A Deal with a Debutante (London’s Most Eligible #1)

“So,” the dowager countess asked from over the rim of her Limoges teacup, a trio of fawns dancing amidst a field of wildflowers across its rippled porcelain canvas, “did Calliope enjoy the tour?”

Edward stood by the window, watching Calliope and her mother as they strolled through the withering garden.

“I believe so,” Edward replied, turning back to the dowager countess and the pale green drawing room where once the three of them—he and his mother and his father—would gather every evening after dinner.

His father would read the newspaper while his mother pored over the latest editions of her society magazines and Edward whiled away the hours with a book—something adventurous when he was younger, to satiate the hunger for daring escapades that he, as the oldest and only son of an earl, would never be able to act upon outside the pages of a Daniel Defoe or Robert Louis Stevenson novel; and then, when he was older, a book that would satiate the curiosity of a growing mind intent on making the most of his life, whether that be in discourses on agriculture, mathematics, business, or finance.