Thursday, December 22, 2016

More Wicked Affairs

Merry Christmas, readers.

And here is a little present to finish the year. It is Book Seven in the Wicked Affairs series, which will be released sometime next year - around May or June, at this time. I'm actually planning to release two stories in this series: Wicked Scandal, which is the excerpt below. And Wicked Shades (Clarissa and Juliana's sister Audrina's story - you know, the one with the hot French husband.)


So here, we are at the Duchess of Pelham's grand ball at Grosvenor Square. You'll recognize some of the previous Wicked Affairs nobles who "hang" with the Wicked Affairs crowd.


"They say bad things happened in threes and London was rife with talk of the newest bad things to have happened.

The most tragic, of course, had been the shocking death of Louis Ederline, the old and perverted marquess, who owned more primitive erotic art than ought to have ever been made in the first place. He left behind an innocent young wife some speculated had never been deflowered by her ancient husband or at least deflowered in the traditional sense.

The second bad thing had befallen the favorite horse, Maid of Cadiz, in a race at Newmarket. Not only had the thoroughbred lost, she had lost spectacularly. And to an upstart at that. The winning horse was owned by the Earl of Archer, Charles Standifer, running a horse he had owned less than six months and with eighteen to one odds. His wife, Alizabet, had thrown herself into her husband’s arms after, to the shock of all.

The third bad thing was bound to happen sooner or later. Lady Lindley bore her bad luck stoically. Her long-time lover, Trenton James, the current Earl of Dahlingford, had ended their one-year arrangement amid rampant speculation and accusations. For over a week, the Tattler had been full of on dits regarding lying, cheating and certain other insinuations one could hardly countenance.
Unless one lived in London during the Season. Then anything was possible.

Rather than believe her grand fete would be ruined by death, debt and debaucheries, the Duchess of Pelham thought it might be a rather spectacular evening.

She saw her husband Randall VanLandingham across the room and shot him
her best smile. As he always did, he smiled back, one brow cocked and one hand braced against his hip. Other things happened in threes also."

Copyright 2016 by Eliza Lloyd