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Barbara Cartland

The Audacious Adventuress

The beautiful red-headed Druscilla Morley has been cruelly misused and abused by so-called 'gentlemen' all her young life.
And most recently by the lecherous Lord Walden whose children she was appointed the Governess to.
Not only had he forced himself upon her. Worse still he has told his wife that Druscilla was the louche philanderer and so she was summarily dismissed from their employment without any reference.
Little wonder then that she now dresses in the dowdiest of clothes with her hair in a matronly bun, anything to make herself unattractive to men, all of whom she despises, loathes and fears.
Now employed as Governess to another noble household, Druscilla is startled to meet her older second cousin Valdo, the Marquis of Lynche, now a famously dashing and handsome 'ladies' man' in London Society and a considerable catch for ambitious debutantes. And she is even more startled to find that he is engaged in an illicit affair with her employer.
Facing likely death in a duel with his lover's furious husband, the Marquis is forced to propose a marriage of convenience to Druscilla, who sees it as an escape from her misery loneliness.
They are summarily married with a Special Licence and Druscilla's life now changes completely as she becomes the new Marchioness of Lynche.
Little does she know that her audacious adventure means that she risks losing her life — or that she is about to lose her heart.
238 printed pages
Copyright owner
Barbara Cartland Ebooks Ltd.
Original publication
2019
Publication year
2018
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
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Impressions

  • fatimahj07shared an impression4 years ago

    One of Cartland's better books with a strong female character!

    “Two of us were chosen,” he replied, “both eligible bachelors. My God, Druscilla, I assure you that after this a fox has all my sympathy.” - hunting is a despicable act!

    '“If you talk like that about the Duchess, I shall shake you, Druscilla,” the Marquis said sharply.After one glance the Marquis looked away from her, having an irrepressible desire to curse his wife or even strike her. This was the woman he was married to, the Marchioness of Lynche, the woman his friends would be asked to believe had captured the most fastidious and sophisticated bachelor in the whole gay coterie of young bucks, who had attached themselves to the Prince Regent! Had any man ever been trapped more neatly and completely?' - this book, perhaps more so than any other by Cartland highlighted the incredible hypocrisy and double standard afforded to men with respect to mistresses etc.

    “So you intended to interfere in my private life,” he said and his voice was icy, “I did not – want – a scandal,” Druscilla stuttered. “I was – afraid – of what the Duke – might do.” “I suggest that in future,” the Marquis said, throwing the pieces of the note into the wastepaper basket, “you allow me to handle my own affairs in my own way” .... as sure that the Dowager spoke the truth when she had said that it was fashionable for a young man to have his mistress who he could show off to his friends. Preferably one who was desired by other men to give his conquest a poignancy that might otherwise have hardly made the expense worthwhile. - face palm...

    Almost as though she heard her mother speak, she knew that the only way to make Valdo love her was to give him all her love, her whole heart and her whole soul. She had not realised this before, she had held back, suspicious and untrusting because of what she herself had suffered.“Then – what is – love?” Druscilla managed to ask him. “I think love is when a man feels that he belongs to a woman and she belongs to him,” the Marquis said slowly, “when he knows that they are together as one person so that without her he is incomplete.” - possibly one of Cartland's best explanations. Too often her endings read like the characters have developed crushes on one another but this novel was a marked improvement that doesn't read like a standard B.C. novel. 👏🏻❤

  • b2123715189shared an impressionlast year
    👍Worth reading
    💞Loved Up
    🌴Beach Bag Book
    🐼Fluffy

  • Karinashared an impression4 years ago
    👍Worth reading

Quotes

  • Mary Augustowiczhas quoted5 years ago
    she felt his hand go to her hair, pulling out the hairpins and dropping them onto the carpet until wave upon wave of fiery silk fell over her shoulders and almost down to her waist
  • Mary Augustowiczhas quoted5 years ago
    Will you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife?”
  • Mary Augustowiczhas quoted5 years ago
    You know that I cannot touch you until you ask me to do so

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