Мэри Бэлоу: The wood nymph

HOW COULD SHE LOVE A MAN WHOM SHE COULD ONLY DESPISE?

How could Lady Helen Wade possibly love a gentleman like William Mainwaring handsome and wealthy as he might be?

How could she love this object of her two older sisters matrimonial designs?

How could she love this cad who was shockingly involved with another man s wife?

How could she love this rogue who shamelessly employed his seductive skills on an innocent young country miss he came upon in the woods…especially when he was so successful in planting Eros s arrows and when his willing victim was Helen herself…?

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The Sinful Suitor

Miss Helen Wade had been driven to the limits of self-restraint. Mr. William Mainwaring simply would not abandon his pursuit of her-and his campaign to reconquer the heart he had so sinfully won and then so shamelessly abandoned was casting a dark shadow over Helen s glittering London Season. Now, when he informed her that she had been acting most unladylike toward him, her patience snapped.

«Mr. Mainwaring,» she informed him, «when I refused to dance or converse with you at the marquess s ball, I believed, I had made it clear that I had no wish to renew our acquaintance. And when you came to me with your insulting offer of marriage, I thought I had made it abundantly obvious that I both hate and despise you. I had no wish to see you last night, I had no wish to drive with you this afternoon-and I should be happy never to see you again.»

That, she told herself, should be that.

Except that it wasn t…