My Fair Spinster
The Spinster Chronicles
Book Five
REBECCA CONNOLLY
Also by
Rebecca Connolly
The Arrangements:
An Arrangement of Sorts
Married to the Marquess
Secrets of a Spinster
The Dangers of Doing Good
The Burdens of a Bachelor
A Bride Worth Taking
A Wager Worth Making
A Gerrard Family Christmas
The London League:
The Lady and the Gent
A Rogue About Town
A Tip of the Cap
By Hook or by Rook
The Spinster Chronicles:
The Merry Lives of Spinsters
The Spinster and I
Spinster and Spice
My Fair Spinster
Coming Soon
What a Spinster Wants
Text copyright © 2019 by Rebecca Connolly
Cover art copyright © 2019 by Rebecca Connolly
Cover art by Tugboat Design
http://www.tugboatdesign.net
All rights reserved. Published by Phase Publishing, LLC. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Phase Publishing, LLC first ebook edition
December 2019
ISBN 978-1-943048-99-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019918808
Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
Acknowledgements
To Amy Grant for being the female vocalist of Christmas in my life. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without you, and that’s the truth.
And to peppermint bark for being the most beautiful treat I never fail to forget I love until Christmas season rolls around.
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Index
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Prologue
London, 1816
“Really Elinor, you should find yourself some friends of your own to spend time with.”
“I have friends, Emma, and they all wish to spend their time speaking of courtship and gentlemen and weddings, though none of them have understandings or beaux. It’s the silliest bunch of tittle-tattle you’ve ever heard, and I quite tire of it.”
“So, you’d rather spend your time with a group of spinsters who speak of nothing of the kind, is that it?”
“Yes, I rather think I would.”
“Well, you can’t. You’re barely seventeen.”
“You have to let me come with you. Mama insisted you get me out of the house today, remember? You’re charged with my care. How can you care for me when I’m not in your presence or your immediate vicinity?”
There was a moment of hesitation, conflict dancing across features, and then resignation.
Elinor Asheley knew she had won then. Her sister would have to take her to the Spinsters meeting now. She’d been trying to get access for an entire year, ever since she’d first discovered just what her sister and her friends were capable of. She hadn’t cared at all when they’d only been meeting and occasionally went about London together, but when they had somehow managed to get a paper circulated to all of London, she had grown curious. When she’d managed to snag a copy for herself and read it, which her mother had prevented for some reason or other, she had known in an instant that she must be part of them.