Wilde in Love Read online

  A New York Times bestseller many times over, Eloisa James lives in New York City, where she is a Shakespeare professor (with an M.Phil. from Oxford). She is also the mother of two children and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight.

  Visit Eloisa James online:

  www.eloisajames.com

  www.facebook.com/EloisaJamesFans

  @EloisaJames

  Praise for Eloisa James:

  ‘Sexual tension, upper-class etiquette and a dollop of wit make this another hit from New York Times bestseller Eloisa James’ Image Magazine Ireland

  ‘Romance writing does not get better than this’ People Magazine

  ‘[This] delightful tale is as smart, sassy and sexy as any of her other novels, but here James displays her deliciously wicked sense of humour’ Romantic Times BookClub

  ‘An enchanting fairy-tale plot provides the perfect setting for James’ latest elegantly written romance, and readers will quickly find themselves falling under the spell of the book’s deliciously original characters and delectably witty writing’ Chicago Tribune

  By Eloisa James

  Happy Ever After series:

  A Kiss at Midnight

  When Beauty Tamed the Beast

  The Duke is Mine

  The Ugly Duchess

  Once Upon a Tower

  The Duchess Quartet series:

  A Wild Pursuit

  Fool for Love

  Duchess in Love

  Your Wicked Ways

  The Pleasures Trilogy:

  Potent Pleasures

  Midnight Pleasures

  Enchanting Pleasures

  Desperate Duchesses:

  Three Weeks With Lady X

  Four Nights with the Duke

  Seven Minutes in Heaven

  My American Duchess

  Omnibus:

  As You Wish

  Available from Piatkus Entice:

  Storming the Castle

  Winning the Wallflower

  Seduced by a Pirate

  A Gentleman Never Tells

  A Midsummer Night’s Disgrace

  Copyright

  Published by Piatkus

  ISBN: 978-0-349-40904-7

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 Eloisa James, Inc.

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Piatkus

  Little, Brown Book Group

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  www.littlebrown.co.uk

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Contents

  About the Author

  Praise

  By Eloisa James

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Epilogue

  A Note About Bogs, Egyptian Ducks, and Melodramatic Plays

  This book is dedicated to my dear friends Cecile and Rachel, who read this book in several forms, texted endless encouragement, and proved brilliant plotters, helping me plot, and re-plot, and re-plot yet again.

  Thank you, Sweethearts!

  Acknowledgments

  My books are like small children; they take a whole village to get them to a literate state. I want to offer my deep gratitude to my village: my editor, Carrie Feron; my agent, Kim Witherspoon; my Web site designers, Wax Creative; and my personal team: Kim Castillo, Anne Connell, Franzeca Drouin, and Sharlene Moore.

  People in many departments of Harper Collins, from Art to Marketing to PR, have done a wonderful job of getting this book into readers’ hands: my heartfelt thanks goes to each of you.

  Finally, a group of dear friends (and one teenage daughter) have read parts of this book, improving it immeasurably: my fervent thanks to Rachel Crafts, Lisa Kleypas, Linda Francis Lee, Cecile Rousseau, Jill Shalvis, Meg Tilly, and Anna Vettori.

  Chapter One

  June 25, 1778

  London

  There wasn’t a person in all England who’d have believed the boy who grew up to be Lord Alaric Wilde would become famous.

  Infamous? That was a possibility.

  His own father had given him that label after Alaric was sent down from Eton at the age of eleven for regaling his classmates with stories of pirates.

  Piracy wasn’t the problem—the problem was the uncanny way young Alaric had depicted his small-minded Etonian instructors in the guise of drunken sailors. These days he avoided portraying self-righteous Englishmen, but the impulse to observe had never left him. He watched and summarized, whether he was in China or an African jungle.

  He had always written down what he saw. His Lord Wilde books were a consequence of that impulse to record his observations, a drive that appeared as soon as he learned to write his first sentences.

  Like everyone else, it had never occurred to him that those books could make him famous. And he didn’t think any differently when he rolled out of his berth on the Royal George. All he knew in that moment was that he was finally ready to see his family, all eight siblings, not to mention the duke and duchess.

  He’d stayed away for years, as if not seeing his eldest brother Horatius’s grave would make his death not true.

  But it was time to go home.

  He wanted a cup of tea. A steaming hot bath in a real bathtub. A lungful of smoky London air.

  Hell, he even missed the peaty smell that hung over Lindow Moss, the bog that stretched for miles to the east of his father’s castle.

  He was drawing back the curtain over the porthole when the ship’s boy knocked and entered. “There’s a mighty fog, milord, but we’re well up the Thames, and the captain reckons we’ll be at Billingsgate Wharf any minute.” His eyes shone with excitement.

  Up on deck, Alaric found Captain Barsley standing in the prow of the Royal George, hands on his hips. Alaric started toward him and stopped, astonished. Through the fog, the dock glimmered like a child’s toy: a blurry mass of pink, purple, and bright blue that separated into parts as the ship neared the pier.

  Women.

  The dock was crowded with women—or, more precisely, ladies, consi
dering all the high plumes and parasols waving in the air. A grin tugged at the corners of Alaric’s mouth as he joined the captain.

  “What in the devil is going on?”

  “I expect they’re waiting for a prince or some such foolishness. Those passenger lists they print in the Morning Chronicle are utter rubbish. They’re going to be bloody disappointed when they realize the Royal George hasn’t a drop of royal blood aboard,” the captain grumbled.

  Alaric, who was related to the crown through his grandfather, gave a shout of laughter. “You have a noble nose, Barsley. Perhaps they’ve discovered a relation you never heard of.”

  Barsley just grunted. They were close enough now to discern that ladies were crowded as far back as the fish market. They appeared to be bobbing up and down like colored buoys, as they strained to see through the fog. Faint screams suggested excitement, if not hysteria.

  “This is Bedlam,” Barsley said with disgust. “How are we supposed to disembark in the midst of that?”

  “Since we’ve come from Moscow, perhaps they think the Russian ambassador is onboard,” Alaric said, watching a rowboat set out toward them, manned by a dockworker.

  “Why in the devil’s name would a flock of women come looking for a Russian?”

  “Kochubey is a good-looking fellow,” Alaric said, as the boat struck the side of the ship with a thump. “He complained of English ladies besieging him, calling him Adonis, and sneaking into his bedchamber at night.”

  But the captain wasn’t listening. “What the devil are those women doing on the wharf?” Captain Barsley roared, as the dockworker clambered over the side from the rowboat. “Make way for my gangplank, or I won’t be responsible for the fish having a fine meal!”

  The man dropped to the deck, eyes round. “It’s true! You’re here!” he blurted out.

  “Of course I’m here,” the captain snarled.

  But the man wasn’t looking at Barsley.

  He was looking at Alaric.

  Cavendish Square

  London

  Miss Wilhelmina Everett Ffynche was engaged in her favorite activity: reading. She was curled up in an armchair, tearing through Pliny’s eyewitness account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

  It was just the kind of narrative she most loved: honest and measured, allowing the reader to use her own imagination, rather than ladling on sensational detail. His description of seeing a cloud of smoke shaped like an umbrella spreading ever higher and wider was fascinating.

  The door burst open. “Madame Legrand delivered my new bonnet!” her friend Lavinia cried. “What do you think?”

  Willa plucked off her spectacles and looked up as Lavinia spun in a circle. “Absolutely perfect. The black plume was a stroke of genius.”

  “I fancy it adds gravitas,” Lavinia said happily. “Making me look dignified, if not philosophical. Like you in your spectacles!”

  “I only wish my spectacles were as charming as your plume,” Willa said, laughing.

  “What are you reading about now?” Lavinia asked, dropping onto the arm of Willa’s chair.

  “Pliny’s account of the eruption that buried Pompeii. Just imagine: his uncle headed directly into the smoke, determined to rescue survivors. And he wanted Pliny to go with him.”

  “Lord Wilde would have gone straight to the disaster as well,” Lavinia said with a look of dreamy infatuation.

  Willa rolled her eyes. “Then he would have perished, just as Pliny’s uncle did. I must say, Wilde sounds like just the type to run straight at danger.”

  “But he’d be running toward danger in order to save people,” Lavinia pointed out. “You can’t criticize that.” She was used to Willa’s scoffing at the explorer whom she claimed to love above all else.

  Except new hats.

  And Willa.

  “I am so happy my bonnet came in time for the house party at Lindow Castle,” she said, “which reminds me that the trunks are stowed and Mother would like to leave after luncheon.”

  “Of course!” Willa jumped to her feet and tucked her spectacles and book into a small traveling bag.

  “I am looking forward to seeing Lord Wilde’s childhood home,” Lavinia said, with a happy sigh. “I mean to sneak up to the nursery as soon as I can.”

  “Why?” Willa inquired. “Are you planning to take a keepsake? A toy he once played with, perhaps?”

  “The gardeners can’t keep the flowerbeds at the castle intact,” Lavinia said with a giggle. “People want to press flowers between the pages of his books.”

  Willa could scarcely imagine the chaos if Lord Wilde himself made an appearance, but the man hadn’t been seen in England for years. If you believed the popular prints, he was too busy wrestling giant squid and fighting pirates.

  Sometimes Willa felt as if a fever had swept the kingdom—or at least the female half of it—leaving her unscathed.

  During the Season that just ended, young ladies had talked very little about the men whom they might well marry and spend a lifetime with, and a great deal about the author of books such as Wilde Sargasso Sea.

  Wilde Sargasso Sea? Wilde Latitudes?

  The only rational response was a snort.

  Willa was fairly certain that in person, Lord Wilde would resemble every other man: likely to belch, smell of whiskey, and ogle a woman’s bosom on occasion.

  She tucked her hand under Lavinia’s arm and brought her to her feet. “Let’s go, then. Off to Lindow Castle to burgle the nursery!”

  Chapter Two

  Lindow Castle, Cheshire

  Country seat of the Duke of Lindow

  June 28, 1778

  Late afternoon

  Alaric walked down one of the long corridors of his childhood home, a deep feeling of satisfaction in his belly. His older brother, Lord Roland Northbridge Wilde—or North, as he preferred to be called—was at his side.

  The heir and the spare. The courtier and the explorer. The duke’s best beloved and the disgrace.

  The infamous disgrace, it seemed.

  He and North were of equal height, with similar features and cut of jaw. But the resemblances stopped there. Had they consciously tried, they couldn’t have been more different in personality.

  “I did not bed the empress,” Alaric said once they had reached the bottom of the stairs. He stopped at the gilt-encrusted mirror hanging in the castle entry to slap a battered, powdered wig on his head and then grimaced at his reflection. “Maybe I should change my mind and return to the Russian court. At least I wouldn’t have to wear this monstrosity.”

  “Seriously, there’s no truth to the rumor?” North persisted, coming up at Alaric’s shoulder. “Joseph Johnson is selling a print entitled England Takes Russia by Storm. It’s set in Empress Catherine’s bedchamber, and the fellow looks remarkably like you.”

  Their eyes met in the glass, and North visibly recoiled. “Good God, is that your only wig?” He frowned at the lumpy mound on Alaric’s head. “Father won’t like to see that at dinner. Hell, I don’t like it.”

  That wasn’t surprising. North was wearing a snowy towering creation that turned him into a cross between a parrot dipped in plaster dust and a fancy chicken. Alaric hadn’t seen his brother in five years, and he’d scarcely recognized the man.

  “I came straight from the dock, but I sent my valet into London. Quarles should arrive in a few days, new wig in hand, although his acquisition won’t come close to the elegance of yours.”

  North adjusted his cuffs. Pink silk cuffs. “Obviously not, since this wig is Parisian, enhanced by Sharp’s best Cyprus hair powder.”

  Just then the family butler, Prism, came into the entrance hall. He was the sort of butler who firmly believed that the aristocracy could do no wrong. Butlering for the Wildes offered constant assaults to this conviction, but he was wondrously able to dismiss evidence to the contrary.

  “Good afternoon, Lord Roland, Lord Alaric,” he said. “May I be of service?”

  “Afternoon, Prism,” Alaric sai
d. “My brother is determined to disrupt the duchess’s tea by introducing me to his fiancée.”

  “The ladies will be shocked and delighted,” Prism said with a cough that managed to convey his dismay at Alaric’s unexpected fame.

  “I’m as baffled as you are,” Alaric told him. He had escaped the crowd on the wharf by throwing on Captain Barsley’s hat. None of the women shrieking his name recognized him as he made his way through the crowd, which made the experience all the stranger.

  “Give me a minute,” North said, adjusting his elaborately tied cravat in the glass. “Brace yourself, Alaric. I suspect every woman in that room has at least one print depicting your adventures.”

  “The duke says that in the years since I left England they’ve littered the entire country. Actually, I think the word he used was ‘defiled.’ ”

  “The way people gossip about you, not to mention collecting portraits, does not please our father. He thinks your celebrity is ill-becoming to our rank. Do you remember Lady Helena Biddle? Supposedly she’s papered her house in prints of you, so she might faint when you walk in.”

  Alaric bit back an oath. Helena Biddle had already been in pursuit of him five years ago.

  “She’s widowed now,” his brother added, starting to tweak the curls that hung over his ears.

  At this rate, they’d be here for an hour. “I’m looking forward to meeting your fiancée,” Alaric prompted.

  North had the trick of looking severe no matter his mood, but now his mouth eased. “Just look for the most beautiful, elegant woman in the room.”

  Who cared if North had transformed into a peacock in the years Alaric had been away? His older brother had clearly fallen in love.

  Alaric gave North a rough, one-armed hug that risked the perfection of his brother’s neckcloth. “I’m happy for you. Now stop fiddling with your wig, and introduce me to this lovely creature.”

  Prism threw open the great doors leading to the green salon, where the female half of the duke’s house party had gathered for tea. The room before them was crowded with things that Alaric loathed: silks, wigs, diamonds—and insipid faces.

  He loved women, but aristocratic ladies, bred to giggle and talk of nothing but fashion?