Lydia discovers clever ways to help Georgiana choose the best suitor
Lydia manages to remove all of her own suitors in short order by giving them tests with no right answer so their chance of failing was almost certain. And while Georgiana would never abuse her suitors in such a manner, nor could she whittle them down.
They all seemed so nice.
Lydia assures here there are not twelve good men in all of London!
Thus, with Georgiana’s permission, Lydia let Georgiana’s suitors know she has
more money and seven of the fellows moved their interest to her. Then Lydia dumped them. Finally, she whittles Georgiana’s beaus to two beaus: Thomas Birch and Laurel Collins.
Darcy wanted Georgiana to marry Laurel, but Lydia thinks Thomas the better choice, so she has her men of business retain the best investigator in England to determine the truth of each man.
BLURB
Despite his concerns, Darcy retrieves his sister, Georgiana, from Pemberley and places her in Lydia’s home. The two young ladies, both recently widowed, form a strong sisterly bond and soon set out to find love again.
Unfortunately, the man Lydia wishes to marry, David, the Duke of Rochester, is already contracted to marry another woman. When Lydia discovers the fiancée plans to murder David and his sons, she rallies her servants and friends, determined to stop the murderess at all costs. Will Lydia’s love of David and his boys triumph, or will the “Lady of Death” continue her path of destruction?
EXCERPT
After several months of investigating and following both men, Lydia received their report. Shocked to the core, she carried the document to Georgiana, who sat at the vanity while the maid fixed her hair. She sent the girl off.
“Before you go out with your gentleman, you should read this.”
Lydia sat on her bed and watched her open the file. She knew the moment Georgiana reached the bad news, for she gasped. “This cannot be true! Darcy would have told me!”
“Darcy doesn’t know. This occurred ten years ago, before he ever met Laurel.”
“And the woman still lives?”
“Read on. She’s still alive and their son is now sixteen. She believes Laurel died ten years ago in a train wreck. She still possessed a picture of Laurel which the investigator purchased for ten pounds. She did not wish to part with her beloved’s picture, but she is very poor and ten pounds would feed them for many months. The investigator says her son is the spitting image of Laurel, but for the difference of ages.”
“And Thomas? What horrible thing have you found out about him?”
“His report follows Laurel’s.”
“I dare not read it. I will remain an independent woman such as you!”
“Then you would lose a good man. Thomas is a better man than we knew. He clearly does not brag. Read the second report. You will see what I mean.”
Georgiana moved to the second report and read that Thomas was the third son of a Duke. He was educated at Oxford as a doctor and excelled in his studies. He spent two years in Africa trying to help cure a deadly virus running amongst the villages. He then returned to London and opened a medical clinic to help the poor. The second brother had died in the same Nepalese war that had taken Fitz. His father allowed him to continue his good deeds as long as he promised to marry before the end of this year.
“He never told me any of this!” Georgiana protested.
“That is true, even though he had to know it would have impressed you, yet he said nothing,” Lydia observed.
Georgiana rose and paced about the room. “But why would he keep this a secret?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps you should invite him over and ask him why.” Lydia rose and wrapped her arms around Georgiana. “I think he is the perfect man for you, but you won’t know until you ask him why he kept so many good qualities a secret.”
“Darcy will be so disappointed.”
“Not with you, but with a man who planned to become a bigamist.”
She smiled. “Yes. I’m sure once he reads both reports, he will choose Thomas as well.”
The Duchess Lydia
Free for KU customers
More About the Author
Liza O’Connor’s favorite books are Pride & Prejudice and Douglas Adams’ four book trilogy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Go figure…
Raised in the southern mid-section of U.S., Liza escaped to the East Coast once out of college. She’s worked as a journalist, a radio DJ, a security guard, a stock broker, a strategist, and a business solutions consultant to name a few of her many occupations. Again…go figure.
She learned to fly planes, jump out of planes, hang-glide, kayak and scuba dive, to name of few of her ‘let’s kill Liza’ sports. However, her favorite activity is to hike with her dog Jess among the shaved mountains of NJ.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
Investigate these sites:
No comments:
Post a Comment