Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lady's Choice
    The Lady's Choice
    The Lady's Choice
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    The Lady's Choice

    By Celia Swift

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Lady Cynthia's plans for the annual Kellynch Christmas ball are going splendidly ... until her father, the Earl of Glossingley, threatens to ship her off to Barbados. The only alternative is to marry a wealthy lord, and Glossingley has just the man in mind: Viscount Kendrick. Unfortunately, Cynthia's never met him, and to make matters worse, she's falling for someone else!

    Fans of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer will be sure to love this sweet and sparkling Regency romance.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCelia Swift
    Release dateDec 21, 2013
    ISBN9781311143839
    The Lady's Choice
    Author

    Celia Swift

    Celia Swift has been reading romance novels since she was ten years old. She loves the journey romance takes, and believes the world always needs more happily ever afters. In addition to reading and writing, she loves drinking from vintage teacups and keeping company with cats.

    Read more from Celia Swift

    Related to The Lady's Choice

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Love will WIN

      Sep 6, 2023

      Love will WIN
      9 min read

    • Article

      Just The Way YOU ARE

      Feb 7, 2023

      Just The Way YOU ARE
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Coming Out

      May 11, 2020

      The Coming Out
      6 min read

    • Article

      Hidden SECRETS

      Sep 15, 2021

      Hidden SECRETS
      9 min read

    • Article

      Gabriel & Holly

      Feb 8, 2021

      The first day was the most daunting. It helped that she’d arrived last night to settle herself in the cottage annexe before first contact this morning. Still, nerves attacked her as she stood before the door of the imposing but charming ivy-covered 1

      6 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jul 13, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Beau Brummell

      Nov 6, 2020

      Beau Brummell
      5 min read

    • Article

      Man Made

      Jan 21, 2021

      Man Made
      4 min read

    • Article

      Fanning the FLAMES

      Jan 18, 2022

      Fanning the FLAMES
      6 min read

    • Article

      Penny

      Jul 2, 2020

      Penny
      6 min read

    • Article

      Camilla The Down To Earth Duchess

      Jul 13, 2022

      Camilla The Down To Earth Duchess
      14 min read

    • Article

      Camilla The Down To Earth Duchess

      Jul 13, 2022

      Camilla The Down To Earth Duchess
      14 min read

    • Article

      Frost FAIR

      Jan 18, 2023

      Frost FAIR
      11 min read

    • Article

      Happy And Glorious

      Jun 1, 2022

      ICAN’T remember when I last used my 12 Fabergé after-dinner coffee cups. Americans call these little cups ‘demitasse’, which is about as bi-lingual as we get. Mine come in five colours and I treasure them, although I’ve reached the age where my guest

      4 min read

    • Article

      TOWN & COUNTRY

      May 5, 2022

      TOWN & COUNTRY
      2 min read

    • Article

      Pearls before SWINE

      Feb 9, 2022

      Pearls before SWINE
      5 min read

    • Article

      Falling In Love Again – In M&S

      Mar 6, 2024

      Jem Clarke is in his very, very early fifties, is five foot zero inches tall and has never left the family home in Cleethorpes, which he shares with his parents… Mother has revealed she was once engaged to the East Coast's most prolific housebreaker.

      3 min read

    • Article

      How not TO RELAX

      Apr 10, 2024

      ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?’ wrote a chap called William H. Davies, the poet laureate of the duvet day. He coined those words in 1911, which was clearly a more relaxed age. I’d like to see Mr Davies attemp

      3 min read

    • Article

      Yuletide Reading

      Sep 24, 2020

      Many classic novels and short stories contains Christmas scenes-merry or otherwise. Can you indentify the works from which these holiday passages are excerpted? 1 “Merry Christmas, little daughters! I’m glad you began at once, and hope you will keep

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Wildest Place OF ALL

      Mar 2, 2022

      The Wildest Place OF ALL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Apr 5, 2022

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own
      4 min read

    • Article

      Pond Water

      Feb 1, 2019

      Pond Water
      5 min read

    • Article

      Panto

      Dec 22, 2021

      Panto
      6 min read

    • Article

      Decluttering

      Dec 9, 2020

      Decluttering
      6 min read

    • Article

      YOU’RE SO embarrassing!

      Aug 4, 2021

      YOU’RE SO embarrassing!
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lady's Choice

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Lady's Choice - Celia Swift

      The Lady’s Choice

      by Celia Swift

      Book One of the Christmas at Kellynch Regency Romance Trilogy

      The Lady’s Choice

      Copyright 2013 Celia Swift

      Published by Soaring Hearts Press at Smashwords

      Castle photo  Martinfasanek | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images. Photo of woman  Bezik | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images.

      This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Acknowledgements

      About the Author

      Excerpt of The Lady’s Maid

      Chapter One

      Lady Cynthia Waltham waltzed into her father's study, imagining a silk gown in place of her plain woollen day dress, and soft kid slippers in place of her thick winter boots. November had already reached with icy fingers into the heart of Kellynch Hall, and there were never enough fires to keep winter out. The inhabitants dressed for the indoors as if it were outdoors, and still they shivered if they sat still for more than a moment.

      Even so, Cynthia remained in high spirits, her cheeks flushed pink, her grey eyes glowing, and her chestnut curls bouncing in time with her twirls. It was easy to feel such a rush of warmth due to a morning spent in the most agreeable occupation of planning the Kellynch Hall Christmas Ball. The annual fete was a family tradition started over a hundred years before by Cynthia's namesake. The first Cynthia had been a beloved countess, and her parties had been the talk of the polite world, even when they weren't in London. It was fashionable, of course to spend the season in town, but the countess had made her own fashions, and the world had always taken notice.

      The Kellynch Hall Christmas Ball, now in the great year of 1815, at the close of the war with old Boney, was bigger and better than ever. Cynthia set the theme as Historical Masquerade, and planned to dress as her own ancestor—a plan which had come into being when Cynthia found a beautifully embroidered stomacher and petticoat in one of the disused wardrobes. With such a start, she anticipated the relative ease of creating a robe to go with it. Even if it was only of cheap cloth, with the right trimmings and seen in candlelight the effect would be dazzling enough for a costume. If she couldn't be a beloved countess in real life, at least she could play one just this once.

      Her dreams of gowns and festoons and elaborate coiffures disappeared immediately at the cold sound of her father's voice, though.

      Cynthia, enter, said the Earl. John Waltham, the Earl of Glossingley was a formidable figure, even to those who knew him well.

      You requested an audience with me, sir? Cynthia asked.

      Lord Glossingley nodded once, always succinct in his communications. The man never wasted any spare energy on politeness or emotions.

      Daughter, I understand you are undertaking the traditional Christmas Ball plans. Is that so?

      Yes, Sir, Cynthia said. She fought the urge to curtsey, which was a ridiculous thing to do to one's own father, but the man inspired subservience at the drop of a hat.

      The old man peered at her through his gleaming spectacles, brows beetling below his heavily powdered wig. Lord Glossingley did not deign to shiver, and did not even keep a fire in his study. It was a point of pride for him to do without. Yet, he too was attired in layer upon layer of thick wool as he sat with his ledgers and turned his fastidious and exacting hand to the minutia of running the estate. His ungloved fingers looked faintly blue in the weak afternoon light, but his hands did not tremble as he dripped hot wax onto the fold of a letter and sealed it with the family crest on his ring.

      This, he said, indicating the letter, Is your doom. Sealed and awaiting only such time as it will take the post to deliver it.

      Sir? Cynthia asked. By now the glow had faded, and she remembered that waltzing made a body heat through the wonders of perspiration, a function which unfortunately left that body wet and chilled when one stopped. Particularly if one was in the frostiest depths of Kellynch Hall.

      But even if the temperature alone had not induced her shiver, her father's pronouncement certainly would have done so.

      The earl's gaze did not subside, but studied Cynthia's face and form with harsh scrutiny. You are doubtless aware that despite my very economical measures, the estate is not turning a profit. Short of working the land with my own hands, I am at a loss. Apparently my tenants are all lazy and stupid. I am done wrestling with it, but I take my responsibility to the title seriously, and I do not wish to sell the estate to the highest bidder (always assuming that bidder would pay more than a farthing for this heap in the first place). No, Glossingley lands must remain in Glossingley hands, so I am giving the whole of Kellynch to the next eligible heir. The land and the hall will soon be owned outright by our distant relation the Viscount Kendrick, since your fool of a mother gave me only a pea-brained daughter before she recklessly got herself killed.

      Cynthia flinched at the last bit. Her mother's death was something that everyone at Kellynch tried to avoid mentioning. She'd been an avid horsewoman, and had died engaging in a risky jump over one of the many stone walls that marked the various boundaries of Kellynch tenants' plots. The official story was that her horse must have been spooked by a snake. The unofficial ones were less charitable. Some said that she had been fleeing her husband's wrath after having been caught in the arms of another, and that she had pushed her horse too fast in her haste to escape the earl. Others said that she had been deeply unhappy in her domestic life and began taking greater and greater risks with the height of her jumps in the hopes that she might achieve the end result of a broken neck and an early death.

      Cynthia had only been four years old at the time. Her memories of her mother were all rather vague. The one thing she knew was that as long as she'd been old enough to understand orders, her orders had always been to stay away from horses at all costs. Cynthia was not a child who could be found at the stable, and she had not been included in her cousins' pony rides when she visited her mother's sister at Blakesley Manor. She did not own a riding habit. She had not ever even patted the sleek necks of the bays who pulled the Glossingley family coach.

      In another child, this sort of ban might raise rebellion and resentment, but Cynthia had always been good-natured and obedient. She longed for nothing so much as approval and love. At the age of twenty-three, she was, therefore, nearly as afraid of horses as she was of her own father.

      But

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1