The Duchess and Desperado

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Authors: Laurie Grant

Tags: #Romance, #Historical Romance, #Nineteenth Century, #American West, #Protector

BOOK: The Duchess and Desperado
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Welcome to the world of
Harlequin Historicals as we celebrate
10 years of bringing you the best
in historical romance.
 
Thiw month's books include:
 
THE TIGER'S BRIDE
by
USA Today
Western from
Mary McBride
 
THE COURTSHIP OF IZZY McCREE—
Ruthe Langan's
20th title for Harlequin
Historicals
 
FIRE SONG
—a dramatic medieval novel
from
Catherine Archer
 
Our thanks to this month's
featured writers and to all the
authors, editors and
booksellers, past and present,
who have worked so hard to
make Harlequin Historicals
what it is today.
“I want you, Mr. Calhoun,” she said, giving him the full force of her compelling gaze.
His groin tightened as the words echoed in his head.
I want you.
Lord, what he'd give to hear a woman like her saying such words with a more intimate meaning!
 
“And you'll be handsomely paid, I do assure you—with no backbreaking work.”
 
“No, no backbreaking work,” he agreed. “I could live real easy, bein' your bodyguard—and get killed with an easy bullet.”
 
Her face paled. “Yes, there is a risk, as you saw this afternoon. But I don't want to die, either. Perhaps all it will take to discourage this
scoundrel
is the presence of a strong, intelligent man prepared to defend me.”
 
“You don't know me,” he told her, locking his gaze to hers. “You don't know anythin' about me, Duchess. Everythin' I've told you could be a lie!”
Dear Reader,
 
Next month, Harlequin Historicals
®
turns ten years old! But we have such a terrific lineup this month, we thought we'd start celebrating early. To begin, award-winning author Laune Grant, who is known for her stirring Medievals and gritty Westerns, returns with a delightful new story,
The Duchess and the Desperado.
Here, a rancher turned fugitive inadvertently becomes a bodyguard to the very visible Duchess of Malvern when her life is threatened during a goodwill tour of the American West. Don't miss it!
 
In
The Shadowed Heart
by Nina Beaumont, set in eighteenth-century Europe, a beautiful young woman on a quest for vengeance unwittingly falls in love with the man she thinks may have harmed her sister.... Also out for revenge is Jesse Kincaid, of MONTANA MAVERICKS: RETURN TO WHITEHORN fame, when he kidnaps his enemy's mail-order bride in
Wild West Wife
by popular Silhouette
®
author Susan Mallery.
 
Rounding out the month is
A Warrior's Honor,
the next Medieval in Margaret Moore's popular WARRIOR SERIES. In this tale a knight is tricked by a fellow nobleman into abducting a beautiful lady, but, guided by honor—and love—seeks to rescue her from his former friend.
 
Whatever your tastes in reading, you'll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historical
®
.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tracy Farrell
Senior Editor
Please address questions and book requests to:
Harlequin Reader Service
U S.: 3010 Walden Ave., PO. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian P.O. Box 609, Fort Ene, Ont. L2A 5X3
THE DUCHESS AND THE DESPERADO
Laurie Grant
TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON
AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG
STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID
PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND
To Mary Jo Putney, for teaching me the joys of letters
patent, and, as always, to Michael.
Books by Laurie Grant
Harlequin Historicals
 
Beloved Deceiver
#170
The Raven and the Swan
#205
Lord Liar
#257
Devil's Dare
#300
My Lady Midnight
#340
Lawman
#367
The Duchess and the Desperado
#421
LAURIE GRANT
 
combines a career as a trauma center emergency room nurse with that of historical romance author; she says living in two worlds keeps her sane. Passionately enthusiastic about the history of both England and Texas, she divides her travel time between these two spots. She is married to her own real-life hero, and has two teenage daughters, two dogs and a cat.
 
If you would like to write to Laurie, please use the following address: Laurie Grant, P.O. Box 307272, Gahana, OH 43230.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank the Denver Historical Society for
their invaluable assistance regarding the home of
Territorial Governor McCook and the hotels of the time.
Chapter One
 
 
Malvern Hall,
Herefordshire, England,
1872
“I
wish you wouldn't go,” Sarah heard her sister, Kathryn, mutter as she watched Sarah selecting dresses from her wardrobe and directing the maids in their packing.
Sarah Challoner, Duchess of Malvern, looked over her shoulder at Kathryn and was touched. She thought her younger sibling looked wistful. She smiled. “Going to miss me, are you, Kat?”
Kathryn made a
moue
of disgust. “Don't call me that. Thierry says it isn't dignified.” She turned and gazed out the window that looked over the Malvern Hills in all their glory. “And yes, I
am
going to miss you. It sounds as if you'll be gone forever.”
“I cannot call you Kat anymore?” Sarah said in mock dismay, struggling to hide her amusement. “But you have been my little sister Kat since you were born ! Ah...yes, Tilly, I believe I will take the blue foulard,” she said, pointing at a gown the maid held out for consideration.
“But not any longer, if you please,” said Kat with stiff dignity. “I shall be out next year, and Thierry say a nickname is not at all
comme il fuut,”
she added in an admirable French accent.
Sarah allowed herself to appear impressed. “I see. Well, if Thierry has decreed it, Kathryn it is, then.”
Thierry says this, Thierry says that
. She suspected her sister, who at seventeen was barely out of the schoolroom, had a bad case of hero worship for the dashing French count who was secretly Sarah's fiancé. It probably wouldn't be going too far to say she was infatuated with Thierry de Châtellerault.
Ah, well. That's all right.
She was just glad that Kathryn liked Thierry. It would be so awkward if her sister hated the man Sarah was going to marry. And it was perfectly normal for young girls to have these infatuations, after all. Sarah could remember a couple of her own-embarrassing, painful things they had been! Once she and Thierry returned from America as man and wife, though, Kathryn—
Kat,
she insisted to herself—would gradually learn to let go of her feelings and concentrate on finding her own special someone.
“Sure you wouldn't like to change your mind and come with me?” Sarah inquired of her sister, who still had her back to her. “Wouldn't you love to see America?”
“No,” came the uncompromising reply. “I can't think
I
would enjoy racketing around the States in carriages and on trains, living out of suitcases for months on end! Besides,” she said, lowering her voice so that the servants wouldn't hear, “once Thierry joins you in Santa Fe and you get marned, I shouldn't like to be the gooseberry.”
“Gooseberry?” Sarah repeated, mystified. Kathryn was forever picking up servants' cant.
Kathryn whirled around, her face sullen. “You know, the odd man out. I'd be superfluous.”
Sarah suddenly understood. She let go of the gown she was examining and rushed toward her sister. “Nonsense, dear...”
“But of
course
I would,” Kat cried. Her face was a study in disdain, her posture rigid, saying as clearly as if she shouted it that Sarah was not to embrace her. “I can't think of anyone more useless on a honeymoon than one's younger sister.”
Sarah stopped short and pushed her glasses back up on her nose. Perhaps she
had
been spending too much time with Thierry, and Kat was feeling left out. The girl's wounded feelings were almost palpable.
“But it isn't as though you'd be
alone
with just us, darling,” she said, low-voiced. “Uncle Frederick is coming along, and Donald, and Celia.... Think of all the sights we'd see, going from New York to California to Texas Just imagine, the Wild West!” If only she could infuse Kat with some of her enthusiasm!
Kat turned her back to Sarah once again. “Yes, but once you join Thierry, I can't imagine anything more boring than spending time with our uncle and your secretary and your dresser while you're off billing and cooing with
him,”
Kat said, her voice thick, as if she were fighting tears. “I'm not going, and that's final. I just don't understand
why
you have to go, Sarah.”
“If I were a man no one would question it,” Sarah observed. “Why should I not get to take a Grand Tour just as if I were a man? I'm duchess in my own right, after all, and I want to do it.”
“But men do their Grand Tour in Europe,” her sister noted.
Now it was Sarah's turn to make a face. “We went to Paris with Papa, did we not, and on to Italy? The Continent doesn't interest me. No, I want to see
America
—especially the vast open spaces of the West, Kat—ah, Kathryn. It must be so exciting to live there—not like tidy old England, with its manicured lawns and ponds, and quaint little towns several hundred years old. I
need
to see that before I settle down as ‘the duchess'—and as Thierry's wife, as wonderful as I know that will be,” Sarah said. She willed Kat to face her, but Kat remained rigidly staring out the window. “And besides, it'll give me a little breathing room away from Her Majesty's incessant demand that I marry the boring Duke of Trenton, who'd be my equal in rank. Come, Kathryn, you must agree it's
delicious
to imagine Victoria fuming when I return home married to the Count of Chatellerault instead?”
Kathryn slowly turned to face her, her lips reluctantly curving upward. “Yes...I can just imagine the queen wringing those plump hands. All right, I suppose you will go no matter what
I
say. But tell me—are you going to wear your glasses when you're touring?”
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief that her efforts to mollify Kat had finally succeeded enough that she had turned to teasing. “Hmm...I suppose it depends if it's just us—Uncle Frederick, Donald, Celia and I. You know how vain I am about being seen in my spectacles.”
Kat smirked. “I can just imagine—you'll come back and we'll ask what the most impressive sight was and you'll wave your hand and say ‘I don't know. It was all just a blur.”'
Sarah didn't mind the sisterly taunt, for she'd always admitted vanity to be her worst failing.
“I'll see you at dinner, Sarah,” Kat said, moving toward the door.
“All right, but where are you going in such a hurry?” Sarah asked, picking up the gown she'd discarded only moments ago. It wasn't her favorite, but it would be good for traveling.
“Oh, Thierry said he'd take me riding while you were busy packing,” Kat murmured over her shoulder, her hand already on the door. “Since he won't be meeting you in New Mexico right away, he's rather at loose ends, too, you know.”
Sarah smiled and bade her sister enjoy herself. It was good of Thierry to keep Kat occupied, but perhaps she should speak to her fiancé later this evening and warn him that her younger sister had conceived a
tendre
for him. She knew she could count on Thierry to let Kat down easily.

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