#MidWeekTease When a Lady decides she doesn't live up to her title

Welcome to Wednesday

and

#MidWeekTease

Today's tease comes from The Duke's Seduction of Lady M...mainly because now I have a gorgeous cover to share as well.

It's now available for preorder on Amazon, out on 7th April, and L0-0K here it is... (  buy it here )

Rules are meant to broken…

The mysterious Lady Mary McCoy is tired of playing by the rules of the ton. As a wealthy widow she fully plans on living her life to the full – free from the constraints of marriage.

And if she has to keep her high society status a secret in order to indulge in the more pleasurable pastimes of life, then so be it! Just as long as it’s on her terms…

Until notorious rake, Brody Weston, Duke of Welland, returns to his ancestral home – intent on her seduction! Slowly, luxuriously, he begins to unravel her secrets, one tantalising kiss at a time. And suddenly Lady Mary realises that breaking her own rules with the Duke is the most dangerous thing she’s ever done!

and your #MidWeekTease

~Darcy—her horse—reared and took off like a racehorse—which she certainly was not.

Mary grabbed ineffectually for the reins so unceremoniously yanked out of her hands, missed, and slid off backwards over the horse’s rump then down onto the ground. It was hard and rutted and the jarring took her breath away. Her hair fell out of the few pins left in it and tumbled over her shoulders, and into her eyes.

She blew the strands from her face, muttered something not really supposed to be uttered by a lady, tucked the long tresses behind her ears, and looked around to see Darcy disappearing into the distance.

Mary swore, stood up, promptly caught her foot under a tree root and fell back on her rear again. That pain was nothing to the one that now shot through her head. One of total annoyance and frustration.

Hellfire and damnation. Now what do I do? It seemed Shanks’ pony time had arrived several weeks earlier than the season demanded. With a long huff that fluttered the grass next to her, Mary considered her situation. In all the time she’d used these tracks and bridleways she’d only seen one person, and he, she now knew, was Hubbins the local poacher. One of the gossipy titbits Miss Wishlade had shared, was that Hubbins had been caught with a trout in his bag that he couldn’t vouch for. Luckily for Hubbins, neither could the bailiff. However, a scuffle had broken out and Hubbins was now the less than proud owner of a black eye and a broken arm. Therefore, it was unlikely anyone else would pass by and either offer her a lift or get Mr Niven to come and collect her.

Mary, my girl, just get on with it. She wriggled her foot out from under the root, stood up and dusted her gown down. To her horror she noticed the lace that frilled around the neckline and covered her breasts to make the dress decorous and not semi-indecent was torn in places. One garter had come untied, the silk in tatters and that stocking was laddered and now lay in wrinkles around her ankle. The other still, in place had no knee. A waste of a pair of good everyday stockings. She supposed she should be thankful it wasn’t her fine silk special hose she’d ruined.

But the worst thing was that now the demure day dress had taken on the role of a teasing evening gown, albeit a dusty and tattered one.

It was the last straw. If she were a lesser woman Mary swore she would have broken down and cried. As it was she uttered several pithy words that would have earned her a severe scolding and her mouth washed out with soap and water if her schoolteachers had heard, stripped off the remains of her stockings, and wondered what else could go wrong.

There was no way she could be seen as she was. The lace had ripped in such a way that one rosy nipple was only just covered and if she moved—or breathed—sharply it would pop out for all and sundry to see. Why oh why didn’t she carry a reticule full of pins to effect running repairs, or a shawl to cover herself? A lady would surely?

 One more sign that whatever her title, a lady she was not.~

Catch all the #MidWeekTeases here

happy reading,

love  R x