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A Merchant’s Daughter
Arabella Sheen
A
merchant’s daughter and a destitute nobleman. Can a marriage of convenience
solve their problems?
Miss
Emma Brentry is happy with life, but she feels the time has come to marry. Her
father, a wealthy glass merchant, has expectations of grandchildren, and Emma
doesn’t wish to disappoint him. Reluctantly, and somewhat halfheartedly, she
begins the search for a husband.
Mr.
Aaron Trent, a gentleman of noble birth, returns to England fresh from the
Napoleonic war with a scar and limp to prove it. During his absence, his
estate, Windhurst Hall, has been pledged by his cousin at the gaming tables. He
is now in search of the necessary funds with which to buy back his home.
Traveling
to Bath, Emma finds herself stranded on the road and is compelled to stay the
night at The Stag and Hounds posting inn. She encounters Aaron, an attentive,
handsome stranger, who offers her some much-needed assistance. Instant
attraction is felt by both, and as dusk falls, Emma makes Aaron an offer he
finds difficult to refuse.
With
his pride standing in the way, can Aaron stay true to his principles, or will
he, with reckless, passionate abandonment, succumb to Emma’s powers of
persuasion?
Content
Warning: contains explicit, sensual love scenes
Excerpt
1...
Chapter 1
Miss Emma
Brentry stood before the wooden door of The Stag and Hounds posting inn. The
door itself was shut, but with a bright yellow stagecoach positioned in the
inn’s courtyard and the loud noise of chattering voices emanating from the
open, latticed windows, it was obvious the place was open for business and full
with passing travelers.
Straightening
her crumpled pelisse and adjusting her bonnet, Emma took a steadying breath,
mentally bracing herself for what was to come. Never before had she entered a public
tavern alone, but her situation was desperate and called for urgent action.
She was more
than a little troubled. A young, genteel woman unaccompanied and on the open
road was deemed outrageous, but entering a travelers’ inn without an escort was
considered by some to be a far worse offense.
There was no
doubt in Emma’s mind that should her father discover what she was about to do,
his blistering wrath would descend upon her head, and his forgiveness would be
hard to come by. But she had to chance his anger. Stranded near Corston, and
with no immediate means of reaching Bath, she was desperately in need of
assistance, and entering the inn seemed her only option.
That
afternoon, Emma had been traveling the Bath Road. Having paid a visit to her
younger sister in Bristol, she was returning to her father’s house in Bath and
had almost reached her destination when her journey had been abruptly halted. A
wheel on the barouche carriage had snapped, and with the spokes broken, she
found herself to be at an impasse.
Unable to
travel further, Emma had left her coachman to tend the horses, and she had
retraced her steps until The Stag and Hounds had been reached.
The
stagecoach standing before the inn was loaded down with heavy baggage, and by
the steamy heat emitted from the horses’ flanks and nostrils, it was clear the
vehicle had only recently arrived. Ostlers were busy tightening tack and
bridles, and an air of frantic chaos permeated the cobblestoned courtyard.
Squaring her
shoulders, Emma lifted the old, worn, iron latch on the door and boldly pushed
it open. She entered. The noise overwhelmed her. Voices were raised and the
incessant shouts for service from impatient travelers was almost deafening. The
musky smell of smoke from the roaring log fire, along with the stench of stale
alcohol that permeated the air, hit her.
Looking
around, Emma tried to discern who amongst these hapless, disheveled persons
could be the landlord, but it was difficult to tell. Having come in from the
brightness of the sunlight outside, the darkness of the tavern’s interior
hindered her search. Everyone looked more or less the same, and all the
passengers appeared to be travel-stained and weary.
Emma bit down
nervously on her bottom lip.
“What can I
do for you, my good lady?” A short, thickset man approached. As he did so, he
wiped his hands on his work-soiled apron.
“I am looking
for the innkeeper,” she explained. A note of desperation trembled in her voice.
She wasn’t used to rubbing shoulders with so many persons at once. The nearest
she came to such a tight squeeze was generally when she attended the theatre or
a gala ball of an evening, in Bath.
“You’ve found
him.” A wide, near-toothless grin appeared, followed by a wink. “Can I get you
something to eat or drink before the stage departs, miss?”
“No, thank
you. Nothing for me. And I am not with the stage. I’m traveling with my own
carriage, only we have lost a wheel and we are now at a standstill. Two spokes
have snapped, and we dare not go any further. I wonder, can you give directions
to a wheelwright?”
The innkeeper
couldn’t know how much it had hurt her pride to admit she no longer had control
of her life. Fiercely independent, and with a dislike of being reliant upon
others, Emma was now seeking help. It went against the grain.
“Are you sure
you don’t want something to drink?”
Emma
hesitated. She was thirsty, but she didn’t want to linger too long inside the
inn and draw attention to herself. It seemed impolite to refuse, but she knew
that the sooner she left the tavern, the less likelihood someone would discover
she had erred beyond the bounds of respectability.
“Umm…all
right. Yes, please. A glass of lemonade would be very nice. But about the
wheelwright…”
“I’m afraid
you won’t have much luck finding a wheelwright in these parts, young miss.
You’re just outside Corston, and our nearest wheelwright is in Saltford.”
“Saltford?
But Saltford is miles away. Surely there is someone in this village who can
mend my carriage wheel.” She was anxious at the thought no one might be found
to fix the carriage, and she would be stuck in Corston.
The innkeeper
reached for a tray on the counter. Collecting several empty ale tankards from a
table, he placed them on the tray he held in his hand and shook his head
solemnly.
“There ain’t
anyone hereabouts with skills to mend a wheelbarrow, let alone a big thing like
a carriage. We ain’t got a smithy either.”
“Then what am
I to do?” Emma kept her voice steady.
A
Merchant’s Daughter
Copyright
© 2019, Arabella Sheen
ISBN:
9781949300468
Publisher:
Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Electronic
Publication: August 2019
Editor:
Pamela Tyner
Cover:
Fantasia Frog Designs
eBooks
are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without
written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and
reviews.
This
book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are
productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
About Arabella Sheen
Arabella Sheen is a British author of contemporary romance and likes nothing more than the challenge of starting a new novel with fresh ideas and inspiring characters.
One of the many things Arabella loves to do is to read. And when she’s not researching or writing about romance, she is either on her allotment sowing and planting with the seasons or she is curled on the sofa with a book, while pandering to the demands of her attention-seeking cat.
Having lived and worked in the Netherlands as a theatre nurse for nearly twenty years, she now lives in the south-west of England with her family.
Arabella hopes her readers have as much pleasure from her romance stories as she has in writing them.
Social Media
Website: http://www.arabellasheen.co.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ArabellaSheen
Facebook Author: https://www.facebook.com/ArabellaSheenAuthor
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BOOK BLURB:
A merchant’s daughter and a destitute nobleman. Can a marriage of convenience solve their problems?
Miss Emma Brentry is happy with life, but she feels the time has come to marry. Her father, a wealthy glass merchant, has expectations of grandchildren, and Emma doesn’t wish to disappoint him. Reluctantly, and somewhat halfheartedly, she begins the search for a husband.
Mr. Aaron Trent, a gentleman of noble birth, returns to England fresh from the Napoleonic war with a scar and limp to prove it. During his absence, his estate, Windhurst Hall, has been pledged by his cousin at the gaming tables. He is now in search of the necessary funds with which to buy back his home.
Traveling to Bath, Emma finds herself stranded on the road and is compelled to stay the night at The Stag and Hounds posting inn. She encounters Aaron, an attentive, handsome stranger, who offers her some much-needed assistance. Instant attraction is felt by both, and as dusk falls, Emma makes Aaron an offer he finds difficult to refuse.
With his pride standing in the way, can Aaron stay true to his principles, or will he, with reckless, passionate abandonment, succumb to Emma’s powers of persuasion?
Content Warning: contains explicit, sensual love scenes
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