Desperation leads to a scandalous masquerade!
For Miss Cassandra Weston there is only one escape route from an appalling arranged marriage – flight to Godmama in London. But Godmama is out of the country and Nicholas, Earl of Lydford, her son, is about to leave on a Grand Tour, starting in Paris.
Take one very reluctant nobleman, a valet with a broken leg, a ferocious great aunt – and Cassandra becomes Cass the valet en route to Paris.
Can Cassie and Nicholas safely negotiate weeks of deception, misunderstanding and desire, lightly spiced with raging rivers, blood-thirsty bandits and exotic Venetian courtesans? And can their growing love survive Miss Weston’s most scandalous masquerade of all?
This is an extensively revised version of the novel of the same title written by Francesca Shaw and published by Mills & Boon in 1994.
‘Are you going to Woodham Park to stay as she asks?’ Cassandra sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Cassandra pricked up her ears at the we. It sounded as though, whatever the plan, he did not intend leaving her with the housekeeper after all.
‘You have a scheme for me?’ She looked at him, but his expression was preoccupied and he was not attending to her.
Her mind seemed to be composed of porridge. Beds, marrying Nicolas… Under the coarse neckcloth, Cassandra could feel the rising heat of embarrassment. Marry Nicholas? He had been her idol for so long, a wonderful ‘big brother’, she could never think of him in that way. He was jesting, of course, believing her to be so young. And, of course, he was making it quite evident how unthinkable the idea was.
Cassandra got a grip on her rioting imagination. ‘I… why cannot I stay here with your housekeeper until Godmama returns?’ She broke off, realising he was still talking.
Cassandra could well imagine Lady Augusta’s reaction if she discovered an unmarried girl who had run away from home and taken refuge in a gentleman’s bed chamber. She would have to marry Lord Offley, or Nicholas, or be ruined in the eyes of Society.
She was conscious of Nicholas’s silence. He had made a suggestion, now it was up to her to decide. Travel with him and take the risk of public exposure and ruin, or go back and face a marriage she abhorred. She shivered, remembering Lord Offley’s lascivious gaze. She may have led a sheltered life, but she was a countrywoman and she knew exactly what was in his mind when he looked at her like that.
She raised her eyes to meet those of the very different man who was offering her the chance of escape.
An impossible choice? What seemed impossible was to hide her elation from him, make him think she was the frightened, vulnerable child he believed her to be, not the determined eighteen year old she was. Cassandra could think of nothing she would rather do in the entire world. To journey abroad. To visit Paris. And with Nicholas, whom she had idolised since she was eight years old. Hastily she lowered her gaze before he could see the welling excitement there.