As the Devil Dares (Capturing the Carlisles #3)(101)
She pressed into his embrace, and he welcomed the softness of her body against his, the warmth and love she carried for him.
“We found a true partnership after all, minx,” he murmured.
Then he lowered his head and kissed her.
AUTHOR’S HISTORICAL NOTE
In 1825, Parliament authorized the building of new docks at St Katharine’s. As Henry Winslow knew, the only way to increase the quayside was to create more riverbank, exactly what engineer Thomas Telford designed—two joined inland basins connected to the Thames by an entrance lock. Ultimately, construction consumed approximately twenty-three acres. Over 1,250 houses were demolished, along with the twelfth-century medieval church and the hospital of St Katharine’s by the Tower, for which the area was named. Nearly 12,000 inhabitants, who were mostly poor dockworkers living in slum-like conditions, lost their homes. Only the property owners were compensated.
Unable to accommodate large ships, the docks were never a commercial success, and in 1968, the St Katharine’s Docks were closed. Development of the site as a residential and leisure complex commenced in the 1970s. Now known as the Docklands, the area comprises luxury apartments, upscale shops and restaurants, and a yachting marina. It is a model of successful urban redevelopment.
I would like to believe that the Gatewell School for Orphans of the Sea shared a similar fate to St Katharine’s by the Tower. The hospital lost its buildings in 1825 but relocated its services to nearby Whitechapel. After several more moves around London, it relocated in 1948 to its present location in Limehouse, one mile from its original site. Its mission continues today.
Miranda Hodgkins has only ever wanted one thing: to marry Robert Carlisle. And she can’t wait a moment longer. She boldly sneaks into his bedchamber with seduction on her mind and is swept into the most breathtaking kiss of her life. But she never dreamed that kiss would be with Sebastian, the Duke of Trent—Robert’s formidable older brother…
An excerpt from
If the Duke Demands
follows.
CHAPTER ONE
Islingham, Lincolnshire
January 1822
Miranda Hodgkins peeked out cautiously from behind the morning room door. The hallway was empty. Thank goodness. Drawing a deep breath of resolve, she hurried toward the rear stairs and reached a hand up to her face to make certain that her mask was still firmly in place.
The grand masquerade ball that had been held in celebration of Elizabeth Carlisle’s birthday had ended, and now the guests were dispersing…those who had come only for the evening’s ball into a long line of carriages, those few remaining for the last night of the house party into their rooms in the east wing. And the family would eventually make their way to their rooms in the west wing. Exactly where Miranda was headed.
She scurried up the dark stairs, knowing the way by heart from years of playing at Chestnut Hill with the Carlisles when they were all children. She knew which steps squeaked and how to move over them without making a sound, just as she’d attended enough parties here to know that the servants would be busy in the lower rooms of the house and that the family would take several minutes to say good night to all their guests.
If this had been any other night, she wouldn’t have been sneaking around like this. She would have gone home with her auntie and uncle and stayed there, instead of changing into her second costume of the evening and sneaking back to Chestnut Hill. And she would have entered right through the front door instead of through the cellar, with no one thinking twice about seeing her in the house that bordered her auntie and uncle’s farm and that felt like a second home to her.
But this wasn’t just any other night. Tonight, she planned on declaring her love for Robert Carlisle. The man she wanted to marry and spend the rest of her days making happy.
And the man she planned to surrender her innocence to tonight.
She reached the landing and felt carefully in the darkness for the latch to release the door. She’d known Robert since she was five, when her parents died and she came to live with Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Hamish, when she’d met the entire Carlisle family and been welcomed warmly into their embrace as if she were a long-lost relative instead of the orphan niece of one of their tenants. Seldom a day went by that she hadn’t been at Chestnut Hill, playing in their nursery or gardens. But a stolen kiss from Robert when she was fourteen changed everything. For the first time, she had evidence that Robert thought of her as more than a friend, even if he’d never attempted to repeat it. She hadn’t stopped dreaming of him in the intervening years, and during the past two years, since his father passed away and he returned to live at Chestnut Hill, she’d dared to dream of more.
Oh, he was simply wonderful! He’d always been dashing, with that golden hair and sapphire blue eyes that all the brothers shared, along with the tall height and broad shoulders, that same Carlisle wildness and charm. The three men were so much alike physically that they even sounded the same when they spoke. But their personalities were completely different, and so was the way they’d treated her. Sebastian had already been sent to Eton by the time she arrived in Islingham and so was too busy to pay her much mind, and Quinton had been…well, Quinton. But Robert had paid the most attention to her, had always been kind and supportive, even when he’d teased her mercilessly, just as he had his sister, Josephine. Since he’d returned to Islingham to help Sebastian with the dukedom, though, he’d also matured. Bets placed in the book at White’s had never thought that possible. But Miranda had always known how special he was, how dedicated to his family and especially to his mother. And tonight, she planned on showing him how she felt about him.