The Spy and the Spinster

She’s resolved to be a spinster and doesn’t need anyone to watch out for her.

He’s made a vow to be her protector. Only she doesn’t know it. So really, he’s spying on her.

Lady Hali has had enough high society men (fortune hunters) trying to trap her into marriage. They’re all after her money, being the sister of a duke, and she can’t trust a single one of them. Without trust, it’s impossible to find love, so she has accepted the life that fate has dealt her: spinsterhood.

When fate crushes Hali to Lord Giles’ body not once, not twice, but thrice in the span of less than twenty four hours, he figures there’s nothing wrong with allowing one kiss to happen. He’s the youngest of seven brothers in the Ashbourne family, so maybe it is his turn to consider marriage. Yet he respects Hali’s vow of independence to tell her how he feels.

Can Giles shake the guilt he feels for overstepping his role as protector? Will Hali allow her heart to trust a man enough to fall into a love match?

This is the seventh book in the steamy new regency romance series, The Ashbourne Legacy, that follows the seven mislabeled brothers of Snow White.

Read this novelette if you like sweet and spicy easy reads with witty banter and lovable characters.

The Ashbourne Legacy:
The Blighter and the Bluestocking
The Scoundrel and the Scientist
The Virgin and the Vixen
The Rogue and the Rose
The Rake and the Writer
The Wastrel and the Wallflower
The Spy and the Spinster

What readers are saying:

"Sorry to See this Series End - Loved It!!" ~Amazon Reviewer

"I loved Hali and Giles" ~Amazon Reviewer

"Such a great couple that I adored!" ~Amazon Reviewer

"I am sad to be reading the last story in this deliciously, witty and steamy series about the Ashbourne brothers. Eliana Piers made each story interesting, inviting, humorous, passionate and uniquely different." ~Amazon Reviewer

"Fun quick read!" ~Amazon Reviewer
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This is a digital product. As with all our digital products, there are no refunds or returns.

1816 England

IT WAS AN ODD feeling to sense being watched. Not watched as in observed across a crowded room. Not watched as in on a stage or completing a performance of some kind. But watched as in, the person watching was hiding, and the person being watched couldn’t see them. That was what was odd.

It could almost be frightening except for two things, Lady Hali Collins, the Duke of Tinsder’s sister, did not scare easily, and two, Hali knew exactly who was watching her. He was not as discreet as he hoped to be. Oh, she had known the first time it occurred, too. She had been out for a solitary walk in the gardens when she sensed being watched.

When she casually turned to survey the landscape, she saw him. Him! Just watching her. He had pressed himself up behind a tree, but he was much wider than the tree. She almost laughed out loud, but then she thought of why he might be following her. If she laughed, she would give away that she was on to him. So instead, she kept her secret and devised a trick of her own.

Her first test was to meander through the garden, retracing her steps, overlapping her tracks, and then doubling and tripling back. Sure enough, he followed. She had even heard a few overwrought sighs a time or two. Certainly those made it difficult to contain her amusement, but now she had a mission. First and foremost, she wanted to see just how far she could push him to follow her. For example, would he follow her if she waded through the pond? Would he climb a tree? Would he lay in the fields to refrain from being seen? There were so many possibilities. Endless in fact. Secondly, and probably more importantly, she needed to ascertain his motivation in spying on her.

So here she stood, midnight, in the library of Snowick Abbey where she was a guest for a house party. Tempting fate. Tempting her observer. Would he follow her into the library at midnight? If so, how did he know she was there? And wasn’t he concerned for her reputation? And his future?

All of those thoughts trailed through her mind in parallel to her trailing her finger across the spines of the beautiful books on the shelves. She stopped at Pride and Prejudice, tilted it down off the shelf, and flipped open the cover. It was one of her favorite stories. She would read it again tonight, but for now she placed it on the side table for later retrieval.

She shouldn’t be reading tonight. It was a house party, and there would be plenty of activities the next day, she was sure. Yet here she was, unable to sleep. Her dear friend, Hope, the youngest daughter in the Ashbourne family, had invited her. But of course, Hope, along with the rest of the guests, were in bed. But not those expected eyes.

Those eyes. She could feel them on her skin. It was all dreadfully peculiar, though strangely protective. Hali was used to feeling peculiar, but for entirely different reasons. She was a spinster, even at four-and-twenty, the whispers had already deemed her long in the tooth. It was all absurd. She felt as though she had plenty of time to get married. Her mind, body, and spirit were still able and ready, should any brave and unaffected souls manage to approach her.

She was also familiar with feeling protected. Michael, her brother the duke, was always on high alert with her. He was the one fending off the fortune hunters who had made countless attempts to wrangle her into a scandal.

Unfortunately, Michael wasn’t here. He had had business to attend to.

Yet here she was, alone, but with the same sense of protection. It was Giles after all. The spy, that is. He was Hope’s older brother, but the baby of the seven brothers.

There was nothing about Giles to cause concern.

He was…nice. She actually didn’t know too much about him. He was one of the only brothers in the Ashbourne family who had avoided dancing with her. In all their years, they hadn’t danced together once. It was strange, to say the least.

Stranger still that he was in this room with her. Alone. If anyone caught them, it would cause a scandal. Scandal enough to warrant a marriage proposal.

She could sense him behind the curtains. How he got there, she wasn’t sure. But she had seen the curtains swish a few times.

Perhaps she should give him a reason to sweat. She wandered over to the window and pulled back the empty curtain to stare out into the darkness. Looking for stars, she took a step back, nearly brushing up against him.

She dipped her chin and placed her hand over her lips to suppress a chuckle. It was nearly impossible. She would have to leave the room so as not to give herself away. Dashing to the door, without making it an obvious dash, she swung it open and stepped into the hall. She took a deep breath. She had nothing to worry about. It was only Giles.
***
GILES EXHALED LOUDLY. THAT had quite possibly been the worst moment of his life. Pure torture. One hundred percent, fate’s vicious vouchsafing him a victim of the friendzone. That was the closest he had been to Hali in a long time. Her body had been inches away, and she had no clue he was there or why.

Hell, he hardly understood why he was there anymore. He tapped the letter in his pocket. The reminder. Michael had sent him the letter requesting that he keep an eye on Hali because there were always fortune hunters after her. Michael trusted him to protect his sister from harm and scandal. So what the blazing ballocks was he doing following her into the library at midnight? Preceded was more truthful.

He had enlisted the help of a footmen and servant or two, so he was always aware of her comings and goings. Once he received word that she was out of her room, he knew she would head for the library, so he took his chances, which were good, and raced there.

Spying on her in the library, though, wasn’t that going a bit too far? He could only justify it by thinking that Michael would prefer a possible scandal result in Giles marrying his sister rather than some two-faced coin chaser.

That was what he told himself. And he almost believed it.

But the moment she had nearly backed her bountiful bottom against his bulge, he knew he was in trouble. Again.

He knew it the first time he had laid eyes on her. She was gorgeous. Soft, warm chestnut hair. Eyes to match. But perhaps a shade darker. He had fallen for her the moment he saw her. But the second moment he saw her, he overheard her. And she was telling Michael that she didn’t want to marry. Ever.

That and he had no money. So if he did approach her, he knew she would throw him in with the rest of the fortune hunting lot.

So, like every respectable English gentleman, he had bottled up all of his feelings and ignored them.

Then he proceeded to make heaps and heaps of money. For himself, of course. It had nothing to do with her. So he told himself.

And now, with his heaps and heaps of money, and mountaining manhood–and that damn letter and a promise–he was in terrible trouble.

He was worried. Very, very worried.