The Lurid Lady Lockport (Regency Classics: Alphabet Series #4)

A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency

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RITA winner! RITA winner!

The companion book to THE BELLIGERENT MISS BOYNTON, here is THE LURID LADY LOCKPORT, the Romance Writers Of America’s RITA winner for Best Regency Romance in 1984, as well as the recipient of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award for Best Regency Comedy of the Year.

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Kevin Rawling (first encountered in The Belligerent Miss Boynton), is finally the Earl of Lockport, now that his eccentric and reclusive uncle has at last stuck his spoon in the wall. But when Kevin goes to inspect his country estate, he finds that he has inherited more than a huge, ramshackle old mansion.

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Gilly Fortune grew up as a servant on the estate, the bastard child of the late earl, and she’s none too thrilled to see Kevin come riding up to the door.

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Neither of them are happy to learn the conditions of the late earl’s will, that has a lot to do with the two near combatants marrying in order to release estate funds badly needed by Kevin … and then there’s this business about a hidden fortune.

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But all of this pales when Kevin and Gilly begin to realize that there’s more between them than either could have supposed …

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An Excerpt:

For better or worse … and everything in between:

Kevin found the girl quite easily, hidden out in a small back room he had sat himself in earlier that day to contemplate his future. It was a depressing room, but not quite so oppressive as the Long Library, which wasn't much of an endorsement.

There were no drapes at the three long windows, and the sun tried its best to brighten the interior with all the sunlight that could succeed in penetrating the age-old layers of grime on the panes. It wasn't having much luck.

In the midst of one patch of this muted brilliance stood the girl who had recently tried to pass herself off as a man-mad hussy. Her atrocious gown was now straight on her shoulders, and all the buttons still on the gown were slipped modestly through their buttonholes. There was not, however, much improvement in the riot of disgustingly disheveled-looking hair that, even tangled and matted as it was, nearly reached to her waist, its mixed colors of red and gold turning into a lurid cloak of blazing orange fire about her head.

Titian used just such a shade in his paintings, Kevin could only muse: perhaps once that rat's nest is washed and brushed it will look more like Titian's dream than his nightmare. He shrugged, not blaming himself for his small hope. After all, he knew it was only natural to search for some compensation in this farce he was being forced star in with the unfortunately named Eugenia Fortune.

He inspected the remainder of the girl, at least all that he could catalog with her back turned to him. Remembering the glimpse he'd had of Eugenia's small, sadly uninspiring bosom, Kevin decided his bride would never need fear his passion for her body would one day overpower him to the point he would take her regardless of her wishes in the matter.

She did have a fairly nice derrière, he admitted ruefully, the small of her back being slightly concave before sloping gently outward into tight, firm buttocks and the promise of slim, straight legs. Face it, old boy, he mocked himself, if she was dumb as a red brick, as ugly as a hedgehog, and twice as fat as Mutter, you'd still wed her. You have no choice, much as you'd like to make yourself believe you would whistle the entire business, lands, fortune, and hidden treasure down the wind if the marriage were altogether aesthetically repugnant. You’re many things, but in this instance, you can’t afford to be a gentleman.

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