Nicola Cornick - Desired

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Desired, book five in the Scandalous Women of the Ton series! Desired is Tess Darents story. The outrageous Dowager Lady Darent has already been widowed three times and is looking for her fourth husbandbut she is determined on a marriage in name only.

Step forward Owen Purchase, Viscount Rothbury, who has desired the much-married marchioness for a long time. He is the protector Tess needs, but can he seduce her into realizing that a true marriage is what she really wants?

Like the other books in this series, Desired is inspired by real-life events. Tess is a philanthropist and a reformer, and in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the reforming movement was pressing for political change in Britain. The government, however, was afraid of a revolution and sought to repress any opposition by throwing the reforms leaders into prison. Tess, as a secret leader of the reform movement, is in the gravest danger.

I have loved writing all the books in this series! Be sure to visit my website at www.nicolacornick.co.uk and dont miss the final book in the series, coming in 2012!

Nicola Cornick

I T WAS THE NIGHT HER LUCK finally ran out.

Tess Darent knew that the net was closing and that someone was coming to hunt her down. Tonight she could feel him very close behind her. Tonight, she knew instinctively, was the night she was going to get caught.

Hurry! Mrs. Tong, owner of the Temple of Venus bawdy house held out the borrowed gown to her with shaking hands and Tess grabbed it and slipped it over her head, feeling the sensuous slide of lavender silk against her skin. It was not a bad fit. She was surprised that Mrs. Tong had anything so tasteful in the wardrobe. Fortunate, because she would not be seen dead in any of the harlots gowns Mrs. Tongs girls habitually wore. Even if she was currently hiding from the law, Tess had standards to maintain.

The bawds face was pale beneath her paint and powder, her eyes terrified. Out in the corridor the sounds of pursuit were getting loudervoices snapping orders, the tramp of booted feet, the crash as Mrs. Tongs pieces of erotic statuary were knocked to the marble floor.

Redcoats! the bawd said. Searching the house. If they find you here

They wont, Tess snapped. She spun around, lifting the heavy fall of her red-gold hair so that Mrs. Tong could lace the gown. She could feel the bawds fingers trembling on the fastenings. Mrs. Tongs fear was feeding her own. The panic filled her chest, stealing her breath. Her pursuer was so close now. He was nipping at her heels.

Even if they do find me here, she added over her shoulder, marvelling at the calm of her own voice, what of it? My reputation is so bad no one will think it odd to find me in a whorehouse.

But the papers? Mrs. Tongs voice quavered.

Hidden. Tess patted the lavender reticule that matched the gown. Never fear, Mrs. T. No one will suspect you of being anything worse than an avaricious old madam.

Theres gratitude. Mrs. Tong sounded irritable. Sometimes I wonder why I help you.

You do it because you owe me, Tess said. Some months before she had helped Mrs. Tongs son when he had been arrested at a political rally. Now she was calling in the debt.

Im no friend to the radical cause, Mrs. Tong grumbled. She pulled the laces of the gown tight in a small gesture of revenge.

The gowns too big, Tess wheezed, as the breath was pummelled out of her.

Which is why you need the laces tight. The madam gave them another sharp tug. She threw Tess a matching cloak of lavender-blue edged with peacock feathers and tiptoed across to the door, opening it a crack, finger to her lips.

Tess raised a brow. Mrs. Tong shook her head, closed the door softly and turned the key. No chance, she said. They are all over the house like the pox. Youll have to hide.

Theyll find me. Fear clawed at Tess again. For all her defiant words she knew that it would be disastrous if she were to be caught now in possession of the papers. She would be thrown in prison. Everything she had worked for would be lost. The cold sweat trickled down her spine, prickling her skin.

Buy me some time, Mrs. Tong, she said. They are a company of soldiers and this is a bawdy house. Distract them.

She grabbed the jacket of the mannish suit she had been wearing on her arrival, extracted the little silver pistol from the pocket, forced it into the reticule along with the papers and pulled the drawstring tight. She tried on the exquisite pair of lavender slippers that matched the gown and winced. They were made for smaller feet than hers. She would have blisters by the time she reached home.

Theres no way of distracting their captain, Mrs. Tong said. He dont care for women.

Send him one of your boys then.

He doesnt like boys either. War wound, they say. No lead in his pencil. Precious little pencil either, if it comes to that.

Poor man, Tess said. Thats quite a sacrifice to make for your country. Still, if sex fails, money usually talks. Make him an offer he cannot afford to refuse.

She could hear the voices of the soldiers coming ever closer along the landing and the doors slamming back as they searched the rooms with about as much finesse as a herd of cows in a china shop. Mrs. Tongs girls were screaming. Aristocratic male voices were raised in plaintive protest. A lot of people, Tess thought, were going to have their most private vices exposed tonight. The redcoats raid on Mrs. Tongs brothel would be all over the scandal sheets by the morning. It would be the talk of the ton.