Seduction In Silk: A Novel of the Malloren World (Malloran) Read online

  Praise for the Novels

  of Jo Beverley

  A Scandalous Countess

  “Known for her memorable, meticulously researched stories, Beverley sets her latest Malloren world story in the decadent Georgian era. With delicious bantering and a rapid pace, it’s a sensual and enthralling read.”

  —Romantic Times (top pick)

  “Ms. Beverley’s opulent descriptions of the glittering ton with their witty dialogues and lively dalliances set against a dark background of intrigue continue to elevate this series beyond the normal historical romance.”

  —Smexy Books

  An Unlikely Countess

  “A fantastically entertaining historical romance.”

  —Night Owl Romance

  “Great read!”

  —Fresh Fiction

  The Secret Duke

  “With a sharp eye for detail, dialogue, and touches of humor, [Beverley] incorporates a few characters from previous novels into the mix and keeps the reader well entertained in this captivating gem.”

  —Romantic Times

  The Secret Wedding

  “Beverley proves again that she can be counted on to come up with clever and creative ways of mixing passion and intrigue to create a beguiling love story.”

  —Booklist

  “A fabulous, intelligent tale. . . . Jo Beverley provides an amusing historical with a touch of suspense and a hint of scandal as you like it.”

  —Genre Go Round Reviews

  A Lady’s Secret

  “Extraordinary storyteller Beverley mixes witty repartee, danger, and simmering sensuality with her strong and engaging characters, including a fetching Papillon, in this delightful, delicious gem of a book.”

  —Romantic Times (top pick)

  “With wit and humor, Jo Beverley provides a wonderful eighteenth-century romance starring two amiable lead characters whose first encounter is one of the best in recent memory. The tale is filled with nonstop action.”

  —The Best Reviews

  Lady Beware

  “Jo Beverley carries off a remarkable achievement in Lady Beware. . . . It is the unusual combination of familial comfort and risqué pleasure that makes this book a winner.”

  —The Romance Reader

  “[E]nchanting . . . a delightful blend of wit (with banter between Thea and Darien), intrigue (as evil lurks throughout), and emotional victories (as love prevails in the end).”

  —The State (Columbia, SC)

  To Rescue a Rogue

  “[Readers] will be engrossed by this emotionally packed story of great love, tremendous courage, and the return of those attractive and dangerous men known as the Rogues.”

  —Joan Hammond

  “With her usual beautifully nuanced characters and lyrical writing, RITA Award winner Beverley brings her popular Company of Rogues Regency historical series to a triumphant conclusion . . . [a] quietly powerful romance.”

  —Booklist

  The Rogue’s Return

  “Beverley beautifully blends complex characters, an exquisitely sensual love story, and a refreshingly different Regency setting into one sublime romance.”

  —Booklist

  “Jo Beverley has written an excellent character study. One of the best books I’ve read this season.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  A Most Unsuitable Man

  “A delightful, intricately plotted, and sexy romp set in the slightly bawdy Georgian world of Beverley’s beloved Malloren Chronicles.”

  —Library Journal

  “I found myself enjoying every minute of the relationship in this story of love, hope, and increments of witty humor. As usual, a Malloren novel is a keeper.”

  —Rendezvous

  More Praise for Novels

  by New York Times Bestselling Author Jo Beverley

  “A well-crafted story and an ultimately very satisfying romance.”

  —The Romance Reader

  “Jo [Beverley] has truly brought to life a fascinating, glittering, and sometimes dangerous world.”

  —Mary Jo Putney

  “Another triumph.”

  —Affaire de Coeur

  “Wickedly delicious. Jo Beverley weaves a spell of sensual delight with her usual grace and flair.”

  —Teresa Medeiros

  “Delightful . . . thrilling . . . with a generous touch of magic . . . an enchanting read.”

  —Booklist

  “A stunning medieval romance of loss and redemption . . . sizzling.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “A fast-paced adventure with strong, vividly portrayed characters . . . wickedly, wonderfully sensual and gloriously romantic.”

  —Mary Balogh

  “Deliciously sinful. . . . Beverley evokes with devastating precision the decadent splendor of the English country estate in all its hellish debauchery . . . a crafty tale of sensuality and suspense.”

  —BookPage

  Also by Jo Beverley

  Available from New American Library

  REGENCY

  THE ROGUE’S WORLD

  Lady Beware

  To Rescue a Rogue

  The Rogue’s Return

  Skylark

  St. Raven

  Hazard

  “The Demon’s Mistress” in In Praise of Younger Men

  The Devil’s Heiress

  The Dragon’s Bride

  Three Heroes (Omnibus Edition)

  THE MALLOREN WORLD

  An Unlikely Countess

  The Secret Duke

  The Secret Wedding

  A Lady’s Secret

  A Most Unsuitable Man

  Winter Fire

  Devilish

  Secrets of the Night

  Something Wicked

  My Lady Notorious

  MEDIEVAL ROMANCES

  Lord of Midnight

  Dark Champion

  Lord of My Heart

  OTHER

  Forbidden Magic

  Lovers and Ladies (Omnibus Edition)

  Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed

  The Stanforth Secrets

  The Stolen Bride

  Emily and the Dark Angel

  ANTHOLOGIES

  “The Raven and the Rose” in

  Chalice of Roses

  “The Dragon and the Virgin Princess” in

  Dragon Lovers

  “The Trouble with Heroes” in

  Irresistible Forces

  Seduction in Silk

  A NOVEL OF THE MALLOREN WORLD

  Jo Beverley

  A SIGNET SELECT BOOK

  SIGNET SELECT

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

  New York, New York 10014, USA

  USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com.

  First published by Signet Select, an imprint of New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © Jo Beverley, 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  SIGNET SELECT and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  ISBN: 978-1-101-60162-4

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE />
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  Contents

  Praise

  Also By

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Author’s Note

  Excerpt from The Dragon’s Bride

  Excerpt from My Lady Notorious

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book is special in so many ways, and I thank my husband, Ken, always; my family; my wonderful agent, Meg Ruley, and editor, Claire Zion, and everyone at NAL. And, of course, you, my readers, who fuel the fire. Thank you!

  Chapter 1

  September 1765

  Perriam Manor, Surrey

  The Honorable Peregrine Perriam approached the deathbed with distaste.

  It was early afternoon, but the windows were closed and the curtains lowered, creating gloom and trapping the smells of sickness, decay, and some perfumed stuff designed to hide both.

  One branch of candles sat beside the bed, illuminating its massive dark oak posts and crimson velvet hangings. The bed looked to date from the sixteenth century. Perry had gained the same impression of the house. Dark paneling everywhere suggested it was unchanged since the day the feud over Perriam Manor had begun, as if a modern touch might lose a point in the long battle.

  He should have ignored the scrawled summons from Giles Perriam, but no one in his family could ignore anything to do with Perriam Manor, especially not a letter that oozed gloating malice.

  I’ve made a new will. Named you as heir. You’d better get here quickly if you want to know what else I’ve done.

  He’d wanted to deny Giles whatever warped pleasure he sought, but “named you as heir” had brought him here at speed.

  That was impossible.

  For his branch of the Perriam family this Tudor house and its lands were the “filched estate,” its loss the bitter legacy of a division of property seven generations ago. Getting it back was a holy cause, but the only way was if the junior branch, Giles’s branch, failed to produce a direct male heir. In that case, by a legal pact, the estate must pass to the senior branch, now headed by Perry’s father, Earl of Hernescroft.

  The earl had observed Giles’s failure to produce a living male heir with satisfaction. When Giles’s health had failed, he’d rubbed his hands in anticipation of victory. At last the old injustice would be put right, and in his lifetime too.

  “Named you as heir.” That wasn’t possible. And then there was “if you want to know what else I’ve done.”

  Giles was no fool. He was a wicked reprobate without a moral scruple of any kind, but not a fool. Whatever scheme he’d devised, it would have teeth and claws.

  Perry studied the man propped up on pillows, a skeleton skinned in old parchment. Giles had been fleshy, but now his face was dominated by a blade of a nose and high cheekbones, his sunken eyes emphasized by chiaroscuro. One gaunt hand lay on the crimson coverlet, fingers curled into a claw.

  What exactly did Giles seek to grasp, this close to the end?

  There were a number of people in the room—a black-and-white clergyman, a coatless doctor, some servants—but Perry focused on the dying man as he walked forward.

  When he arrived at the bed, the clergyman leaned down. “Mr. Perriam is here, sir. Your chosen heir.”

  “Chosen . . . ,” Cousin Giles growled without opening his eyes. “Wouldn’t have come to this if any of my own get survived.”

  The chaplain stepped back, stricken. The death of four baby boys left no space for comforting platitudes. Three wives, four sons, but no living heir.

  The thin lids raised a little. “Don’t tower over me. Sit.”

  Someone busied himself behind Perry. A hushed voice murmured, “Your chair, sir.”

  Perry sat. He was famed for his social address, but what to say here?

  I’m sorry to find you dying would be a lie. He’d no more than bowed in passing to this man, so any expression of emotion would be hollow.

  What malice have you confected? would be honest, but too curt an opening.

  Perry chose silence. Let the enemy make the first move.

  Giles’s eyes had closed again. Perhaps nothing was required.

  Then the sagging lips moved. “You married?”

  “No.” Did Giles seek a marriage alliance? To what purpose? In any case, he had no daughter.

  “I’m a cursed man,” Giles growled from a dry throat. “Cursed! Breed boys and see ’em snatched away . . . Wives barren or feeble . . . Cursed, I tell you.”

  “Life’s chancy as it is. Queen Anne birthed fourteen and died without a living heir.”

  “Cursed,” Giles insisted. “Supplanted her father, the rightful king. Her sister Mary suffered the same fate. Died in agony from smallpox. Cursed for their wickedness. As am I. As am I!”

  His sudden passion triggered a paroxysm of coughing, and the doctor hurried forward to present a drink.

  If anyone deserved to be cursed, Giles did, but a belief in curses showed a deranged mind.

  Perry glanced at the clergyman and mouthed, Mad?

  “Not that I know, sir,” the man murmured.

  Giles pushed away the glass. “Nothing to say, sir? Nothing to say?”

  “There are no such things as curses, Cousin. And who would do such a thing to you?”

  “Clarrie, that’s who. Seemed such a soft, silly . . .” Then his eyes fixed wildly on Perry. “Can still evade the worst. Harpy Mallow showed the way.”

  Definitely deranged, but the only way was to humor him.

  “Who or what is Harpy Mallow?”

  “Sister. Arse-faced monster, but Henry married her anyway. Plotted against me . . .” He paused to wheeze in a few breaths. “She claimed to be able to turn the curse. I laughed at her. Then she died. Died! Curse her. Curse her!”

  “My lord!” the clergyman protested over a paroxysm of coughing. “Consider the judgment you must soon face.”

  Giles turned a long-toothed snarl on him. “Cease your bleating. Water. Give me water, damn you all.”

  The doctor again helped him to drink. “You must rest, sir.”

  “Soon have eternal rest. Or eternal fires. Henry Mallow has sons and he was as guilty as I. Curse him. Curse him!”

  He choked again, then collapsed back on his pillows, eyes closed, each breath wheezing and labored. Perry hoped the tirade had finished him off. The mind had clearly already lost its moorings, so with God’s mercy the wasted body wasn’t far behind.

  He was strongly tempted to leave, but Giles hadn’t su
mmoned him here for this babble. There was some plot in hand and he must find out what it was. Perriam Manor must return to his family in truth—that was, to the Earl of Hernescroft, not his youngest son.

  He leaned closer. “You wrote that you have willed the manor to me. By the old agreement Perriam Manor must rejoin the principal estate. You must bequeath it to my father or my eldest brother, not me.”

  The dying man showed no response, but Perry persisted. “Such a mistake will be corrected in the courts, but only think how much money must pour into lawyers’ pockets.”

  Ah.

  He leaned back. That must be it. Giles had set up a situation that would suck a small fortune before it was resolved. Lawyers delighted in complicating a case to their own advantage. Sometimes they could even twist the result.

  That sent a chill down Perry’s spine. He had no idea who else might make a claim to the estate, but a family tree covering seven generations had to hold possibilities. He would not be used in such a malicious device. But what could he do?

  Somewhere in the room a large clock ponderously ticked the seconds.

  Someone behind Perry whispered.

  Clothing rustled, but the man in the bed lay still.

  If he shook Giles, could he get a few more words out of him?

  Then Giles spoke again, working for each word. “You still there?”

  “Yes. Did you hear what I said?”

  “Not deaf. That old agreement. Says I must bequeath the manor to Beatrice’s line. Nothing about to whom.” The strange noise from his throat was probably a laugh. “Create discord in the cozy Herne nest, won’t it?”

  “If you imagine my family as cozy, you’re very much mistaken,” Perry said. But Giles was correct. Perriam Manor passing to him would create a new schism, one between his father and him. Thank God the plan wouldn’t work.

  “Thinking you’ll pass it on to Hernescroft?” Giles asked, eyes still shut. “Can’t. Written in the will . . . Seen to you lot, I have.”

  He coughed again and the doctor said, “Sir, I must insist that you rest.”

  “For what damned purpose? Want to tell my plan while I can still enjoy it. Give me some of that cordial.”

  “That wouldn’t be wise, sir.”

  “Who pays the bills? Give it me.”

  Lips tight, the doctor measured a syrupy liquid into a spoon and fed it to his patient. Giles coughed again as he lay back, and he seemed to drift into sleep. But then the potion had some effect and he half opened his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was stronger.