Before the Scandal: The Notorious Gentlemen (Avon Historical Romance)

373 Pages·2008·1.63 MB·English

by  Suzanne Enoch

THE NOTORIOUS GENTLEMEN

Contents
Chapter 1
Lieutenant Colonel Phineas Bromley
didn’t expect paradise. True, after ten… 1
Chapter 2
Phin Bromley. Alyse Donnelly had never
thought to set eyes… 10
Chapter 3
For a moment as Alyse awoke, everything
seemed perfect. With… 24
Chapter 4
Phineas awoke before dawn. He was still
accustomed to the… 32
Chapter 5
Phineas watched as Alyse Donnelly
disappeared into the bakery. Clearly… 47
Chapter 6
Phineas deliberately delayed heading
downstairs for breakfast. He wanted time… 62
Chapter 7
The process of transporting Viscount
Quence to a night out… 78
Chapter 8
Phineas hired the resident blacksmith and
a team of heavy… 93
Chapter 9
“Did you rise early, or have you been out
since… 106
Chapter 10
Lord Anthony shifted his hip closer against
Alyse’s, and she… 125
Chapter 11
“Thank you, Jones,” Alyse said, stepping
down from Richard’s barouche. 141
Chapter 12
“Oh, I detest foreign histories,” Aunt Ernesta
said, setting aside… 153
Chapter 13
“But if he’s not feeling well, he would
probably appreciate… 165
Chapter 14
“Where are you going?” 181
Chapter 15
Phineas blew out his breath at the sound
of the… 197
Chapter 16
“Phin. Phin, wake up.” 209
Chapter 17
“It’s a bit early in the evening for a
highwayman,"… 221
Chapter 18
After dinner, everyone removed to the music
room. It was… 233
Chapter 19
Alyse sat on the worn rug in front of her… 244
Chapter 20
When Alyse awoke, Phin was already gone.
She sat up. 255
Chapter 21
Richard leaned into the morning room.
“Alyse, will you come… 267
Chapter 22
Proof could be a damned elusive thing.
In war, one… 280
Chapter 23
When Phin sent over a note asking if
she cared… 293
Chapter 24
When Phineas arrived downstairs for a
quick breakfast, he was… 304
Chapter 25
If Richard felt it necessary to keep Alyse
away from… 317
Chapter 26
“Where are you going?” Sullivan Waring
asked as Phineas strode… 330
Chapter 27
“What are you going to do, murder him?”
William demanded. 345
Chapter 28
Alyse couldn’t sit still. Phin had already
been shot once. 356
About the Author
Other Books by Suzanne Enoch

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Chapter 1
Lieutenant Colon el Phineas Bromley
didn’t expect paradise. True, after ten years spent fi ght-
ing the French in Spain, anywhere seemed an improve-
ment, but as he crossed the bridge over the River Ouse
and onto Quence Park land, he felt more as though he
were stepping into hell.
His friends, former soldiers now, had written him
over the past two years and told him a little about the
condition of his family’s ancestral property, so he knew
the fences would be in need of repair and the granary
roof would leak. The estate, set in the middle of East
Sussex, was still pretty enough, but he scarcely noticed
the green of the grass or the crisp freshness of the air.
Ten years away. The absence seemed both far too long
and far too short.
The uneasiness that had been tangling through him
2 Suzanne Enoch
since well before he’d rented the only available trans-
portation in Uckfi eld, grew into a hard-edged dread. It
wasn’t that he minded appearing on Quence’s doorstep
in a hay cart. The problem was what lay beyond the
door.
Phineas reached into his uniform jacket and touched
his sister’s letter again. He’d memorized the corre-
spondence from Elizabeth in the six days since he’d
received it and taken an emergency leave from the First
Royal Dragoons, but he continued to reread it anyway.
According to his younger sister, their oldest sibling
William, the Viscount Quence, was seriously ill. Haste
was a ll-important, she’d said, if he wanted to arrive
home before it was too late.
And so he put aside the thought of what he must look
like, a c rimson-coated army officer sitting behind an
ancient gray nag in an ancient hay cart. And he put
aside the way his breathing sped and his heart pounded
as he trotted up the main road toward what had once
been home. Whatever he felt at the moment didn’t mat-
ter. At this point the only thing worse than setting
eyes on his brother again would be arriving too late to
do so.
White, with tall, narrow windows and the typical
asymmetrical sprawl of a house expanded over several
generations, Quence sat on a slight rise overlooking a
pond and a large landscaped garden complete with
faux-ruins and a moldering marble statue of Apollo. It
had been a beautiful, half-wild place rampant with deer
and foxes and, he’d been certain as a boy, a faerie giant
or two.
For a moment he closed his eyes. Before he’d left,
before the scandal, there’d been a princess there, too.
Dark-eyed Alyse Donnelly. He hadn’t heard a word