The wave of shock was almost tangible as it rippled around the table…
On the silver tray in the middle of the table Lady Juliana reposed in all her nude and provocative glory. Slivers of grape, strawberry and melon were strewn strategically around her nakedness. Her whole body was dusted with icing sugar and shone in the pale candlelight like a statue carved from ice, an untouchable snow maiden. But there was nothing maidenly about the expression in her narrowed green eyes as she invited the men to eat….
Lady Juliana turned her head and her gaze fell on a gentleman, his face unreadable in the shadowed room. Juliana felt a curious sense of recognition. She smiled at him. “Come along, darling. Don’t be shy.”
The gentleman looked up, his green-blue eyes appraising her with complete indifference. “I thank you, ma’am, but I have never liked dessert.”
Wayward Widow
Harlequin Historical
Praise for Nicola Cornick’s latest books
The Notorious Marriage
“This is a delightful Regency romp of manners, mores and misunderstandings. Cornick’s characters come to life in this well-written story.”
—Romantic Times
Lady Allerton’s Wager
“A charming, enjoyable read.”
—Romantic Times
“Ms. Cornick has managed to pack a whole lot of mystery and humor in this highly romantic and fast-paced story and is nothing short of a pure delight to read.”
—Writers Unlimited
“The Rake’s Bride” in The Love Match
“Through vivid detail, the author firmly establishes time and place for her rollicking tug-of-war.”
—Publishers Weekly
The Virtuous Cyprian
“This delightful tale of a masquerade gone awry will delight ardent Regency readers.”
—Romantic Times
Nicola Cornick
WAYWARDWIDOW
Available from Harlequin Historicals and NICOLA CORNICK
The Virtuous Cyprian #566
Lady Polly #574
The Love Match #599
“The Rake’s Bride”
Miss Verey’s Proposal #604
The Blanchland Secret #630
Lady Allerton’s Wager #651
The Notorious Marriage #659
The Earl’s Prize #684
The Chaperon Bride #692
Wayward Widow #700
To the girls.
Thank you.
This one is for you.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Prologue
1802
Lady Juliana Tallant had no memory of her mother. She had been only four years old when the Marchioness had run off with a lover and the Marquis of Tallant had banished his errant wife’s portrait from the blue saloon. These days it lay swathed in sheets in the attic, gathering a layer of dust and dead spiders. The Marchioness’s warmth and vitality, captured so accurately by the young artist who had been another of her lovers, was quenched by the shadows.
When matters in the house were particularly grim, Juliana would creep up to the attic and pull back the sheet that covered her mother’s disgrace, and stand for hours staring at that pretty, painted face. There was an old spotted mirror in the corner of the attic and she would pose before it in her too-small gowns, her slippered feet stirring the dust as she tried to trace the resemblance between her own features and those on the canvas. The eyes were the same, emerald green with specks of gold, and the small nose and the generous mouth, too wide for true beauty. The shape of Juliana’s face was different and she had what she thought of as the Tallant auburn hair, although she had heard her father say that she was none of his begetting and so it was hard to see how she could have inherited his hair.
‘It is difficult for the girl to be without her mother,’ Juliana had once heard her aunt Beatrix say to the Marquis, but Bevil Tallant had given his sister a look that said she was a simpleton and told her that the child had the servants and a governess, and what more could she want?
On that particular summer’s afternoon, Juliana had grown bored with the French lessons that Miss Bertie had been trying to drum into her and had begged and begged to be released into the sunshine. In the end the beleaguered governess had agreed and Juliana had skipped downstairs, ignoring Miss Bertie’s instructions to take a parasol and behave with decorum. Young ladies always wore bonnets; young ladies did not run through the wildflower meadow, young ladies never spoke to a gentleman without first being introduced…Even at fourteen, Juliana knew that being a young lady could be a tiresome business. Even at fourteen, she was a rebel.
The door of the blue saloon was ajar and she could hear her father’s voice above the clink of the teacups. Aunt Beatrix was making one of her infrequent visits to Ashby Tallant.
‘I found Marianne living in Rome with Count Calzioni,’ Juliana heard her spinster aunt say, in answer to a question from the Marquis. ‘She asked after the children, Bevil.’
The Marquis grunted.
‘I do believe that she would like to return to England to see them, but it is impossible, of course.’
The Marquis grunted again. There was a pause.
‘I hear that Joss does very well at Oxford,’ Beatrix said brightly. ‘I am surprised that you do not send Juliana away to school as well. I am sure that she would blossom this time. You know she is eager to please you.’
‘I’d be glad to send her away but it is all a waste of damned time,’ the Marquis said. ‘Did as you suggested last time and look what happened, Trix! The girl’s wild to a fault, just like her mother.’
Beatrix tutted. ‘I do not believe that one can condemn Juliana so harshly, Bevil. The incident at the school was unfortunate—’
‘Unfortunate? Reading French pornography? Outrageous, more like. I ask you, Beatrix—’
‘It was scarcely pornography,’ Beatrix said calmly. ‘Some naughty cartoons smuggled in by one of the other girls…Besides, if Juliana wished to read that sort of book, she need look no further than your own library, Bevil!’
The Marquis grunted a third time in a very bad-tempered way. Juliana checked that there were no servants lurking, then leaned more closely towards