Epilogue #4
He waltzed with Felicia, who he found delightful, warm, and easy to talk with—nothing like her closest friend. Relaxing—he wasn’t losing his touch—he told Felicia several stories of Rand’s exploits when they’d been children, just to keep his brother on his toes.
Mary and Stacie both claimed him for waltzes, then he set himself to beguile Flora into taking a slow turn with him.
By the time the sun started to slide down the western sky and the guests drifted toward the forecourt, where the carriages were waiting, he’d largely managed to blot Miss Buckleberry from his mind.
The first to depart were the newly-weds. Rand had told Kit that he and Felicia were going to spend the next months in the house they’d recently bought near the village of Wickham Heath, roughly midway between the Abbey and Throgmorton Hall.
Kit had promised to call in after his stay at the Abbey.
The entire company of guests and all the household gathered to wave Rand and Felicia off. Then came the usual fuss as the party bound for the Abbey sorted themselves into carriages and tendered thanks and farewells.
Just before he climbed into his curricle, Kit glanced around, but Miss Buckleberry was no longer in the forecourt.
Deciding that was probably just as well—he had no idea what he would have said to her if she’d been there—he climbed up, took the reins, and, with Godfrey once more beside him and Smiggs up behind, he gave the bays the office, and the curricle rolled smoothly down the drive.
Just before they were engulfed by the woods lining the drive, Kit glanced back at the house.
His gaze went directly to a window on the first floor—to the golden-haired lady standing there, watching him drive away.
His gut tightened. Premonition swept over him.
Shrugging off the sensation, he faced forward and set the horses to a faster pace.
Miss Sylvia Buckleberry was the sort of irritating, judgmental female he might, in other circumstances, have been tempted to subtly pursue, purely to rattle her in payment for her hoity dismissal, but the reality was that he would, very likely, never set eyes on her again.
Dear Reader,
After the events at the end of The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh, the book in which the four Cavanaugh siblings first appeared, Rand’s story, like those of his siblings, was always destined to be one revolving around the challenge of finding his own way forward into a satisfying future.
Of defining what ‘a satisfying future’ meant for him, especially in the arena of love and romance.
Despite Rand’s instinctive aversion to falling into line and taking a ton debutante as his bride, he discovers that a lady who shares his passion for engineering is another matter entirely.
I hope you enjoyed following Rand’s path into love, marriage, and happiness with Felicia—if you feel inclined to leave a review here, I would greatly appreciate it.
As you will have realized from the last scene in this book, the second volume in The Cavanaughs, The Pursuits of Lord Kit Cavanaugh, recounts the tale of how Kit finds romance and purpose in his life.
As ever, I wish you continued happy reading!
Stephanie.
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OTHER VOLUMES IN THE CAVANAUGHS SERIES
The second volume in THE CAVANAUGHS
THE PURSUITS OF LORD KIT CAVANAUGH
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens continues to explore the enthralling world of the Cavanaugh brothers in the eagerly anticipated second volume in her captivating series.
A gentleman of means, desirable and well-connected, crosses paths with a beautiful lady of sterling character, and in dealing with challenges on multiple fronts, they prove to be an unstoppable force.
One of the most desirable bachelors in London society, Lord Christopher “Kit” Cavanaugh has settled on the true path for his future, and it does not include a society marriage.
Kit is all business and wants to make ocean-going yachts for the upper class.
He’s settled on Bristol because there he can get all the right skills in one place to launch his passion—Cavanaugh Yachts.
Sylvia Buckleberry runs a charity school for impoverished children.
When she discovers they are being forced out of their current location by a new business venture she knows she must act quickly.
But confronting Kit Cavanaugh takes courage.
The last time they met, she coolly dismissed his advances thinking she’d never see him again.
After hearing Sylvia out, Kit knows he must help. But it quickly becomes clear there are others who want the school—and Cavanaugh Yachts—permanently closed. Putting their differences aside, Kit and Sylvia fight to secure a better home for her school and in doing so, secure their joint future.
A classical historical romance set in Somerset and Bristol. Second novel in The Cavanaughs—a full-length historical romance of 99,000 words.
Click here to read an excerpt
Buy and Read The Pursuits of Lord Kit Cavanaugh
The third volume in THE CAVANAUGHS
THE BEGUILEMENT OF LADY EUSTACIA CAVANAUGH
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens continues the bold tales of the Cavanaugh siblings as the sole Cavanaugh sister discovers that love truly does conquer all.
A lady with a passion for music and the maestro she challenges in pursuit of a worthy cause find themselves battling villains both past and present as they fight to secure life’s greatest rewards—love, marriage, and family.
Stacie—Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh—is adamant marriage is not for her.
Haunted by her parents’ unhappy union, Stacie believes that, for her, marriage is an unacceptable risk.
Wealthy and well-born, she needs for nothing, and with marriage off the table, to give her life purpose, she embarks on a plan to further the careers of emerging local musicians by introducing them to the ton via a series of musical evenings.
Yet despite her noble status, Stacie requires a musical lure to tempt the haut ton to her events, and in the elevated circles she inhabits, only one musician commands sufficient cachet—the reclusive and notoriously reluctant Marquess of Albury.
Frederick, Marquess of Albury, has fashioned a life for himself as a musical scholar, one he pursues largely out of sight of the ton.
He might be renowned as a virtuoso on the pianoforte, yet he sees no reason to endure the smothering over-attentiveness of society.
Then his mother inveigles him into meeting Stacie, and the challenge she lays before him is…
tempting. On a number of fronts. Enough for him not to immediately refuse her.
A dance of subtle persuasion ensues, and step by step, Frederick finds himself convinced that Stacie’s plan has real merit and that it behooves him to support her. At least for one event.
Stacie’s first musical evening, featuring Frederick as the principal performer, is a massive success—until Fate takes a hand and lands them in a situation that forces them both to reassess.
Does Frederick want more than the sterile, academic life he’d thought was for him?
Can Stacie overcome her deepest fears and own to and reach for her girlhood dreams?
Impulsive, arrogant, and used to getting his own way, Frederick finds his answer easily enough, but his new direction puts him on a collision course with Stacie’s fears.
Luckily, he thrives on challenges—which is just as well, because in addition to convincing Stacie that love can, indeed, conquer all, he and she must unravel the mystery of who is behind a spate of murderous attacks before the villain succeeds in eliminating all hope of a happy ending.
A classical historical romance set in London and Surrey, in the heart of the ton. Third novel in The Cavanaughs—a full-length historical romance of 122,000 words.
Click here to read an excerpt
Buy and Read The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh
The fourth volume in THE CAVANAUGHS
THE OBSESSIONS OF LORD GODFREY CAVANAUGH
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens concludes the tales of the Cavanaugh siblings with the riveting story of the youngest brother and his search for a family of his own.
The scion of a noble house brought low by a storm and the lady who nurses him back to health strive to unravel a web of deception that threatens her family and forces them to fight for what they hold most dear—family, each other, and love.
Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh has no thoughts of marrying as he drives into North Yorkshire on a plum commission for the National Gallery to authenticate a Renaissance painting the gallery wishes to purchase.
Then a snow storm sweeps in, and Godfrey barely manages to haul himself, his groom, and his horses to their destination.
Elinor Hinckley, eldest daughter of Hinckley Hall, stalwart defender of the family, right arm to her invalid father, and established spinster knows full well how much her family has riding on the sale of the painting and throws herself into nursing the initially delirious gentleman who holds her family’s future in his hands.
But Godfrey proves to be a far from easy patient. Through Ellie’s and her siblings’ efforts to keep him entertained and abed, Godfrey grows to know the family, appreciating and, ultimately, being drawn into family life of a sort he’s never known.
Eventually, to everyone’s relief, he recovers sufficiently to assess the painting—only to discover that nothing, but nothing, is as it seems.