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Authors: Stephanie Laurens

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BOOK: The Lady Chosen
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Dalziel did, with an inclination of his head. He rose. Met Tony’s eyes. “If there’s any change in the situation, do let me know.”

With a polite nod, he headed for the door.

Tony saw him into the hall and handed him into the care of a footman; retreating to the library, he wondered, as he often had, just who Dalziel really was. Like recognized like; he was certainly of the aristocracy, with his finely hewn Norman features, pale skin and sable hair, yet Tony had checked enough to know Dalziel wasn’t his last name. Dalziel was somewhat shorter and slighter than the men he had commanded, all ex-Guardsmen, yet he projected an aura of lethal purpose that, in a roomful of larger men, would instantly mark him as the most dangerous.

The one man a wise man would never take his eye from.

The door to the street shut; a second later, Hungerford appeared with a tray bearing a steaming cup of coffee. Tony took it with a grateful murmur; like all excellent butlers, Hungerford always seemed to know what he required without having to be told.

“Shall I ask Cook to send up your breakfast, my lord?”

Tony sipped, then nodded. “Yes—I’ll be going out shortly.”

Hungerford asked no more but silently left him.

Tony savored the coffee. Along with the premonition Dalziel’s appearance and his few words had sent tingling along his nerves.

He was too wise to ignore or dismiss the warning, yet in this case, he wasn’t personally involved.

But
she
might be.

Dalziel’s query gave him the perfect excuse to learn more of her.

Indeed, given Dalziel’s interest, it seemed incumbent upon him to do so. To assure himself that there really wasn’t anything more nefarious than murder behind Ruskin’s death.

He needed to find the lady.

Cherchez la femme.

The Bastion Club novels came about when I returned to a character who appeared in my novel
Captain Jack’s Woman,
with a view to writing his story. Anthony “Tony” Blake, a secondary character in that earlier work, was always destined to be a hero in his own right.

In asking the question,
What happened to Tony?
the answer grew from and was based on a logical extension of the adventures and dangerous life we’d seen Tony living in 1812 in
Captain Jack’s Woman,
that of a secret operative going behind enemy lines, exploiting his French background to identify and nullify French spy networks which were, at that time, trying to get details of Wellington’s campaign plans back to France for Napoleon and his generals.

Captain Jack’s Woman
therefore stands as a prequel to the Bastion Club novels, establishing the reality of how the gentlemen of the Bastion Club served throughout the Peninsula Wars, as well as telling the story of Jack and Kit, both of whom reappear in Tony’s story.

However, in telling Tony’s story, I found that, of necessity, I had to tell the story of the Bastion Club itself, and
ultimately the stories of all seven of its members, for these stories are all interwoven.
The Lady Chosen
was the first novel of the group; in it, you’ve learned how the club came about and seen it established. Tony’s story will be the second volume in the series,
A Gentleman’s Honor,
to be released in October 2003.

About the Author

New York Times
-bestselling author Stephanie Laurens specializes in writing historical romances set in Regency England. Her first such novel was
Captain Jack’s Woman
, published by Avon Books in 1977. Ms. Laurens is best known for her long-running, award-winning tales of the ducal Cynster dynasty:
Devils’ Bride; A Rake’s Vow; Scandal’s Bride; A Rogue’s Proposal; A Secret Love; All About Love; All About Passion
(the story of “honorary Cynster” Gyles Rawlings); the “twin novels,”
On a Wild Night & On a Wicked Dawn; The Perfect Lover;
and
The Promise in a Kiss: A Christmas Novel
, about the founders of the Cynster dynasty. All these titles are available from HarperCollins e-books. Ms. Laurens is also the author of The Bastion Club novels, commencing with
The Lady Chosen
and
A Gentleman’s Honor
in late summer 2003. She resides in a leafy bayside suburb of Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two daughters and their cats, Shakespeare and Marlowe. Please visit www.stephanielaurens.com.

By Stephanie Laurens

The Lady Chosen

The Perfect Lover

All About Love

All About Passion

Captain Jack’s Woman

Devil’s Bride

On A Wicked Dawn

On A Wild Night

The Promise In a Kiss

A Rake’s Vow

A Rogue’s Proposal

Scandal’s Bride

A Secret Love

Also Available the Anthology

Secrets Of a Perfect Night

And Coming Soon

A Gentleman’s Honor

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE LADY CHOSEN
. Copyright © 2003 by Savdek Management Proprietory Limited. 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 e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 e-books.

Excerpt from A Gentleman’s Honor copyright © 2003 by Savdek Management Proprietory Limited

ePub edition August 2003 eISBN 9780061746413

First Avon Books paperback printing: September 2003

First Avon Books special printing: April 2003

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com

BOOK: The Lady Chosen
9.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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