Seduction of a Proper Gentleman

by Victoria Alexander

Overview

A young lady pursues a brazen scheme to seduction a man she’s never met in the #1 New York Times bestselling author’s Victorian romance series.

England, 1854. To break a centuries-old curse, beautiful, headstrong Lady Kathleen MacDavid knows she must ignore every rule of propriety by seducing—and marrying—the Earl of Norcroft. So she sets off for London, braving scandal and ruin to achieve her goal . . . until a crazy bump on the head makes her forget nearly everything.

The thrill of winning a bet—that he'd be the last of his set to wed—hasn't eased the earl's pain of losing his friends to marriage. Still, he'd be willing to settle down if he could meet someone worthy of his love—and desire. But he has met no such woman, until Kathleen is brought to him. Suspicious of her motives, he's determined to resist her seductive ways. But sometimes even the most proper gentleman finds it expedient to act improperly . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061808517
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/18/2023
Series:	Last Man Standing , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	383
File size:	989 KB

About the Author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was more fun than real life. She is the author of thirty-one novels, and her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Victoria lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her long-suffering husband and two dogs, in a house under endless renovation and never-ending chaos.

Read an Excerpt

Seduction of a Proper Gentleman

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By Victoria Alexander
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 2008
Victoria Alexander
All right reserved.

ISBN: 9780061449468

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Chapter One

He thought she was a beggar? Kathleen Mac David, granddaughter of the Countess of Dumleavy, stared at the coins in her hand. Indignation swept through her. A beggar? The arrogance of the man. No, the stupidity!

"I beg your par—" She looked up, the words died in her throat. The earl was already climbing into his carriage.

She watched it pull away and her annoyance faded. To be fair, and Kathleen was nothing if not fair, in the deepening shadows of the approaching night, and wrapped in the hooded cloak her grandmother had insisted she wear for luck—it had been passed down from grandmother to granddaughter for generations and therefore had a certain inherent power—perhaps it might be possible, if one were paying scant attention, to mistake a lady of quality for a beggar. And perhaps, if one incorrectly assumed a woman in an overly large, faded, well-used cloak was not a lady of quality, then the apparent lack of any kind of feminine accompaniment in the form of a forbidding chaperone might confirm that mistaken impression. Very well then. Kathleen started toward her carriage a scant few yards from where the Earl of Norcroft's vehicle had been parked no more than a minute ago. Perhaps the man wasn't an idiot, which was rather nice to know, all things considered.

Sheinstructed the driver of her carriage to return to the hotel, then climbed in and settled in the seat across from her aunt and alleged chaperone Lady Hannah Fitzgivens. If truth were told, it was often difficult to tell just who was chaperoning whom. Not that, as widows, either really needed a chaperone. Necessity aside, Hannah had insisted on accompanying Kathleen because, as she had said before they had left Scotland, it might be an interesting adventure.

"Well?" Hannah raised a brow. "Did you see him?"

"I did," Kathleen said slowly.

"And?" An eager note sounded in Hannah's voice.

"I didn't say a word."

"Oh." Hannah's expression fell, then brightened. "Are we following him then?"

"No, of course not. We're returning to the hotel. My intention was not to accost him, you know." "Not to accost him yet, you mean."

"I don't mean that at all. I simply wanted to get a good look at the man." Kathleen shrugged as if that was truly all that she had intended. Of course, they both knew better. Indeed, when he had stopped before her, Kathleen had been perilously close to throwing caution to the winds and introducing herself. Even in that brief moment, there had been the hint of something inevitable about the man. Utter nonsense really and attributable to nothing more significant than her grandmother's never-ending pronouncements and her own newfound belief in destiny and the absurd. Regardless, such a first meeting might be awkward and would be highly improper although she had never been overly concerned with propriety unless it suited her.

But he was a British lord with a long and distinguished title and it would not do to get off on the wrong foot with him. Still, Kathleen doubted there was a right foot. She sighed and settled back in her seat. Nothing about this venture was going to be even remotely less than awkward.

"But I thought you had a photograph?"

"An image captured in that excruciatingly long time one has to remain motionless for the camera to do its work has always struck me as being somewhat less than lifelike. Oh certainly it is exact, but it fails to capture . . ." Kathleen thought for a moment. "The humanity of a subject, if you will. The subject of a photograph might as well be an apple for all the life expressed in the resulting image." She shook her head. "It is not at all like a living, breathing person."

"And you found the living, breathing person . . ." Hannah paused in an annoyingly pointed manner. "Acceptable?"

"Yes, Aunt Hannah, I did." More than acceptable but she wasn't at all sure she wished to confess that yet. While his eyes had never met hers, even in the deepening twilight she had seen they were a rich blue and she had wondered in that instant what they would look like when he laughed. Or when he was angered. Or in the throes of passion, although that was not something it would be wise to dwell on at the moment and certainly not something she would tell her aunt. While the photograph allowed her to recognize his features anywhere, the lack of color coupled with the firm, unyielding expression that was mandatory for a photograph did not do justice to the Earl of Norcroft in the flesh.

His hair was not as dark as she had thought given the photograph, more a rich brown than a black. He was taller than she had expected as well, his shoulders broader, his stride determined. Oh yes, he would do.

"I assume, given your reluctance to do so before now, you were simply waiting to see the gentleman in person before proceeding with a plan. You do need a plan, my dear."

"Yes, you've mentioned that," Kathleen said under her breath.

Aunt Hannah was a firm believer in plans. She said most of the ills of the world could be laid at the foot of poor planning and claimed her first marriage to a wealthy Scottish lord was the direct result of a well-laid plan. That she had loved him with a passion that had lingered far beyond his death at a tragically young age had not been part of her plan. In the nearly quarter of a century since his demise, she had had any number of lovers but not another love. When pressed, she would say that was part of a grander plan which was not, on a divine level, especially well thought out.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Seduction of a Proper Gentleman by Victoria Alexander
Copyright © 2008 by Victoria Alexander. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Oliver Leighton, the Earl of Norcroft, is vaguely depressed to win the tontine his friends formed by remaining the last of them to marry. Kathleen MacDavid could have told him that his life was about to change dramatically, but she falls off the train station platform and suffers amnesia. She ends up at his estate, where attraction and romance follow. Kathleen regains her memory, but the couple's happiness is threatened when the truth is revealed, and the magical explanation doesn't sit well with Oliver. Tantalizingly sexy and filled with lively banter, this inventive and thoroughly delightful conclusion to Alexander's "Last Man Standing" quartet explores the existence of magic and curses and doesn't let readers off the hook until the very end. Nicely done! Alexander (Secrets of a Proper Lady) lives near Omaha. (See the Q&A on p. 52.)

—Kristin Ramsdell

Library Journal

Alexander’s latest gem is a winner that will leave readers waiting for the finale. — Library Journal (starred review)

“Tantalizingly sexy and filled with lively banter...inventive and thoroughly delightful...Nicely done!” — Library Journal (starred review)

From the Publisher