The New Marquess (Wardington Park) (A Regency Romance Book) by Eleanor Meyers (37)

Wardington Park series has come to an end.

Thank you for reading the Wardington Park Series. In this last miniseries, many events from history were mixed into the tale.

And now, a new series awaits, with London once again being thrown into scandal. Stay tuned!

The next book in the new series targeted release date will be 20th Feb.

In the meantime . . .

If you have enjoyed reading The New Marquess, I believe you will be interested in checking out the previous book.

I have enclosed a sneak preview of the previous book.

Check it out below . . .

It is currently priced at $0.99 (around 330 pages)

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January 1831

Merthyr Tydfil, Wales

Sopherina North hopped from one foot to the other as a means to keep warm. She waited in line with the dozens of others who stood outside the bookshop, waiting for the doors to open so that they could get the very first copy of Victor Hugo’s latest book. She smiled with anticipation, knowing the joy she’d feel reading it and knowing the joy was very much entangled in the man who’d introduced her to Mr. Hugo’s work just a few short months ago.

The Welsh air was cold, and Sopherina kept herself moving in order to ward off freezing to death. The sky was gray but that was normal for a dusty coal city. There was little color to be found in the city. She often thought to visit London, hearing that the weather was not much different, and yet the city grander, but she truly had no desire to leave Merthyr Tydfil. It had everything she needed.

Her guard had offered to stand in the line for her, but she’d insisted on doing this herself. Mild irritation did set in when she saw him sitting in the carriage that sat on the side of the street a few feet away.

She’d wanted to appear like everyone else who stood in front of the shop but apparently, that would not be so. She looked down at her dress, noting that she wore one of the mourning gowns from her mother’s funeral, a dark color she hoped helped her blend in well with the working-class people around her.

She glanced around and noticed eyes on her, most of them unkind. She put her head back down, then lifted it up again when a hand touched her back.

Arresting light blue eyes stared down at her. “My apologies for being late, Miss North.” Les’ voice always rumbled from years of smoking, a habit she’d gotten him to break. His skin was dark from working in the coal, black covering him from head to toe. His gray hat covered his black hair, the hat being something he wore no matter what mangled attire he put on his body, and a black beard covered his jaw, but nothing could detract from his beauty. No soot, not the tragic cutting of his clothes or whether they were clean or not. Lester Paddon was the handsomest man Sopherina had ever met, and she’d fallen in love with him at their very first meeting—a meeting that had ended with her being forced to listen as he read the first part of The Last Day of a Condemned Man. She’d cried through the entire reading, already sure that in the end the man would have to meet his fate at the guillotine. The book had been moving, and Les’ voice that much more. Since then, they’d read many books together, but Hugo was their shared favorite.

Les looked down at his clothes before taking a step away from her. “I just finished my shift. I wouldn’t want to get you covered in dust.” His white smile was like the rising of the sun to her heart.

“I don’t mind. I never mind,” she whispered.

His eyes softened, and his expression warmed in a way that Sopherina had seen before but didn’t understand. The look was… intoxicating and always made her feel as though she were looking into the eye of a flame.

The door in front of them chimed, and Sopherina smiled as the line began to move but before she could step inside, the bookstore owner said, “Forgive me, but I only have ten copies of the book. The rest will arrive from London in a week.”

There was a loud groaning sound behind her and panic made her heart race. She counted the people in front of her and knew she’d not get a book. There was no point in waiting for it. The entire day was ruined.

Sopherina turned to Les. “I suppose we’ll simply have to read the book next week.” But she desperately wanted to see him again before that. They didn’t do many things together. Being together at all was almost forbidden but Sopherina couldn’t help herself. She’d become a different person since meeting him, disobeying her father so that she could see Les. She even snuck out one night and allowed him to take her to a tavern that had put on a special show. The night had been magical and had ended with the only kiss Sopherina had ever received.

The kiss had been sweet and gentle, just a brush of lips, but she’d hardly needed more than that to make her heart swell with more love for him; yet now she would need an impossible reason to see him again unless he sought her out. As a gently bred woman, she wouldn’t impose on Les’ time even if he didn’t work for her father.

She desperately wanted him to like her, to love her. She almost felt like crying knowing she’d not be sitting at Lady Tash’ sitting room over tea with Les reading to them.

The disappointment must have shown on her face because he smiled. “There’s no need to worry.” He turned to the bookstore owner and said, “Mr. Stern, do you have an order for Lester Paddon?”

The owner nodded and moved to his counter. Les put a hand on her back and pushed her forward.

Sopherina watched in amazement as a book was taken from behind the counter and placed it in front of her. The cover was different from the displayed book. Someone had hand-painted one of France’s most illustrious buildings on the front. Sopherina traced her hand over the title: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“For you,” Les told her.

She looked at him with widened eyes. “Me? This must have cost you your entire yearly wages. You didn’t have to do this. I’ll have to pay you back.”

“You’ll do no such thing.” His eyes became hard. “One does not repay someone for a gift. Don’t worry about the money. Mr. Stern and I have a different arrangement.”

Sopherina looked over at Mr. Stern, who smiled at her. “He makes sure I’m one of the first bookstores for miles to get the Order of the Second Sons books.” The popular children’s books told the stories of a band of four spies who were all second sons of powerful men of Society. They were written by Bert Norris, a man of mystery, and yet Les claimed to know him.

She smiled at Les as she hugged the book. “Oh, yes, your friend Mr. Norris. I would like to meet him one day.” She’d never been gifted by anyone but her father before. She was very sure she shouldn’t accept such a costly tome, but someone would have to pry it from her to take it away.

“Another time.” He showed her out of the bookshop, and they walked to Lady Tash’s while they spoke about what they thought might happen in the book. All the while, her carriage followed.

When they reached Lady Tash’s, they were shown into the sitting room where the woman waited for them.

“Miss Sopherina. Mr. Paddon. It’s so good to see you.” The older woman was the only person who greeted Sopherina and Les in the same kind manner and the only place in Merthyr Tydfil where they could safely meet for a few hours whenever they wished.

Once the woman was gone, Les shed his jacket and took a seat next to Sopherina, his eyes watching her in a strange manner.

“What?” She had to stop herself from reaching up to touch her hair.

He smiled and shook his head. “It’s nothing. I simply enjoy staring at you. In the wasteland of Merthyr Tydfil, you, Sopherina, are a flower that refuses to be crushed by wind or brick. You’re beautiful.”

She took a deep breath, realizing she’d not breathed through his entire speech. “You’ve never said anything like that before.”

He smiled. “Why would it matter? I’m just a simple miner. You probably have enough people in your life to tell you how beautiful you are.”

“I don’t.” She moved closer. “No one tells me things like that. People are afraid to speak to me or hate me and with the rumors about the riots…”

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he vowed.

She smiled and choked back the words ‘I love you’ and decided it was time to start reading. “I’ll go first.” She cleared her throat and opened the cover to find an inscription in beautiful handwriting. Sure she'd read the words wrong, she did it again and then again. Will you marry me? She looked at Les inquisitively. “Who wrote this?”

His expression was unreadable, his eyes roaming her face before meeting her gaze again. “I did.”

She stared at him and understood the inscription’s meaning. “Will you marry me?” she whispered. She looked at him with wide eyes. “You wish to marry me?”

“If you’ll have me,” he replied, hope in his eyes. “I know, I’m not the man your father would approve of, but I swear to you—”

“Yes,” she whispered. Then, louder, she replied, “Yes! Les, I’ll marry you.”

He touched her cheek and leaned forward. Sopherina could barely get her mouth to cooperate with the way she was trembling. She closed her eyes and allowed Les’ mouth to rub against her own. Her lips parted, and she felt his tongue touch hers.

Heat pooled in her belly, and she broke away, touching her lips. “What was that?”

He smiled. “A kiss.”

Her heart beat painfully in her chest. “You didn’t kiss me like that before.”

“Did you not enjoy it?” His smile slipped.

She blinked. “I enjoyed it.” She'd enjoyed it more than she thought she should. “Perhaps we could do it again?”

He smiled again. “All right.”

They kissed again and under Les’ skills, Sopherina learned that what they’d done that night at the tavern was not kissing. This was kissing, this play of lips and tongues. By the time Les broke away, she was ready to agree to anything.

“Will you leave for Gretna Green with me tonight?”

With her eyes closed and the feel of his mouth still on hers, it was no wonder she said yes.

---

One Week Later

Warren Leverton lay propped up in bed as he stared at his wife—no, Les Paddon's wife—as she wrote at a small table by the fireplace in their room at an inn in Gretna Green. He'd just had her, and yet his body wanted more. Sopherina's abundance of dark red curls hung in a heavy mass over her shoulders and down her back. He'd had to beg her to not redress, swearing to her that a proper wife could go around the bedroom in nothing at all if that was her husband's desire. They'd compromised in the end. She sat in her chemise, the thin material hiding very little with her profile positioned in front of the fire.

She had both her long legs bent underneath her chair, her head slightly tilted as her hand stroked a pen over paper. Everything she did was sensual. She was utterly feminine, and Warren found himself in a situation he'd never been in before.

He was deeply in love with a woman who should have been nothing more than his assignment. Sopherina North's father and the rest of the iron company owners in Merthyr Tydfil were in danger. There was a riot coming. Warren could feel it in the air. His assumed name for the last few months was Lester Paddon, a man from a small village who'd simply been looking for work and found his way to Merthyr Tydfil. He worked for North Iron, accepting the low wages, and kept his mouth closed as he listened to the angry men around him. There was high tension in the air. People were starving and, as a spy, Warren had traveled the world and seen what a man with a starving family was willing to do. He'd be willing to kill if it meant food. England feared having to send the army in to calm the men down but the army coming to Wales would mean bloodshed.

At first, his job had been to simply see if all was well in Wales. Many of England's resources came from there. Water, iron, and coal to name a few. The Crown had heard whispers of strike, which would make life not only hard for the companies but for the country if it went on for too long, so the O.S.S., or rather, the Order of the Second Sons, had been sent in, an order as old as the realm and truer than the stories Warren spun under his pen name Bert Norris.

Once the O.S.S. knew that a strike was inevitable, he was asked to stay and see if the strike would last long and if the owners could find peace among its workers.

It didn't look likely to happen and so now all the O.S.S. wished to do was save lives. By marrying Sopherina, Warren would get a chance to get to know the sort of man her father was and perhaps find a way that would benefit everyone. Of all the owners of industry in town, Mr. North was the kindest and most compassionate, and Warren thought him the one to fix the issue. If he could lean on the other owners, all would return to right.

But getting close to Mr. North without revealing who he truly was meant playing the role of a coal miner and getting the daughter to notice him. It hadn't been hard to gain Sopherina's notice and once he'd shown himself to be educated, it hadn't been hard to keep her interest. He'd flirted with her as he would have done with any woman but Sopherina's innocence and kind nature had amazed him. Most of the time, Warren had been lost, wondering if she understood the game they were playing, the game of charm that men and women in Society played until he finally understood that for her, there was no game. There was only honesty and her honesty broke him, tore down his need to preserve himself, and touched his heart in a way that still left him wondering how he'd ever been lucky enough to meet someone like her.

When she'd said yes to his proposal, it had been he who'd been glad, not Lester Paddon, and it had been he, Sir Warren Leverton, the second son of the Earl of Chasewood, who'd kissed her. He'd tried to pull back once he'd had her in his hired coach and during the entire trip to Gretna Green but when he'd spoke his vows to love her forever, Les was nowhere to be seen. It was Warren who loved her, and Warren planned to keep her.

So, while she wrote, he busied himself with trying to figure out a way to tell her the truth. He knew that until the city calmed, he would have to continue to lie about who he was but once everything was settled, he would be honest with her.

She looked up at him and shyly ducked away. She tucked a hair behind her ear and wrapped its end around her finger. She'd done that periodically during her letter. He knew her to be writing her father when he saw the tension in her brow. She wanted him to understand why she'd run away, and Warren had given her space to think and speak from her heart. He himself needed to write but that would have to wait until he was in private.

He watched her eyes flicker over to him again. Her lower lip caught between her teeth.

"What?" he asked.

"You're staring at me."

He loved her Welsh accent, the way the 'a' in 'staring' was dragged and the 'r' rolled just so. He’d had to change his own accent as well, adapting something that was improper but implacable in Britain. She had a sloped nose with a round point and wide eyes that were the color of warm bread, a light brown. Her lashes were also very long. One could see them from yards away against her pale skin.

"You're doing it again," she whispered.

He smiled. "A man can't stare at his wife?"

She lifted a brow. "Are you having second thoughts?"

Warren stood and crossed the room, fully aware of his nudity as her eyes flickered away from him, causing him to chuckle. He knelt by her and took her hand, the one that held the simple gold band he’d given her with the claim that it had been his mother’s. He placed a kiss on the back of it and rubbed his cheek against the softness there. She was soft inside and out, her heart the sweetest one he'd ever held. "I love you, Sopherina, and no matter what happens, no matter where I go, I want you with me."

She held his gaze but said nothing.

He narrowed his eyes. "Tell me what thought just went through your head."

She shook her head.

He caught her chin. "Never be afraid to say anything to me, my love. I want to hear anything and everything you have to say." She was so shy. So delicate. He felt like a cad for taking her, for coming into her life under false pretenses. If only he could go back, he would have come to her as Sir Warren Leverton and courted her properly. There would have been no need for her to run away with him. Her father would have approved of the match.

So much of Warren's life was a lie. His family didn't even know what he truly did. Even now, they thought him sailing the seas on an endless holiday. They didn't know that he was a member of an organization of spies that had a long history in Europe.

Sopherina licked her lips. "What if my father cuts me off? Would you still want me then?" As his only child, many believed Sopherina to inherit her father's company and all his wealth.

Warren was tempted to tell her that they didn't even have to go back to Merthyr Tydfil. He had everything he needed right here in the inn's top room in Gretna Green, but he had to complete his assignment.

He kissed her hand again. "I don't care about your wealth. All I care about is you."

She smiled. "Well, you'll have to stop working in the coal mines once we are married. My father could get you a better position in the company, I'm sure of it. You are educated. I don't see why you couldn't be more useful somewhere else."

He smiled, stood, and kissed her mouth again. "No, I'll stay with the men." He moved to put on his breeches and pulled the bell.

He turned to her when his reply was met with silence. She'd returned to her letter, but her hands rested on her lap. "Speak, Sopherina."

She lifted her chin to him. "I don't understand. Why would you want to work in the coal mines? It pays nothing."

He couldn't explain that he needed to be close to the men who were forming the strike and see if the more violent ones could be contained. "If you believe we are paid so little, then tell your father to pay the workers more."

Her expression closed, and she straightened. "I have."

That surprised him. "You have? And what did he say?"

"There's not enough money to lift everyone's wages." She frowned. "Perhaps he can lift yours."

Warren shook his head. "No. Everyone or no one. I won't take more money just because I'm your husband." Already, he gave his wages to the families who were worse off, giving the funds to the baker to make sure that extra food was delivered to those who suffered.

A knock sounded on the door, and Warren opened it to find a maid. "We'd like dinner brought to the room."

The maid ran off, and he closed the door behind him.

"Les, how are you affording all of this?"

He moved to sit across from her at the table. "I saved up money from the village I lived in before coming to Merthyr Tydfil. I didn't know I'd find work so quickly. So, don't worry."

She folded her letter and looked down at her hands. "So, you'll work in the mines and you'll not take more money. Will you at least be living with us, Daddy and me?" She looked at him again.

Warren frowned. He needed to be close to the men, but he lived in the worst part of town, and he could never ask Sopherina to live with him. "It's better that I live close to the mines."

She leaned back in her chair, and he watched her heart break. "Les, are we to be married in name only?"

He took her hand under the table. "If it's all right with your father, I'll join your house for dinner and remain with you for a few hours before returning to my house. I believe your father will think this better. I doubt he'd wish to announce anytime soon that his daughter married a coal miner."

She nodded and sighed, squeezing his hand. "You're right but I don't want you to think I'm ashamed of you. I love you." Every time she said it, he was filled with both pleasure and pain.

He smiled. "One day soon, we'll live in the same house as man and wife, I swear it to you." And when the time came, he would not be Lester Paddon but Warren Leverton. "Give it time."

She smiled as another knock sounded at the door.

He leaned over the table, kissed her, and went to get their meals.

It is currently priced at $0.99 (around 330 pages)