title: Scandal in the Night: The Reckless Brides
author:  Elizabeth Essex 
description: Cat Rowan is in the last possible place Thomas Jellicoe would ever think of looking. After she disappeared one night in India, Thomas spent two years scouring the globe for Cat. When he finally returns home to his brothers estate in Hampshire, he is shocked to discover their familys new governess, Miss Anne Cates, is none other than Cat. Alas, Thomas is not the only one to have discovered Cats new whereabouts: a mysterious gunman takes a shot at her moments after Thomas arrives. Now, in a cruel twist of fate, Thomas may lose Cat once again unless he can convince her to trust him with her life as well as her love. Essex seamlessly shifts the action in the story back and forth between the protagonists first meeting, in India, and their reunion, in England, and her third exotic, enthralling Reckless Brides historical romance is a potent combination of dangerous intrigue and sexy desire. --John Charles
zlib_text: The Lady’s Hazard
  
  Miranda Jarrett
  
    
  
  Scanned and proofed by bils
  
  Version 1.0
  
   _ ****_
  
  _**Chapter One**_
  
   _St. James's Square, London 1805_
  
    
  
  William Callaway stood in the shadows of the iron fence and thought again of
  how much he hated weddings.
  
  The guests were arriving now for the wedding feast, clustered along the
  pavement before Penny House as they waited for the new husband and wife to
  appear. The gentlemen laughed and joked, already drinking, while the women
  preened like gaudy exotic birds in the late afternoon sun, the plumes on their
  hats nodding as they gathered in chattering little groups on the pale stone
  steps. Their laughter rippled across the summer afternoon air, bright with
  excitement.
  
  William hunched his shoulders deeper into his coat, ignoring the boy who'd
  guided him here. Too much joy, he thought grimly, too much happiness and
  optimism for all the suffering and misery that filled the world. Didn't these
  fools understand that this couple was as doomed as a