The Heir is now available!

The Heir, book 4 in the Rags to Richmonds series is now available! Read it all for free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

The Heir is the story of Viscount Oakley’s search for love~its not Jane Austen but Oakley might remind you just a bit of Mr Bingley! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how many of my JAFF-loving pals have given this little venture a try… I hope you’ll find the conclusion of the series satisfying! An excerpt is below-in addition to his other fine qualities, Oakley is determined to be a fun uncle, aka a funcle! See if he manages that below! 🙂

And if you want to learn more about some of the intrigue/jewel theft parts of the book, check out a blog post about it HERE.

Excerpt

As was Oakley’s tendency when he was out of sorts, he longed for cream ices. Nothing, he felt, was nearly as satisfying as cream ices when one was feeling low. He stopped first at Worthe House to see whether they would wish to accompany him. Scarlett was sitting with her mother-in-law in the parlour. She looked a little pale, he noticed, and he hoped she was not ill.

After the usual polite civilities, he said, “Ladies, I was positively longing for cream ices this morning and I wondered—Scarlett?”

Scarlett had risen unsteadily, her handkerchief pressed to her mouth. “The notion of that…” Without a syllable more, she nearly ran from the room.

Such an action bewildered him, even if the dowager countess did not seem much concerned. “I believe her stomach is unsettled today,” said the older woman with a little smile in the direction of the door.

“Should someone go to her?” Oakley asked.

“I do not doubt her maid will tend to her. I daresay that she—”

The sound of the door opening again stopped the elder Lady Worthe’s words. “Forgive me,” Scarlett said, re-entering the room. “You were saying, Oakley?”

“I am surely not going to say it again, not when the first utterance sent you dashing out of the room,” Oakley said. “What is it? Are you well?”

Scarlett nodded. “Do not worry, Brother, all is well.”

“I thought you liked Gunter’s?”

“I did. I do! I just…perhaps not today. You know who is simply mad for…Gunter’s, um, offerings? Penrith’s children. Perhaps you ought to call there and see whether you can take them with you.”

“A capital notion,” Lady Worthe agreed immediately. “No doubt they would be delighted for some of, um, the things at Gunter’s.”

The notion cheered Oakley considerably, and shortly after, he took his leave of the ladies and went to Penrith’s house.

He found Frederica and Penrith reading together in the saloon they used in the mornings. Oakley imagined most men might have purposed it for their own doings, but Penrith had allowed for the installation of light muslin curtains and furniture with flowered upholstery. There was a dainty escritoire for her and a more substantial desk for him, and a bottle of sherry sat next to the port. In all, Oakley thought he might like such a cosy domestic arrangement for himself, assuming he might be able to find a wife with whom he could be in such close quarters.

As I would have had with Bess. His ever-present bleakness seemed ever-ready to punch him in the gut with that sort of thing.

Determined not to show a gloomy face, he said, “You know I am quite determined to be seen as the fun-loving uncle, and I thought it might be diverting to gather the children and go to Gunter’s.”

His sister smiled warmly, while Penrith immediately laid aside his book. “Is it only the children you mean to invite? I like a cream ice as much as they do.”

“Then it seems we are a party.”

There was a brief delay then while Oakley begged leave to go to the nursery and surprise the children, which he did by first creeping in and hiding behind a conveniently-placed couch, then popping up with a shriek. Alas, the shriek only upset Mrs Coombs, their nanny; the children themselves were unperturbed.

“We must take Mrs Coombs with us,” he announced to Frederica as she came in behind him. “For I have nearly caused her to faint.”

“Take us where?” asked Lady Delphine, her small face alight with anticipation.

“Oh, you will not like it. ’Tis an excessively unpleasant place.” Oakley frowned and tried to look very dreary. “Filled with things no child ever liked.”

They were, by now, too much accustomed to him to fall for it. “Please, please take us?” Lord Ryde begged. “I promise I shall like it!” Beside him, little Felix echoed his exclamations.

“No, I am certain that you, most of all, will not like it,” Oakley replied lugubriously. “Oh never mind. You were right, Penrith, they will not want to go.”

The children were nearly mad to know by then, the boys hopping up and down and Lady Delphine begging and pleading with her father to allow them to go to this unknown wonder. With a laugh, Frederica urged Oakley to stop tormenting them and tell them.

“Gunter’s?” he asked, feigning dubiousness. “Cream ices? I know you thought the pistachio tasted like—oof!” He grunted the last as Felix hurled his small body at him and nearly knocked him over. He grabbed the boy and tossed him over one shoulder like a sack of grain, then grinned at his sister and Penrith. “Seems we are all off for cream ices!”

VISCOUNT OAKLEY, THE HANDSOME AND WEALTHY HEIR to the Tipton earldom should have no trouble whatsoever wooing women. After all, there is nothing a society lady likes more than someone of good fortune and family, who will also make them a countess one day, or at least that is how it seems for other young noblemen. And yet, dance after dance, flirtation after flirtation, he is always left standing alone. Somehow, in some way, he always manages to lose his heart to the wrong lady.

THE DISCOVERY OF THREE YOUNGER SISTERS put aside his nuptial worries for some time, intent as he was on seeing them situated in happy marriages. Alas, with that accomplished, all eyes are once again on him, all the family urging him to marry a suitable young woman and begin a family with her. Each of his sisters think they have just the lady for him and so begins a seemingly endless round of parties, each of them designed to present some matrimonial hopeful to his notice.

BUT THE HEART DOES REMEMBER and a part of his heart will always beat for a love he lost to a scoundrel. What’s done is done he supposes, and determines to put the past aside and find a new love among the beauties before him, hoping for once his heart will not lead him astray.