Authors: Gillian Bagwell

The King's Mistress (54 page)

BOOK: The King's Mistress

10.11Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

ads

Nell had never seen a woman so stunning. She looked carefully, memorising every detail, and longed to be like her—gorgeously dressed, elegant, and at ease before the adoring crowds.

Barbara Palmer disappeared from view. The king gave a final wave to the crowds and followed her.

“Aye, just give me half an hour with her,” crowed Nick. “I reckon she’d be worth the price.”

“You’ll not earn the cost of her in your lifetime!” Davy gibed.

Nell felt a rush of envy. She didn’t want to lose the delicious new sensation of feeling admired and special.

“She may be beautiful,” she announced, tossing her tangled curls, “but she’s not the only one worth her price.”

This pronouncement produced a ripple of some indefinable undercurrent and an exchange of meaningful glances among the lads. Nick moved close to her, and she could not breathe for the nearness of him and his size. The firelight flickered orange on his face, and on the faces of the other lads, who stood flanking him and regarding her with new interest.

About the Author

Gillian Bagwell began her professional life in theatre before she united her life-long love of books, British history, and the stage to write her first novel,
The Darling Strumpet,
based on the life of Nell Gwynn. Gillian lives in Berkeley, California and is at work on her third novel, about the formidable four-times widowed Tudor dynast Bess of Hardwick.

Please visit Gillian’s website, www.gillianbagwell.com, for news on her books, articles, and links to blogs of her research adventures.

Also by Gillian Bagwell

THE DARLING STRUMPET

Copyright

This novel is entirely a work of fiction The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

AVON

A division of HarperCollins
Publishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in the U.S.A. by Berkley Publishing Group, an imprint of Penguin Group (U.S.A.) Inc., New York, NY, 2011

Published by HarperCollins
Publishers
2012

Gillian Bagwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Source ISBN: 9781847562593

Ebook Edition © July 2012 ISBN: 9780007443314

Version 1

FIRST EDITION

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.