Silence of Scandal
(Book 1 in the Unrivalled Regency Series)
by
Author Jackie Williams
The war is over for the nation but not for the new Duke of Ormond. With death and debt stalking his every waking moment, caught between blackmailers and his brother’s deepest secret, Alexander’s dreams lie in tatters but he never surrendered on the battlefields of the Peninsular and he’s not about to admit defeat now. Even if that means marrying a woman he has never laid eyes on before.
With her father’s warnings still fresh in her mind and her imperfections obvious to any who know her, Elizabeth’s options for freedom are diminishing with every trembling step. Available suitors are few and far between. Marriage to a debt ridden, aging fortune hunter will not be easy but with no other alternatives and destitution threatening she cannot escape her fate.
Falling in love hadn't been a possibility Alexander ever considered but one glance at his beautiful bride’s tear filled onyx eyes has his blood surging through his veins, his heart pounding in his chest and he can no longer hide his emotions behind a facade of polite indifference.
Elizabeth hadn’t expected him to be handsome. She hadn’t expected him to greet her with a sparkling sapphire gaze. She hadn’t expected gentle fingertips on her skin or her heart to break at the tender words on his lips.
With Ormond and the family jewels at stake, Alexander’s resolve to defeat his enemies is soon put to the test as rumour, intrigue, and scandal threaten his and Elizabeth’s blossoming affections. There is clearly another plan. There had always been another plan. A plan of greed and vengeance devised to ruin Ormond and its descendants for all time.
Silence of Scandal is a light-hearted, easy read suitable for age 16 and upwards.
(Contains some swearing and sensual love scenes)
Copyright © Jackie Williams 2015
Prologue
1799
“How is that cart going to move without the horses? The kettle is surely far too small to create enough steam to move this thing.” Alexander Currurgh waved his hand towards the two wheeled barrow that normally carried the apples from the orchard. It was usually pulled by their oldest horse, Thyme. Now it stood resting on its two wheels with a very strange looking contraption at the front end.
Alexander raised a scornful twelve year old eyebrow. His brother had clearly flipped the coop this time. “Don’t you recall the ones that drive those engines? We saw them in that mine. They’re huge. The amount of fuel you need to keep the fire running is enormous and we don’t even have a running water supply. Are you sure that you haven’t been at father’s brandy again, Phillip.” Alexander looked up at his elder brother with suspicion and swallowed hard as he remembered the recent late night trip to their father’s study and the fiery amber liquid burning his own throat. He didn’t even want to think about the subsequent spinning head and strange visions he had suffered for two days that made him wish he had never accepted Phillip’s reckless dare.
Phillip looked down his long nose at his slightly shorter sibling. There were only a couple of years between them in age and not a lot in height or build but Phillip gave an extremely superior sniff.
“You haven’t been listening, Alex. This is my first experiment into steam locomotion. I want to see if I can do it myself. Look here, see this pipe from the kettle spout, I’ve sealed the join, and when I release the valve the steam shooting from the kettle will force its way down this pipe to the piston attached to this spoke.’ He indicated a shinier tube of metal that Alexander had seen him guarding for days. “Then with the high pressure steam being forced into the piston, it will turn the wheel.” He scratched his head doubtfully for a moment as he wrinkled his nose at the bits of metal bound together with strips of oiled leather and cloth. “Well, that’s the plan anyway. I’m going to see if this works now and then I should be able to replace the horses by the end of next year, if I can find a kettle big enough.” Phillip explained as though Alexander had never seen an engine before. It was their father’s insistence on letting them see a working mine with steam driven pumping gear that had begun all of Phillip’s experiments. All the noise and machinery had fascinated him.
Alexander had not been nearly so enamoured of all the industry. While he knew about the progression of things he wasn’t entirely happy with such noisy, filthy changes. He looked curiously up at his brother.
“Why do you want to get rid of the horses, Phillip? I don’t think Jennings will be at all happy if you do that. He won’t have a job for a start but apart from that at least the nags are clean, quiet and have several uses. This looks as though it’s going to be hard work and noisy.” Alexander peered at the copper kettle. It looked suspiciously like the one that had hung above the huge stove in the kitchen for many years. The same one that cook had accused Callum the woodsman of removing without permission. Alexander had liked the phrase ‘removing without permission’. He’d remained seated at the kitchen table with a lardy cake halfway to his lips as cook waggled her finger angrily at Callum while she demanded to know where her biggest kettle had disappeared to. Callum had looked as though he was going to choke over the words aimed at him. His face turned beet red and the whiskers in his nose wriggled as he breathed out furiously. Removing without permission obviously wasn’t quite stealing, but it was near enough for Callum to storm out of the kitchen after denying the accusation loudly enough to be heard in the next county.
Alexander raised a scornful twelve year old eyebrow. His brother had clearly flipped the coop this time. “Don’t you recall the ones that drive those engines? We saw them in that mine. They’re huge. The amount of fuel you need to keep the fire running is enormous and we don’t even have a running water supply. Are you sure that you haven’t been at father’s brandy again, Phillip.” Alexander looked up at his elder brother with suspicion and swallowed hard as he remembered the recent late night trip to their father’s study and the fiery amber liquid burning his own throat. He didn’t even want to think about the subsequent spinning head and strange visions he had suffered for two days that made him wish he had never accepted Phillip’s reckless dare.
Phillip looked down his long nose at his slightly shorter sibling. There were only a couple of years between them in age and not a lot in height or build but Phillip gave an extremely superior sniff.
“You haven’t been listening, Alex. This is my first experiment into steam locomotion. I want to see if I can do it myself. Look here, see this pipe from the kettle spout, I’ve sealed the join, and when I release the valve the steam shooting from the kettle will force its way down this pipe to the piston attached to this spoke.’ He indicated a shinier tube of metal that Alexander had seen him guarding for days. “Then with the high pressure steam being forced into the piston, it will turn the wheel.” He scratched his head doubtfully for a moment as he wrinkled his nose at the bits of metal bound together with strips of oiled leather and cloth. “Well, that’s the plan anyway. I’m going to see if this works now and then I should be able to replace the horses by the end of next year, if I can find a kettle big enough.” Phillip explained as though Alexander had never seen an engine before. It was their father’s insistence on letting them see a working mine with steam driven pumping gear that had begun all of Phillip’s experiments. All the noise and machinery had fascinated him.
Alexander had not been nearly so enamoured of all the industry. While he knew about the progression of things he wasn’t entirely happy with such noisy, filthy changes. He looked curiously up at his brother.
“Why do you want to get rid of the horses, Phillip? I don’t think Jennings will be at all happy if you do that. He won’t have a job for a start but apart from that at least the nags are clean, quiet and have several uses. This looks as though it’s going to be hard work and noisy.” Alexander peered at the copper kettle. It looked suspiciously like the one that had hung above the huge stove in the kitchen for many years. The same one that cook had accused Callum the woodsman of removing without permission. Alexander had liked the phrase ‘removing without permission’. He’d remained seated at the kitchen table with a lardy cake halfway to his lips as cook waggled her finger angrily at Callum while she demanded to know where her biggest kettle had disappeared to. Callum had looked as though he was going to choke over the words aimed at him. His face turned beet red and the whiskers in his nose wriggled as he breathed out furiously. Removing without permission obviously wasn’t quite stealing, but it was near enough for Callum to storm out of the kitchen after denying the accusation loudly enough to be heard in the next county.
Continue Reading: http://www.romanticsuspensebooks.org/silence-of-scandal-first-chapter/
Then, sample Chapter Seven: http://www.rukiapublishing.com/silence-of-scandal.html
Each book is a stand alone story, but they are best read in order to fully appreciate all the characters and locations which are current throughout the series.
Silence Of Scandal:
http://bit.ly/2b5q4qPSilenceofScandal
A Murderous Masquerade (Placed 9th in ReadFree.ly's top 50 books of 2015)http://bit.ly/2bh6EQ4
A Gallant Gamble: http://bit.ly/2bh6msHAGallantGamble
Dangerous Deceptions: http://bit.ly/2btr09xDangerousDeceptions
An Elusive Escape: http://bit.ly/2bs71oOAnElusiveEscape
Jackie Williams, Romance writer.Silence Of Scandal:
http://bit.ly/2b5q4qPSilenceofScandal
A Murderous Masquerade (Placed 9th in ReadFree.ly's top 50 books of 2015)http://bit.ly/2bh6EQ4
A Gallant Gamble: http://bit.ly/2bh6msHAGallantGamble
Dangerous Deceptions: http://bit.ly/2btr09xDangerousDeceptions
An Elusive Escape: http://bit.ly/2bs71oOAnElusiveEscape
I was born in Essex England during the mid sixties but I missed all the fun. Being only young, I assumed that all Beatles were six legged creatures and Flower Power was something to do with the vigorous way my mother kneaded the bread dough.
My wonderful parents brought me up with a huge love of books. We read anything and everything. Bedtime stories were a treasured time of adventure and mystery. My sister and I sat wide eyed in wonder and to this day I worry about Dinah and Dorinda being pricked with pins because they grew so fat, and I never pull faces at the a waning moon (or was it a waxing one?) just in case my chops stay that way . (The Wind On The Moon)
I began reading romance while still at school. The fuel for many a teenage fantasy leapt from between the covers of wildly romantic books and my passion still lingers now for all those dark haired heroes.
My own beautiful teenage daughter persuaded me to write my first romance. She was only fourteen at the time and between books for children and adults. She couldn't find anything that ticked all her numerous and particular boxes and so she asked me to write a book, with all the exact ingredients just for her. Though not just a book for teens, she enjoyed the resulting tale so much that she shared it with her friends and I eventually published A Perfect Summer as an ebook on amazon.
But I have discovered that writing is not easily stopped once you start. It has turned into a grand passion that I just cannot hold back. The fingertips start tapping the keys and ideas suddenly come flooding, far too many for just one book and so I began another and then another. Twenty-two books later I am still nowhere near done. Book twenty-three is on its way and only just the other night I woke from a wild and wonderful dream with book sixteen fully formed in my head.
Romance will always be my first love but recently I was so influenced by a tiny polished plaque on a sea wall that I gave paranormal romance a try. (Echo Beach) Mixing the two genres was a real challenge for me but I was delighted with the result. Historical romance is my latest genre. All those fabulously titled and passionate men are impossibly hard to resist!
I hope you enjoy all of my efforts and I look forward to your comments and reviews.
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