A Reluctant Bride

A Reluctant Bride

Jess Michaels

The Shelley Sisters, Book 1

Copyright © 2019 by Jesse Petersen

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

At Buns and Roses 2019 the lovely Allyson Wotzka won a chance to dedicate this book. On her behalf, this book is dedicated:

“To my children Ashlyn and Larry Reeves, who have taught me anything is possible.”

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Epilogue

Excerpt of A Reckless Runaway

Also by Jess Michaels

About the Author

Chapter 1

Summer 1812

Thomasina Shelley stood at the sideboard, plate balanced on her hand, watching the man standing across the parlor by the fireplace. The Earl of Harcourt.

She stared, as she always did when the man was in the room. How could one not? He was tall, with a lean strength and a graceful way of moving through the world. His dark blond hair was always perfectly in place and his brown eyes seemed to take in whatever and whoever was around him and make quick, simple judgments that he never doubted. He was, in a word, perfect.

Suddenly she felt an arm come around her waist and she jumped as her sister Juliana appeared at her side. Juliana squeezed her gently and said, “I imagine I know what you are thinking.”

Thomasina managed a weak smile as she shook her head. “I would think not.”

“You are staring at our sister and her fiancé and wondering how in the world we will manage when we Shelley Triplets are separated at last.”

Thomasina bent her head and stole another glance at the man she had been so closely observing. She had been focusing on him, but yes, her identical triplet, Anne, was indeed standing with him. Harcourt was hers, after all. Or he would be in just one short week when the wedding they had all come to his estate to attend would be held here in the beautiful, wild Lake District.

Anne would become Lady Harcourt. And Thomasina would have to call the earl brother.

“The Shelley Triplets will always be sisters, though, will we not? Society will never let us forget it, spectacle that we are,” she said with a shudder, as she tried to focus on Juliana’s statement and not her own inappropriate feelings. “And Anne will come to London often, I’m certain.”

Juliana snorted a laugh. “She will, indeed, for she has been complaining to me all week about how much she hates this estate.”