by Shirlee Busbee. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Fiction. Romance. Historical. American. Revolution.

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Dedication

This one is for my favorites.

MRS. GALENA TERRY, my favorite "modiste," who cheerfully and cleverly sews wonderful creations from my haphazard, confusing directions.

MR. L. DEAN KASTENS, my favorite boss, who encouraged and took such sincere delight in my success and that of his other secretary, Rosemary Rogers.

MRS. CHARLOTTE BUSBEE WHITNEY, my favorite mother-in-law, who laughs when she hears of my latest klutzy experience and then takes pity on me and comes to cook dinner.

And of course, as always, Howard.

Part I

The Double-Dealers

Song's but solace for a day;

Wine's a traitor not to trust;

Love's a kiss and then away;

Time's a peddler deals in dust.

Hearth-Song

Robert Underwood Johnson

Chapter 1

The house resembled a gracious elderly lady that had fallen upon evil times, but it was still a lovely old building. It sat with timeless elegance near a bend in the Mississippi River some miles below New Orleans. Once it had been lavishly, lovingly, and meticulously kept, but since the death of Monsieur Claude Saint-Andre's only child, Damien, some fourteen years before, the old man had lost all interest in the plantation and had let Chateau Saint-Andre fall into its present faded, crumbling state.