Gentleman Wanted
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About this ebook
Is what a widow needs, really what she wants?
Widow Selena Hartnell is deep in debt and faced with prison. Her managing friend, Barbara, Baroness De Ritz decrees Selena needs a wealthy husband – fast!
Guy, Viscount Rushcroft needs a wife to oversee his six motherless children who are running wild.
So Barbara decides Selena and the Viscount are perfectly suited, and launches into matchmaking mode.
Find out how Barbara's scheming surprises them all.
Isabella Hargreaves
Isabella Hargreaves is an award-winning historical romance author. She writes Romance through the Ages, with a story to tell from the Regency era to Ancient Britain and to 1920s Australia. She loves writing about strong heroines finding the men to match them. She is a winner of the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year 2022 (novella category), the Romance Writers of New Zealand Koru Award 2018 (novella category) and the Romance Writers of Australia 'Little Gems' short story competition 2018, and a finalist in a number of other awards. Isabella lives in Brisbane, Australia, where she works as an historian and is butler to three moggies. When she's not reading and writing, Isabella loves horse-riding and scenic walks. She dreams of an around-the-world trip to indulge these passions. For more information about Isabella Hargreaves' books, and to sign up for email advice about her next release, go to: www.isabellahargreaves.com Follow on: Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/isabella-hargreaves Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7457181.Isabella_Hargreaves Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaHargreavesBooks
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Gentleman Wanted - Isabella Hargreaves
GENTLEMAN WANTED
By Isabella Hargreaves
It is a truth universally acknowledged,
that a widow in possession of a large family,
must be in want of a husband.
With apologies to Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.
WITH THANKS TO BRIAN Sinclair, Anthea Jones, and Olivia from Hot Tree Editing for their comments on the text.
Chapter 1
BATH, NOVEMBER 1815, during the Season
Please, oh please, let him not see me. Selena Hartnell gently worked the bolt on the kitchen door away from the swollen timber of its jamb until it slid open. She glanced into the courtyard behind the house. No one waited there. Nothing moved. With one hand over her nose and mouth against the putrid smell of rotting vegetables and worse, she eased the door wider, slipped out into the fading twilight, and hurried along the side of the boarding house until she reached the roadway.
The grizzled man in a shiny clerk’s coat, who had been slouched near the front door of the house, rushed towards her shouting, Mrs Hartnell, your debt! You must pay!
She flung out her hand to hail a passing hackney carriage. It stopped and she clambered inside. The man shoved some folded papers into her hand. It’s debtor’s prison for you if you don’t pay up. You’ve got four weeks, then I’m coming to get you.
He leered at her but stepped back.
Her heart pounding frantically in her chest, Selena slammed the carriage door on him and rapped on the ceiling for the driver to proceed.
First, show me your fare, madam,
the driver demanded.
Selena wrenched some coins from her reticule, opened her hand to reveal them, and ordered, Quickly!
Where to?
he asked, with bored compliance in his voice.
To Brock Street. Please hurry!
The words croaked out of her constricted throat.
A whip snapped over the horses’ heads and the hackney lurched forward, pitching Selena against its cracked leather squabs. She sagged in relief as the carriage sped away from the debt collector. Selena read the letter in her hand. She had four weeks. A ball of dread lodged in her stomach.
Soon she was descending from the carriage in front of the Bath stone home of her widowed friend from school, Barbara, the Baroness De Ritz. With her hood pulled low over her face, Selena hurried up a short flight of stairs to the front door and rapped the brass knocker.
The door opened to reveal Barbara’s butler, a relic from her married days, who recognised Selena and pulled the door wide for her entry.
Is her ladyship in, Sims?
Selena asked.
She is to you, ma’am,
he replied with a short bow.
Please take me to her.
Within seconds, Selena was ushered into the sitting room on the second level. Barbara sat at a small escritoire angled to catch the sunlight falling fitfully through the bay window above the street. Her gown was cut in the latest London fashion, but Selena knew it was home-stitched. Corkscrews of dark hair fell from the topknot at her crown. Her face wore a wide smile of welcome, which collapsed when she saw Selena’s agitation.
Oh, Barbara, they’ve come for me!
Selena’s friend hurried over and guided her to a striped chaise longue. Take a deep breath and tell me what’s happened!
Sentence by stumbling sentence, Selena confided the awful truth. She was pursued by the moneylender for the amount she had borrowed to send her twelve-year-old sons, George and Harry, into the navy as midshipmen. Her meagre investments were nowhere near enough to repay the interest on the debt and now they demanded payment in full. Five hundred pounds! What could she do?
I will lend you the money to get rid of the bailiff.
Selena’s chest tightened. I could never repay you! Thank you, but no.
Then let me give you the money.
The plea in Barbara’s tone was copied on her face.
Never! Selena gave her a withering look. "I can’t allow that. Your husband left you this house and only just enough money to live upon. There must be another way!"
Barbara paced the room. Is there no one you can call on from your husband’s family to help you?
Alas, no. She shook her head. They wouldn’t recognise her on the street, let alone help her. Ralph had married down when they wed, and his family had never accepted her.
For a few moments, Barbara tapped a long, buffed nail against her still-white front teeth. What you need is another husband, and fast!
Do I?
Selena felt a sob rise from her constricted chest. She knew Barbara spoke the truth. It was what she needed... but it wasn’t what she wanted.
Barbara rapped out some more home truths in her sergeant major manner. "You