Sir Ashley's Mettlesome Match Read online

  ‘But how can I? Nat…’

  ‘Your brother is on the side of the law, he always has been. He has found proof that Sir Felix murdered both his previous wives. Smuggling is only part of the man’s crimes.’

  ‘Good heavens! And Mrs Thornley?’

  ‘She has been arrested, too, as an accessory to abduction. The best she can hope for is deportation to the colonies.’

  ‘Oh, Ash, what a tangle it has all been.’

  ‘But it must have a happy ending. No story should finish without a happy ending. So, my love, will you answer my question and make me the happiest of men? Will you marry me?’

  ‘Oh, yes, Ash, yes, please.’

  He kissed her then and went on kissing her; her forehead, her nose and ears, her cheeks and neck, her lips, hands and arms all received his attention. She flung her arms about him and kissed him back until both were breathless. And that was how Harry and Alex found them, locked in each other’s arms.

  ‘Another of the Piccadilly Gentlemen bites the dust,’ Harry said with a grin. ‘Come, Alex, let us leave them. There will be time enough for explanations later.’

  Author’s Note

  Although I live in Cambridgeshire now, my roots are in Norfolk and I often use Norfolk and the Fens as backgrounds to my books, as I have in this one. The idea for the smuggling background came from a book about Norfolk smuggling called The Lawless Coast by Neil Holmes and I would like to record my thanks to him.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0216-0

  SIR ASHLEY’S METTLESOME MATCH

  Copyright © 2011 by Mary Nichols

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  *The Piccadilly Gentlemen’s Club