Other Proper Romances

by Sarah M. Eden

Ashes on the Moor

Hope Springs

Longing for Home

Longing for Home, vol. 2: Hope Springs

Savage Wells

The Sheriffs of Savage Wells

Healing Hearts

The Dread Penny Society

The Lady and the Highwayman

The Gentleman and the Thief

The Merchant and the Rogue

© 2022 Sarah M. Eden

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain Publishing®, at ­[email protected]. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain Publishing.

This is a work of fiction. Characters and events in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are represented fictitiously.

Proper Romance is a registered trademark.

Visit us at ShadowMountain.com

Library of Congress ­Cataloging-­in-­Publication ­Data

CIP on file

ISBN: 978-1-63993-048-7

eISBN 978-1-64933-120-5 (eBook)

Printed in the United States of ­America

PubLitho, Draper, UT

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover art: MicroOne/Shutterstock.com;

Mott Jordan/Shutterstock.com;

Larisa1/Shutterstock.com

Book design: © Shadow Mountain

Art direction: Richard Erickson

Design: Heather G. Ward

To Emily King,
a fighter, an inspiration, and a
fearless defender of the vulnerable

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

London, January 1866

London was no place for the faint of heart. Fortunately for Barnabus Milligan, he’d stopped listening to that organ long ago.

He was a doctor, tending to the illnesses and injuries and difficulties of people from all walks of life. When not treating patients, he divided his time between writing penny serials about medicine, doctors, and related oddities and assisting in the secretive work of the even more secretive Dread Penny Society, a group of fellow “penny dreadful” authors who went about the city looking after the vulnerable and undermining the efforts of those who exploited them. His time was well and truly filled. He preferred it that way.

Barnabus stepped through the familiar blue door of the DPS’s headquarters, an outwardly unassuming London house. A meeting of the membership had been called, the second one that week. Their efforts on behalf of the poor and defenseless were being hampered by London’s most notorious criminal, the Mastiff. There was neither time nor room for hesitation.

Nolan, the Dreadful’s perpetually distracted butler, who tended to be either sleeping in his chair or perusing the Times, sat at his post in the entryway.

“Good morning,” Barnabus said.

From over the top of his newspaper, Nolan offered a flat-jawed smile, the sort that emerged when a person hadn’t many teeth left. Barnabus was well aware that most of London’s struggling population, and a good number of the well-off folks, spent a lifetime visiting the teeth drawers.

Nolan offered his usual dip of the head. The butler was not talkative, but he was loyal. All the DPS depended upon him to help keep their headquarters and activities a secret.