Bound by a Scandalous Secret (The Scandalous Summerfields) Read online

  A most shocking betrothal!

  The pleasure-seeking Marquess of Rossdale has little interest in his birthright and even less in finding a bride. So he comes up with the perfect plan to survive the Season unscathed—a fake engagement to a most unsuitable girl!

  Outspoken Genna, the youngest of the scandalous Summerfields, has no wish to marry, either. So agreeing to be Ross’s temporary fiancée will grant her freedom for a little longer. But with every kiss, both Ross and Genna must face up to what they really desire…a true match!

  The Scandalous Summerfields

  Disgrace is their middle name!

  Left destitute by their philandering parents, the three Summerfield sisters—Tess, Lorene and Genna—and their half brother, Edmund, are the talk of the ton…for all the wrong reasons!

  They are at the mercy of the marriage mart to transport their family from the fringes of society to the dizzy heights of respectability.

  But with no dowries, and a damaged reputation, only some very special matches can survive the scandalous Summerfields!

  Read where it all started with

  tempestuous Tess’s story

  Bound by Duty

  Read Edmund’s story in

  Bound by One Scandalous Night

  Read Genna’s story in

  Bound by a Scandalous Secret

  All available now!

  And look for Lorene’s story,

  coming soon!

  Author Note

  In my Author Notes for Bound by Duty and Bound by One Scandalous Night, I explain that The Scandalous Summerfields series was inspired by my mother, her two sisters and their brother. Their actual life stories are nothing like those in my books, but, without intending it, I realize there are similarities.

  Like Genna, my aunt Gerry was the youngest in the family. Their parents died when Gerry was still a teenager and my aunt Loraine became her legal guardian. The three sisters lived together and took care of each other. Their sisterly bond continued all their lives. Although we never lived near Aunt Gerry, we visited her and her family every year. My mother and Aunt Loraine talked to her on the phone at least once a week even when long-distance phone calls could be expensive.

  Also like Genna, Aunt Gerry was strong, resourceful and creative. Gerry’s creativity showed itself in her sewing and needlework. Several of her handmade Christmas ornaments still decorate our Christmas trees. Aunt Gerry had her share of adversity in her life, but she met adversity with strength. She could sew anything, grow any kind of flower and she knew the name of every one of them.

  Like the Summerfield family, Aunt Gerry had three daughters and a son (who died tragically in his thirties). I can see parts of her in my cousins Gail, Marge and Marty, so it is a little like not losing her at all.

  Bound by a Scandalous Secret

  Diane Gaston

  Diane Gaston always said that if she were not a mental-health social worker, she’d want to be a romance novelist, writing the historical romances she loved to read. When this dream came true, she discovered a whole new world of friends and happy endings. Diane lives in Virginia near Washington, DC, with her husband and three very ordinary house cats. She loves to hear from readers! Contact her at dianegaston.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

  Books by Diane Gaston

  Harlequin Historical

  The Scandalous Summerfields

  Bound by Duty

  Bound by One Scandalous Night

  Bound by a Scandalous Secret

  The Masquerade Club

  A Reputation for Notoriety

  A Marriage of Notoriety

  A Lady of Notoriety

  Three Soldiers

  Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady

  Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress

  Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy

  Linked by Character

  The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor

  “Justine and the Noble Viscount”

  A Not So Respectable Gentleman?

  Harlequin Historical Undone! ebooks

  The Unlacing of Miss Leigh

  The Liberation of Miss Finch

  Visit the Author Profile page

  at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To the memory of my aunt Gerry, who was endlessly energetic, efficient and, it seemed to me, could do just about anything.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Epilogue

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lincolnshire—December 1815

  Genna Summerfield first glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, a distant horseman galloping across the land, all power and grace and heedless abandon. A thrilling sight. Beautiful grey steed, its rider in a topcoat of matching grey billowing behind him. Horse and rider looked as if they had been created from the clouds that were now covering the sky. Could she capture it on paper? She grabbed her sketchpad and charcoal and quickly drew.

  It was no use. He disappeared in a dip in the hill.

  She put down the sketchpad and charcoal and turned back to painting the scene in the valley below, her reason for sitting upon this hill in this cold December air. How she wished she could also paint the galloping horse and rider. What a challenge it would be to paint all those shades of grey, at the same time conveying all the power and movement.

  The roar of galloping startled her. She turned. Man and horse thundered towards her.

  Drat! Was he coming to oust her from the property? To chase her from this perfect vantage point?

  Not now! She was almost finished. She needed but a few minutes more. Besides, she had to return soon before someone questioned her absence—

  The image of the horse and rider interrupted her thoughts. Her brush rose in the air as she tried to memorise the sight, the movement, the lights and darks—

  Goodness! He galloped straight for her. Genna backed away, knocking over her stool.

  The rider pulled the horse to a halt mere inches away.

  ‘I did not mean to alarm you,’ the rider said.

  ‘I thought you would run me down!’ She threw her paintbrush into her jug of water and wiped her hands on the apron she wore over her dress.

  He was a gentleman judging by the sheer fineness of his topcoat and tall hat and the way he sat in the saddle, as if it were his due to be above everyone else.

  Please do not let this gentleman be her distant cousin, the man who’d
inherited this land that she once—and still—called home.

  ‘My apologies.’ He dismounted. ‘I came to see if you needed assistance, but now I see you intended to be seated on this hill.’

  ‘Yes.’ She shaded her eyes with her hand. ‘As you can see I am painting the scene below.’

  ‘It is near freezing out,’ he said. ‘This cold cannot be good for you.’

  She showed him her hands. ‘I am wearing gloves.’ Of course, her gloves were fingerless. ‘And my cloak is warm enough.’

  She looked into his face. A strong face, long, but not thin, with a straight nose that perfectly suited him, and thick dark brows. His hair, just visible beneath his hat was also dark. His eyes were a spellbinding caramel, flecked with darker brown. She would love to paint such a memorable face.

  He extended his hand. ‘Allow me to introduce myself. I am Rossdale.’

  Not her cousin, then. She breathed a sigh of relief. Some other aristocrat.

  She placed her hand in his. ‘Miss Summerfield.’

  ‘Summerfield?’ His brows rose. ‘My host, Lord Penford, is Dell Summerfield. A relation, perhaps?’

  She knew Lord Penford was her cousin, but that was about all she knew of him. Just her luck. This man was his guest.

  ‘A distant relation.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I’m one of the scandalous Summerfields. You’ve heard of us, no doubt.’

  The smile on his face froze and she had her answer. Of course he’d heard of her family. Of her late father, Sir Hollis Summerfield of Yardney, who’d lost his fortune in a series of foolish investments. And her mother, who was legendary for having many lovers, including the one with whom she’d eloped when Genna was almost too little to remember her. Who in society had not heard of the scandalous Summerfields?

  ‘Then you used to live at Summerfield House.’ He gestured to the house down below.

  ‘That is why I am painting it,’ she responded. ‘And I would be obliged if you would not mention to Lord Penford that I trespassed on his land. I have disturbed nothing and only wished to come here this one time to paint this view.’

  He waved a dismissive hand. ‘I am certain he would not mind.’

  Genna was not so certain. After her father’s death, Lord Penford had been eager for Genna and her two sisters to leave the house.

  She stood and started to pack up her paints. ‘In any event, I will leave now.’

  He put his hand on her easel. ‘No need. Please continue.’

  She shook her head. The magic was gone; the spell broken. She’d been reminded the house was no longer her home. ‘I must be getting back. It is a bit of a walk.’

  ‘Where are you bound?’ he asked.

  Surely he knew all the scandals. ‘To Tinmore Hall.’ She gave him a defiant look. ‘Or did you forget that my sister Lorene married Lord Tinmore?’

  He glanced away and dipped his head. ‘I did forget.’

  Genna’s oldest sister married the ancient Lord Tinmore for his money so Genna and her sister Tess and half-brother Edmund would not be plunged into poverty. So they, unlike Lorene, could make respectable marriages and marry for love.

  Genna had not forgiven Lorene for doing such a thing—sacrificing her own happiness like that, chaining herself to that old, disagreeable man. And for what? Genna did not believe in her sister’s romantic notions of love and happily ever after. Did not love ultimately wind up hurting oneself and others?

  The wind picked up, rippling her painting.

  Rossdale put his fingers on the edge of it to keep it from blowing away. His brow furrowed. ‘You have captured the house, certainly, but the rest of it looks nothing like this day…’

  She unfastened the paper from the easel and carefully placed a sheet of tissue over it. She slipped it in a leather envelope. ‘I painted a memory, you might say.’ Or the emotion of a memory.

  The wind gusted again. She turned away from it and packed up hurriedly, folding the easel and her stool, closing her paints, pouring out her jug of water and wrapping her brushes in a rag. She placed them all in a huge canvas satchel.

  ‘How far to your home?’ Rossdale asked.

  Her home was right below them, she wanted to say. ‘To Tinmore Hall, you mean? No more than five miles.’

  ‘Five miles!’ He looked surprised. ‘Are you here alone?’

  She pinched her lips together. ‘I require no chaperon on the land where I was born.’

  He nodded in a conciliatory manner. ‘I thought perhaps you had a companion, maybe someone with a carriage visiting the house. May I convey you to Tinmore Hall, then?’ He glanced towards the clouds. ‘The sky looks ominous and you have quite a walk ahead of you.’

  She almost laughed. Did he not know what could happen if a Summerfield sister was caught in a storm with a man?

  Although Genna would never let matters go so far, not like her sister Tess who’d wound up married to a man after being caught in a storm. Why not risk a ride with Rossdale?

  She widened her smile. ‘How kind of you. A ride would be most appreciated.’

  * * *

  Ross secured her satchel behind the saddle and mounted Spirit, his favourite gelding, raised from a pony at his father’s breeding stables. He reached down for Miss Summerfield and pulled her up to sit side-saddle in front of him.

  She turned and looked him full in the face. ‘Thank you.’

  She was lovely enough. Pale, flawless skin, eyes as blue as sea water, full pink lips, a peek of blonde hair from beneath her bonnet. Her only flaw was a nose slightly too large for her face. It made her face more interesting, though, a cut above merely being beautiful. She was not bold; neither was she bashful or flirtatious.

  Unafraid described her better.

  She spoke without apology about being one of the scandalous Summerfields. And certainly was not contrite about trespassing. He liked that she was comfortable with herself and took him as he was.

  Possibly because she did not know who he was. People behaved differently when they knew. How refreshing to meet a young woman who had not memorised Debrett’s.

  ‘Which way?’ he asked.

  She pointed and they started off.

  ‘How long have you been a guest of Lord Penford?’ she asked.

  ‘Two days. I’m to stay through Twelfth Night.’ Which did not please his father overmuch.

  ‘Is Lord Penford having guests for Christmas?’ She sounded disapproving.

  He laughed. ‘One guest.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘Only me,’ he responded.

  She was quiet and still for a long time. ‘How—how do you find the house?’ she finally asked.

  He did not know what she meant. ‘It is comfortable,’ he ventured.

  She turned to look at him. ‘I mean, has Lord Penford made many changes?’

  Ah, it had been her home. She was curious about it, naturally.

  ‘I cannot say,’ he responded. ‘I do know he plans repairs.’

  She turned away again. ‘Goodness knows it needed plenty of repairs.’

  ‘Have you not seen the house since leaving it?’ he asked.

  She glanced back at him and shook her head.

  The grey clouds rolled in quickly. He quickened Spirit’s pace. ‘I think it will snow.’

  As if his words brought it on, the flakes began to fall, here and there, then faster and thicker until they could not see more than two feet ahead of them.

  ‘Turn here,’ she said. ‘We can take shelter.’

  Through a path overgrown with shrubbery they came to a folly built in the Classical style, though half covered with vines. Its floor was strewn with twigs and leaves.

  ‘I see Lord Penford did not tend to all of the gardens,’ Miss Summerfield said.

  ‘Perhaps he
did not know it was here.’ Ross dismounted. ‘It is well hidden.’

  ‘Hidden now,’ she said. ‘It was not always so.’

  He helped her down and led Spirit up the stairs into the shelter. There was plenty of room. She sat on a bench at the folly’s centre and wrapped her cloak around her.

  He sat next to her. ‘Are you cold?’

  Her cheeks were tinged a delightful shade of pink and her lashes glistened from melted snowflakes. ‘Not very.’

  He liked that she did not complain. He glanced around. ‘This folly has seen better days?’

  She nodded, a nostalgic look on her face. ‘It was once one of our favourite places to play.’

  ‘You have two sisters. Am I correct?’

  She swung her feet below the bench, much like she must have done when a girl. ‘And a half-brother.’ She slid him a glance. ‘My bastard brother, you know.’

  Did she enjoy speaking aloud what others preferred to hide?

  ‘He was raised with you, I think?’ It was said Sir Hollis tried to flaunt his love child in front of his wife.

  ‘Yes. We all got on famously.’

  She seemed to anticipate unspoken questions and answered them defiantly.

  ‘Where is your brother now?’ he asked.

  ‘Would you believe he is a sheep farmer in the Lake District?’ she scoffed.

  ‘Why would I not believe it?’ Almost everyone he knew could be considered a farmer when you got right down to it.

  ‘Well, if you knew him you’d be shocked that he wound up raising sheep. He was an officer in the Twenty-Eighth Regiment. He was wounded at Waterloo.’ She waved a hand. ‘Oh, I am making him sound too grand. He was a mere lieutenant, but he was wounded.’

  ‘He must have recovered?’ Or he would not be raising sheep.

  ‘Oh, yes.’

  ‘And your other sister?’ He might as well get the whole family story, since she seemed inclined to tell it.

  ‘Tess?’ She giggled but tried to stop herself.

  ‘What amuses you?’

  ‘Tess is married.’ She strained not to laugh. ‘But wait until I tell you how it was she came to be married! She and Marc Glenville were caught together in a storm. A rainstorm. Lord Tinmore forced them to marry.’