The Earl's Defiant Wallflower by Erica Ridley

There were foundling hospitals for orphaned infants, were there not? Most often, when the subject of money arose, the government’s aim was to put coin in their pockets, rather than give aid to those who had none. She’d had the immense fortune to be plucked from the orphanage and fostered by a foreign lord at the age of ten, but most orphans were not so lucky.Ĭhloe never missed a session of Parliament if she could help it, in order to stay abreast of any news of the government doing something- anything-to help the poor. She was a Whitechapel foundling, now grown to almost eight and twenty years. Having one of those faces that was always vaguely familiar was brilliant for pretending to be an old acquaintance.Ĭhloe was not a lady. Her skin was white, neither pockmarked nor freckled. Her eyes and hair were brown, the most common color. Her clothes were neither fashionable nor tattered, her hair neither smartly curled nor a mess of tangles. She was neither tall nor short, thin nor fat, ugly nor beautiful. Much of this blessing was due to her eminently forgettable nature. But Chloe never allowed anything so dull as not belonging to keep her from somewhere she wished to be. The octagonal ventilation shaft was her only viewing gallery.

Her nostrils immediately tickled with the smoke from dozens of flickering candles and the musty scent wafting from a large chamber packed with several hundred men. Miss Chloe Wynchester sucked in one last breath of semi-clean air from the open attic windows and then poked her head through one of the narrow apertures high above the central chandelier in the House of Commons. Irresistible romance and a family of delightful scoundrels. But how can a lifelong wallflower lead the charge to save the children? When illness befalls him, Chloe must take the reins. And the handsome, clever duke Chloe has long admired proves to be her worst enemy…Īn unscrupulous boarding school is exploiting orphans in a secret workhouse. Years ago, Chloe Wynchester and five other uniquely talented orphans were adopted by a wealthy baron with a secret mission: The motley Wynchester family fights for justice from the margins of high society. One Night of Temptation by Darcy Burke The Governess Gambit Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.Īll rights reserved. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Design © Teresa Spreckelmeyer, Erica Ridley

The Earl's Defiant Wallflower by Erica Ridley