The Sherbrooke Bride - Catherine Coulter [0]
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
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.
THE SHERBROOKE BRIDE
A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1992 by Catherine Coulter
This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.
For information address:
The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is
http://www.penguinputnam.com
ISBN: 978-1-1012-1408-4
A JOVE BOOK®
Jove Books first published by The Jove Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
Jove and the “J” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.
Electronic edition: May, 2002
Titles by Catherine Coulter
THE EDGE
THE COURTSHIP
THE TARGET
THE MAZE
THE WILD BARON
MAD JACK
ROSEHAVEN
THE COVE
THE WYNDHAM LEGACY
THE NIGHTINGALE LEGACY
THE VALENTINE LEGACY
LORD OF HAWKFELL ISLAND
LORD OF RAVEN’S PEAK
LORD OF FALCON RIDGE
THE SHERBROOKE BRIDE
THE HELLION BRIDE
THE HEIRESS BRIDE
SEASON OF THE SUN
BEYOND EDEN
IMPULSE
FALSE PRETENSES
To David,
The Good, the Sexy, the Humorist, the Competent.
I hope you laugh as much reading this novel as I did writing it. Do try it out on beautiful Lori.
CHAPTER
1
Northcliffe Hall
Near New Romney, England
May 1803
“I SAW HER last night—the Virgin Bride!”
“Oh no, not really? Truly, Sinjun? You swear you saw the ghost?”
There were two shuddering gasps and fluttery cries of mingled fear and excitement.
“Yes, it had to be the Virgin Bride.”
“Did she tell you she was a virgin? Did she tell you anything? Weren’t you terrified? Was she all white? Did she moan? Did she look more dead than alive?”
Their voices grew fainter, but he still heard the gasps and giggles as they moved away from the estate room door.
Douglas Sherbrooke, Earl of Northcliffe, closed the door firmly and walked to his desk. That damned ghost! He wondered if the Sherbrookes were fated to endure unlikely tales of this miserable young lady throughout eternity. He glanced down at the neat piles of papers, sighed, then sat himself down and looked ahead at nothing at all.
The earl frowned. He was frowning a lot these days for they were keeping after him, not letting up for a day, not for a single hour. He was bombarded by gentle yet insistent reminders day in and day out with only slight variations on the same dull theme. He must needs marry and provide an heir for the earldom. He was getting older, every minute another minute ticked away his virility, and that virility was being squandered, according to them, for from his seed sprang future Sherbrookes, and this wondrous seed of his must be used legitimately and not spread haphazardly about, as warned of in the Bible.
He would be thirty on Michaelmas, they would say, all those uncles and aunts and cousins and elderly retainers who’d known him since he’d come squalling from his mother’s womb, all those sniggering rotten friends of his, who, once they’d caught onto the theme, were enthusiastic in singing their own impertinent verses. He would frown at all of them, as he was frowning now, and he would say that he wasn’t thirty on this Michaelmas, he was going to be twenty-nine on this Michaelmas, therefore on this day, at this minute, he was twenty-eight, and