‘I have yet to agree to your romantic proposal.’
‘You will.’
‘You’re so sure?’
‘You have no other options.’
She looked at the dirty cloth in her hands, picking off one loose thread around the frayed edge before she faced him again. ‘You’re right. I have no other options. However, you could present your case in a less businesslike tone, with a little civility and charm.’
‘You don’t strike me as a woman ruled by romantic notions.’
‘No, but I’m still a woman, and I would like to be wooed just a touch.’
For the second time that day he wanted to smile, but didn’t. Instead he stepped closer, admiring her spirit. She didn’t just surrender to him—sign her name on the contract, as it were—but demanded his respect … not his money or anything else. Once again his instinct for business had proved correct.
‘Miss Townsend, will you do me the honour of accepting me as your husband?’
When Philip Rathbone first introduced himself to me as a character in Rescued from Ruin, he caught my attention. He was supposed to appear in one scene, say his lines and then disappear. However, he wouldn’t go so easily. I was intrigued by this young man who let nothing fluster him, and wondered what it was in his past that had forced him to be so stoic. Once I got to know Philip and his tragic backstory it was a challenge finding the right woman to help break down the walls he’d built around his heart.
Laura is the perfect woman to help Philip overcome his past. She too has suffered tragedy, but her resilience has kept her from withdrawing from the world. Instead she is determined to surmount obstacles—one of which becomes winning Philip’s heart.
A challenge for me in writing A Debt Paid in Marriage was developing Philip and Laura’s world. Researching the private lives of a moneylender and a draper’s daughter meant digging deep into first-hand accounts from the Regency. Moneylenders weren’t portrayed in the best light, and merchants didn’t leave many written records of their day-to-day existence. To explore Laura’s world I looked to books on the history of textiles, and examined the records of other merchants of her class. To get a sense of Philip’s life I had to study the world of money and credit. It was a challenge, but a fun one, that helped me make both the characters and their stories richer.
I hope you enjoy reading Philip and Laura’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
A Debt Paid in Marriage
Georgie Lee
A lifelong history buff, GEORGIE LEE hasn’t given up hope that she will one day inherit a title and a manor house. Until then she fulfils her dreams of lords, ladies and a Season in London through her stories. When not writing, she can be found reading non-fiction history or watching any film with a costume and an accent.
Please visit www.georgie-lee.com to learn more about Georgie and her books.
A special thanks to RWASD
for your inspiration and motivation.
Contents
London—spring 1817
‘What exactly do you think you are doing?’ Mr Rathbone demanded, his deep-blue eyes fixing on her through the wisps of steam rising from the copper bathtub. Dark-brown hair lay damp over his forehead. One drop escaped the thickness of it, sliding down his face, then tracing the edge of his jaw before dropping into the tub.
Laura slid her finger away from the trigger, afraid of accidentally sending a ball through the moneylender’s sturdy, wet and very bare torso. She had no intention of killing him, only frightening him into giving back the inventory he’d seized from her uncle Robert. Judging by the hard eyes he fixed on her, he wasn’t a man to scare easily.
‘Well?’ he demanded and she jumped, her nerves as taut as the fabric over the back of a chair.
When she’d slipped into the house determined to face him, she’d expected to find him hunched over his desk counting piles of coins or whatever else it was a moneylender did at night. She hadn’t expected to surprise him in his bath with a film of soapy water the only thing standing between her and his modesty. What had seemed like a good plan in the pathetic rooms she shared with her uncle and her mother, when hunger gnawed at her stomach and cold crept in through the broken window, now seemed horrible.
Laura settled her shoulders, shoring up the courage faltering under his steady stare. Beyond this humid room was nothing but ruin and poverty. She had no choice but to continue. ‘I demand you return to me the