Novel

The Rogue's Disgraced Lady
(A book in the Notorious St. Claires series)
(2009)

A novel by

Carole Mortimer “Lord St. Claire.” She snapped her indignation as she attempted to pull away from him. “At this moment I can think of nothing I would enjoy more than to see you consigned to the devil, where you so obviously belong!”
He gave a husky laugh, refusing to release her despite her struggles. “You believe my past misdeeds serious enough to send me to the pits of hell?” “You do not?” Juliet gave him a scornful glance.

“It is a possibility, I suppose,” he conceded. “Drunkenness. Gambling. Debauchery. Hmm, it does seem more than a possibility, does it not…?” As he lowered his head toward hers, it slowly blocked out the moon overhead. Juliet became very still as she stared up at him. “What are you doing…?” she breathed huskily. He gave an unconcerned shrug of those broad shoulders. “As you seem to believe I am going to the devil anyway, I cannot see that one more indiscretion is going to make the slightest difference to my hellish fate!”

Prologue
Banford House, Mayfair, late July, 1817 „I t is you, Sebastian!‟ his hostess greeted him warmly as he was announced into her drawingroom. „When Revell informed me that Lord St Claire had come to call I thought…But of course Lucian is newly married, and most probably still upon his honeymoon. It is so good to see you!‟ Sebastian, Lord St Claire, was, as usual, dressed in the height of fashion, in a perfectly tailored brown superfine over a gold brocade waistcoat and snowy white linen, with fawn pantaloons and brown-topped black Hessians. His fashionably overlong teak-coloured hair was shot through with natural streaks of gold. He gave a roguish smile as he crossed the room to where Dolly Vaughn reclined graciously upon the raspberry-red sofa in the drawing room of her town house. Except she was no longer Dolly Vaughn, of course, but Lady Dorothea Bancroft, the Countess of Banford. Eyes the colour of warm whisky... [continues]

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