LORD OF TEMPTATION – Lorraine Heath
Lost Lords of Pembrook , Book 2 of 3
Avon
ISBN: 978-0-06-210002-3
October 2012
Historical Romance

London and at Sea 1858

Lady Anne Hayworth, daughter of the Earl of Blackwood, wants to visit Scutari in the Crimea where Florence Nightingale nursed the wounded and many British soldiers are buried. Anne feels the need to go there to apologize and finally be at peace after the quarrel she and her fiancé had the night before he went off to war four years ago. Her domineering father and four older brothers will hear none of this. She'll have to sneak away on her own except for her maid, Martha, whose brother once sailed with Captain Jack Crimson and recommends him as an honorable man. Anne seeks the captain out in a tavern and, after some on and off haggling, a bargain is struck! Anne and Martha sneak out of the house one night and venture down to the docks.

Jack is highly amused when the lovely lady calls him, Crimson Jack, a mannerless jackanapes. In fact he's enchanted by her and believes she's just what he needs to lift him out of the doldrums. Jack gives Anne and Martha his cabin and off they sail, both keeping secrets of their own. Anne has mourned Walter for the last two years; she feels she can only move on with her life as her family urges her to do if she can visit the place he died and is buried. She lets the captain believe he's alive…probably hoping to safeguard herself from his strange allure.

Jack's secret is a long held one. He is in reality Lord Tristan Easton, one of the three sons of the late Duke of Keswick who disappeared for twelve years. Two years ago, the brothers shocked Society by crashing a ball their uncle was giving in the Keswick townhouse and accused him of trying to murder them. When the boys escaped imprisonment in the tower at Pembrook, they split up, Sebastian to the Army, Tristan to sea, and ten-year-old Rafe to the workhouse. Tristan was all of fourteen at the time, minutes younger than his twin Sebastian, who is now the eighth duke of Keswick. (Sebastian's tale is told in SHE TEMPTS THE DUKE, out last February.)

Tristan's life at sea was difficult at first…an angry, lonely boy, torn from everything and everyone he loved. But he owns his own ship now, the Revenge , has amassed a fortune, and loves the sea. He no longer fits in his old world. That doesn't mean, however, that he won't try to seduce Lady Anne, starting with the kiss at the time of his choosing that is the price of her journey.

If you like lively sparring between a man who has vowed never to settle down on land and a woman looking for a contented life of home and family, yet are attracted to each other, you must get and read LORD OF TEMPTATION. It will amuse you for the most part, but also tug at your heartstrings. You'll catch up with Sebastian and Mary, who was the young girl who saved them from their uncle, and be eager for the next chapter to learn how Rafe fares.

Lorraine Heath tells grand stories, whether set in England or Texas. You'll love her original plots and characters.

Jane Bowers