Deck The Halls With Love: Lost Lords Of Pembrook Novella by Lorraine Heath

not exactly strike me as a stereotypical medical student either.”
    “And just what exactly would you know about that?” he asked, a little put out by her sudden verbal attack.
    “Enough,” she remarked in a rather clipped tone. “My father was a skilled physician. I know the sort of man it takes to fill such a position, and you, my lord, do not fit the bill.”
    For the first time in his life, Ryan Summersby found himself at a complete loss for words. Not only could he not comprehend that this slip of a woman before him, appearing to be barely out of the schoolroom, was a peeress in her own right—not to mention a woman of extreme wealth. But that she was actually standing there, fearlessly scolding him . . . he knew that a sane person would be quite offended, and yet he couldn’t help but be enthralled.
    In addition, he’d also managed to glimpse a side of her that he very much doubted many people had ever seen. “You do not think too highly of yourself, do you?” He suddenly asked.
    That brought her up short. “I have no idea what you could possibly mean by that,” she told him defensively.
    “Well, you assume that I do not believe you to be who you say you are. You think the reasoning behind my not believing you might have something to do with the way you look. Finally, you feel the need to assert yourself by finding fault with me—for which I must commend you, since I do not have very many faults at all.”
    “You arrogant . . .” The marchioness wisely clamped her mouth shut before uttering something that she would be bound to regret. Instead, she turned away and walked toward the French doors that led toward the ballroom. “Thank you for the dance, Mr. Summersby. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening,” she called over her shoulder in an obvious attempt at sounding dignified.
    “May I call on you sometime?” he asked, ignoring her abrupt dismissal of him as he thought of the task that Percy had given him. It really wouldn’t do for him to muck things up so early in the game. And besides, he wasn’t sure he’d ever met a woman who interested him more than Lady Steepleton did at that very moment. He had to admit that the woman had character.
    She paused in the middle of her exit, turned slightly, and looked him dead in the eye. “You most certainly may not, Mr. Summersby.” And before Ryan had a chance to dispute the matter, she had vanished back inside, the white cotton of her gown twirling about her feet.

 
    An Excerpt from
    THE SECRET LIFE OF LADY LUCINDA
    AS UMMERSBY T ALE
    by Sophie Barnes
    Lucy Blackwell throws caution to the wind when she tricks Lord William Summersby into a marriage of convenience. But she never counted on falling in love . . .
     
    “D o you love her?” Miss Blackwell suddenly asked, her head tilted upward at a slight angle.
    Lord, even her voice was delightful to listen to. And those imploring eyes of hers . . . No, he’d be damned if he’d allow her to ensnare him with her womanly charms. She’d practically made fools of both his sister and his father—she’d get no sympathy from him. Not now, not ever. “You and I are hardly well enough acquainted with one another for you to take such liberties in your questions, Miss Blackwell. My relationship to Lady Annabelle is of a personal nature, and certainly not one that I am about to discuss with you.”
    Miss Blackwell blinked. “Then you do not love her,” she said simply.
    “I hold her in the highest regard,” he said.
    Miss Blackwell stared back at him with an increased measure of doubt in her eyes. “More reason for me to believe that you do not love her.”
    “Miss Blackwell, if I did not know any better, I should say that you are either mad or deaf—perhaps even both. At no point have I told you that I do not love her, yet you are quite insistent upon the matter.”
    “That is because, my lord, it is in everything you are saying and everything that you are not. If you truly loved her, you