Read Lord Langley Is Back in Town Online
Authors: Elizabeth Boyle
Tags: #fiction, #Historical romance
Lord Langley Is Back in Town
Lord Langley Is Back in Town
Elizabeth Boyle
To Louise Pledge,
whose generous spirit and kindness
deserve this heartfelt recognition,
and for her dedication to readers all over the world,
including those who love her library in Saudi Arabia.
Contents
Ellis, Baron Langley.
Our hero. Father of Felicity and Thalia Langley.
Minerva Hartley Sterling, Lady Standon.
Our heroine.
Philip Oxnard Sterling, Marquess of Standon.
Minerva’s first husband. Most decidedly not a hero.
Lucy Ellyson Sterling,
now the Countess of Clifton. The first Lady Standon who ventured back into marriage.
Elinor Knolles Sterling,
now the Duchess of Parkerton. The other Lady Standon, who not only found a husband, but a ducal one at that.
Aunt Bedelia, Lady Chudley.
Min
er
va’s aunt and an expert on marriage, having snared two marquesses, an earl, a baron, and now a viscount.
Captain Gerald Adlington.
A terrible villain.
Thomas-William.
The loyal servant of George Ellyson.
Mrs. Hutchinson.
The drunken and wretched housekeeper at Brook Street. But she bakes a mean scone, which makes her indispensable to this story.
Sir Basil Brownett.
With a name like Basil, of course he’s a villain.
Lord Andrew Stowe.
A young nobleman said to be related to the infamous Robin Hood. Has future hero written all over him.
And of course, the Nannies:
Nanny Brigid,
the Contessa von Frisch, late of Vienna. Ranks her lovers by the breed of dog they remind her of, from terriers to Great Danes.
Nanny Jamilla,
once the Duchesse de Fraine, most recently Princess Jamilla Kounellas. Suspected of sending her last husband to an early grave.
Nanny Lucia,
the Duchessa di Oristano of Naples. A Borgia by blood, and a Borgia through and through.
Nanny Tasha,
the Princess Natasha, a distant cousin of the tsar. Keeps her own Cossackloverguard ever at the ready.
Nanny Helga,
Wilhelmenia Charlotte Louise, Margravine of Ansbach. No man turns his back on the margravine. Not unless he knows how to remove a halberd from his spine.
A lady’s best advantage in Society is to keep informed of all the comings and goings around her. How else can one keep a rival from the best candidates for a newloverhusband?
Advice to Felicity Langley from her Nanny Tasha
March, 1815
Her Grace the Duchess of Hollindrake
Hollindrake House
Surrey
Dearest Felicity,
I must say your idea to put all those bothersome and scandalous Standon widows together under one roof was truly inspired. I wish I could take credit for the entire scheme, for who would ever have believed that Lucy Sterling would marry the Earl of Clifton or that Elinor Sterling would marry the Duke of Parkerton? Parkerton, indeed!
But I write you not over your matchmaking successes—which, my dear girl, have made you the envy of all—or the removal of those ladies from your husband’s familial obligations, but with regards to Minerva Sterling, the last remaining Lady Standon.
I would have hardly believed it, if I had not heard the news from Lady Kingsbury who had it from Lady Ratcliffe who claims Minerva Sterling is betrothed.
While that is remarkable in itself, I am sending this letter directly by private courier because of the gentleman to whom Minerva is rumored to be married.
My dear Felicity, I think you should brace yourself . . .
—An excerpt from a letter written with great urgency by Lady Finch
Marriage is the goal of all illustrious women, but widowhood, a well-endowed one, is to be the most coveted of all.
Advice to Felicity Langley from her Nanny Helga
London
One week earlier
“I
won’t. I will not. I will never,” Minerva Sterling, the dowager Marchioness of Standon, declared. “Aunt Bedelia, you can save your breath and your time—and your shoe leather as well—for there is no need to trot over here every day and try to cajole me into seeking another husband. I have no interest in marriage. None. So you can just forget any notion of me attending Lady Veare’s soiree with you.”
That should have been enough to deter anyone, but this was Aunt Bedelia. And as such, Minerva’s adamant assertion did nothing to deter the lady.
“My dear girl, never worry about my shoes. Chudley is as rich as Midas. I can have as many pairs as it takes to make you gain some sense. That is the advantage of having a husband,” Lady Chudley, the aforementioned Aunt Bedelia, said, waving off her niece’s protests as one might the stale cakes at Almack’s. “Just look at what I did for Lucy and Elinor! Imagine, Lucy Sterling a countess—that alone should make me the most successful matchmaker in London. But now! Why, not even a month later, and here is our dear, dear Elinor married to the Duke of Parkerton, just as I planned. How could I fail to do anything less for my own niece?”
Minerva pressed her fingers to her forehead, feigning the beginnings of a megrim, while she resisted the urge to point out that for her to do better in marriage, her aunt would have to find her a prince.
Not that she was looking. For she wasn’t.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t slightly envious of her friends’ happy situations.
Friends! With Lucy and Elinor, no less. Why, a month ago Minerva would have scoffed at such a thing.
Having summoned them to London, the Duchess of Hollindrake had banished the lot of them to this house and given them a choice—live together under the same roof or get married.