Rose Read online

  ROSE

  Lauren Royal

  Author’s Cut Edition

  11th Edition, January 2018

  Novelty Books

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Book Description

  More Chase Family Books

  A Message from Lauren...

  Chase Family Tree

  Cover Image

  Dedication

  1: Standing in her family's...

  2: "If I may speak with...

  3: "You look melancholy...

  4: "What a day."

  5: Kit stood in a corner...

  6: "Hurry," Rose said.

  7: Kit walked briskly...

  8: As the evening wore on...

  9: Kit had six men...

  10: As Rose and Gabriel...

  11: "I'm pleased."

  12: Kit led them on the...

  13: Before Rose could...

  14: Kit sketched while...

  15: As Rose watched Kit...

  16: "Home" right now...

  17: Rose closed the lodging's...

  18: Kit looked down the hill...

  19: Rose had kissed three...

  20: "Burning the midnight...

  21: Even the king had tried...

  22: Ellen led Rose down...

  23: "Kit," his sister said...

  24: Rose had nearly steeled...

  25: "She's distressed...

  26: Rose knew she shouldn't...

  27: "Lady Trentingham?"

  28: The attiring room was...

  29: It was a good ten...

  30: "Didn't you sleep well...

  31: Three days later, Ellen...

  32: Built just a few years...

  33: Outside, torches burned...

  34: Rose and Kit returned...

  35: "Good morning, Ellen."

  36: "Good afternoon, Mr....

  37: The next day, Rose...

  38: Kit's sister looked pale...

  39: Following a bit of...

  40: Rose watched brother...

  41: Rose's family was...

  42: Not too much later...

  43: The men had adjourned...

  44: Chrystabel stretched...

  45: As Kit and Rose...

  46: Rose spent a restless...

  47: The sun was setting...

  48: "Rosslyn."

  49: As the evening wore on...

  50: Notebook, ruler, and...

  51: By the time Kit made...

  52: Later that day, Kit...

  53: Everything looked so...

  54: Rose shrieked, and...

  55: Hampton Court was...

  56: "Oh, Judith," Lily breathed...

  57: "Based on the upper...

  58: Standing in the old village...

  59: Many hours later, Chrystabel...

  60: Judith's wedding celebration...

  61: They stumbled together...

  62: "Six months," Chrystabel...

  63: One evening a week later...

  64: The book fell from Kit's...

  65: The next morning, after...

  66: "Rowan, wake up!"

  67: In Madame Beaumont's...

  68: With all the excitement...

  69: He was a coward.

  70: No note had come from Kit.

  71: Standing at the front of...

  72: Rose couldn't remember...

  73: "Look at all the people...

  Thank You!

  BONUS MATERIALAuthor's Note

  Explore the Chase Family World

  Excerpt from A SECRET CHRISTMAS

  Books by Lauren Royal

  A Dozen Free Books

  Contest

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Jewels of Historical Romance

  Contact Information

  Copyright Page

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  England, 1677

  The last of three sisters to marry, Lady Rose Ashcroft is determined to land a wealthy, titled husband—a marquess perhaps, or even a duke. Having had her heart broken in the past, she’s decided the key to enticing a man lies in hiding her intelligence and academic interests while flaunting her more feminine qualities. Matchmaking mother in tow and strategy firmly in place, Rose heads off to Charles II’s court to find love…

  And runs smack dab into Christopher “Kit” Martyn, the one man who could ruin all her plans. Kit is a dashing, successful commoner with his sights set on landing the post of official Royal Architect—and he’s the only man Rose feels she can honestly talk to about anything. Kit knows the true Rose, and he wants her, but she thinks of him as a family friend. Can he convince her that a title is unimportant compared to the passion he knows they’re destined to share?

  MORE CHASE FAMILY BOOKS

  For more information, click on a cover.

  Chase Family Series: The Jewels

  Chase Family Series: The Flowers

  Chase Family Series: The Regency

  Chase Family Series: The Renaissance

  Boxed Sets

  A MESSAGE FROM LAUREN…

  It’s unusual for an author to center all her novels around a single family, and it wasn’t something I planned to do when I started writing.

  The Chase family came to me all at once. I knew I wanted to set my first books in the late 17th century, and I wanted to write about people affected by their times. An English family with Royalist sympathies would have lived through a lot in those years—the English Civil War, the Protectorate, exile on the Continent, the Restoration—and those experiences would have forever shaped their personalities. So the Chases came to me: Jason, the oldest, who had responsibility thrust on him too soon by the untimely deaths of their parents; Colin, a middle child filled with resentment for his parents’ choices and what those had ultimately cost him and his siblings; Kendra, the only girl, raised by imperfect but well-meaning older brothers; and her twin Ford, the baby of the family, the happy-go-lucky one who was too young to feel the burden of their circumstances. Ford later marries Violet Ashcroft, bringing her eccentric relations into the Chase family circle.

  After two series, I decided to write books set in the Regency period. By then the Chases felt as real to me as my own family, so it was natural to write about their descendants. Though over a hundred years have passed, evidence of the original Chases still remains, hidden in old portraits, hereditary traits, and family legend (the truth of which astute readers will know better than the Regency Chases do!). I had a lot of fun tying these characters together across the centuries.

  My daughter and I are now writing Chase books set in the Renaissance era, so the tradition continues. Will I ever write about a different family? I can’t say for sure, but I’m not ready to walk away from the Chases yet!

  I love to keep in touch with my readers! Join my e-newsletter to receive free and 99¢ book recommendations each week as well as new release bulletins. And I’d be thrilled to see you in my Readers Group on Facebook, where I share sneak peeks and gather suggestions from my favorite readers!

  There are so many great romance novels out there—thank you for choosing mine. I so hope you’ll enjoy Kit and Rose’s story.

  Happy reading!

  CHASE FAMILY TREE

  To see a larger version of the Chase Family Tree, click here!

  For Karen Nesbitt,

  Taire Martyn Ruffing,

  Alison Bellach Sonderegger,

  and Caroline Bellach Quick,

  four crazy North Americans who share my love of

  music, the UK, and good books

  ONE

  Trentingham Manor, the South of England

  September 1677

  STANDING IN her family’s small, crowded chapel, Rose Ashcroft shifted
on her high Louis-heeled shoes, wishing she were in a cathedral so there would be somewhere to sit.

  Wishing she were anywhere but here watching her sister get married.

  “Randal John Charles, Earl of Newcliffe, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?”

  “I will.” The confident words boomed through the magnificent oak-paneled chamber, binding Rand to Rose’s sister Lily.

  But Rose wasn’t listening to the ceremony. Instead she heard twenty-one, twenty-one, twenty-one running through her head. Twenty-one and a lonely spinster…while both her sisters had found love.

  Happy tears brightened their mother’s brown eyes. She leaned close, bumping against Rose’s left side. “They’re perfect together, aren’t they?” she whispered.

  Rose could only nod dumbly, staring at her sister’s petite form laced into a gorgeous pale blue satin wedding dress embroidered with gleaming silver thread. Lily’s hair, the same rich sable as Rose’s, cascaded to her shoulders in glossy ringlets. Beside her, Rand beamed a smile, looking tall and utterly handsome in dark blue velvet, his gray gaze steady and adoring.

  The two were so clearly in love, Rose knew they belonged together—and truly, she was happy for her sister.

  If only Lily weren’t her younger sister.

  The priest cleared his throat and looked back down at his Book of Common Prayer. “Lady Lily Ashcroft, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband…”

  Standing on Rose’s right, her older sister Violet shifted one of her twin babies on her hip and gazed up at her husband of four years, Ford. Sun streamed through the stained-glass windows, glinting off her spectacles. “Oh, isn’t this romantic?” she sighed.

  Holding their other infant, Ford squeezed Violet around the shoulders. Seated cross-legged at their feet, their two-year-old son Nicky traced a finger over the patterns in the colorful glazed tile floor, obliviously happy.

  Rose gritted her teeth.

  Her friend Judith Carrington poked her from behind. “I cannot believe Lily’s wedding is happening before mine,” she whispered in a tone laced with dismay. “I was betrothed first!”

  Rose couldn’t believe Lily and Judith would both be married before she even received a proposal.

  “…so long as ye both shall live?” the priest concluded expectantly.

  In the hush that followed, even knowing it wasn’t kind of her, Rose half wished Lily would fail to reply.

  But Lily didn’t, of course. “I will,” she pledged, her voice as sweet as she was, ringing clear and true.

  A few more words, a family heirloom ring slid onto her finger, and Lily was clearly and truly wed now, the new Countess of Newcliffe.

  And Rose was clearly and truly miserable.

  When Rand lowered his lips to meet Lily’s, Rose turned away. Behind her, Judith was grinning up at her own betrothed—although only a little way up, since his stature was less than impressive. Lord Grenville was five-and-thirty to Judith’s twenty, and his pale brown hair was thinning on top, but Rose imagined that the way Judith looked at him made him feel like a king. And he looked down on her in a way that surely made pretty, plump Judith feel like a queen.

  Rose wanted someone who’d make her feel like a queen. Good God, a duchess or countess would do. Or even a lowly baroness…

  As the years crawled by without a husband on the horizon, she was getting less picky. So long as the man was titled, handsome, rich, and powerful, most anyone was acceptable.

  The guests parted as Lily and Rand began making their way from the chapel. They’d taken but a few steps when a cat, a squirrel, and a chirping sparrow came to join them.

  Rose moved to hug her sister. “It was beautiful,” she murmured. “I’m so happy for you.”

  She was. Truly she was.

  Lily leaned down to pick up the cat, straightening with a brilliant smile. “Your turn next.”

  A hurt retort came to Rose’s mind, but she wouldn’t snap at her sister on her wedding day.

  “I’m happy for you, too, Rand,” she said instead, rising on her toes to give her sister’s new husband a kiss on the cheek. But not too far up on her toes, because Rose was a tall woman. Too tall, perhaps, or too slim, or too quick-tongued…or too something.

  There had to be some reason she had yet to find love.

  Too intelligent, most likely. At one point, she’d thought Rand might be the man for her. Handsome, titled, and a professor of linguistics at Oxford—surely a good match for Rose, given her own exceptional command of foreign languages. But he’d chosen her little sister.

  “I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he said now, making Rose feel the unluckiest woman.

  She’d had better days.

  Lily must have noticed her dejected expression, because her fingers stopped stroking the cat’s striped fur. Concern clouded her lovely blue eyes. “You will be next,” she said quietly.

  “Undoubtedly so, since I’m the only one left,” Rose quipped. “Unless, that is, Rowan manages to find himself a bride before I find a groom.”

  They both swung to look at their eleven-year-old brother where he stood with Violet’s young niece, Jewel, their dark heads close together as they whispered animatedly.

  “He may have found himself a bride already,” Rose added dryly.

  Lily’s laughter rang through the chapel, echoing off the molded dome ceiling. “Surely someone will claim you long before Rowan gets it in his head to wed. Why, you’re the most beautiful of all of us, Rose!”

  Rose had always thought Lily the most beautiful, but she knew she was beautiful, too. Yet beauty, she’d learned, was not enough to hook a husband.

  Well-wishers pressed closer. Rose began moving toward the drawing room and found Judith by her side. Forsaking her betrothed, Judith clutched Rose’s arm. “Who is that handsome fellow?” she whispered conspiratorially.

  Rose slid a glance to the man in question, a friend of Rand’s whose gaze suddenly met hers, then skimmed her body in a way that might have made her heart pound…if she were at all interested. “That’s Mr. Christopher Martyn—Rand calls him Kit. He’s an architect,” she added dismissively.

  “Christopher Martyn, the architect?” Awe hushed Judith’s voice. “Hasn’t King Charles recently awarded him a contract to renovate Whitehall Palace?”

  “Along with Windsor Castle and Hampton Court.”

  “Ah, a man of intelligence to complement yours.” Clearly Judith considered the man’s lack of a title no impediment. “No need for you to play the featherbrained coquette for him.”

  “I’ve no interest in him. And I’ve never acted featherbrained.” But perhaps now was the time to start.

  On her sisters’ advice, Rose had tried to win Rand by appealing to his intellect, but that hadn’t worked at all. Never again would she attempt to attract a man by flaunting her brains. No matter what her family or Judith said, she knew there were better ways to entice gentlemen.

  Unfortunately, where Rand was concerned, she’d come to that conclusion too late. To her intense embarrassment, she’d stooped to propositioning him in her family’s summerhouse, and when that hadn’t worked, desperation had driven her to attempt bribery and trickery of the worst kind.

  She couldn’t imagine what had come over her that day and had feared she’d never be able to look Rand in the face again. But to her utter relief he seemed at ease with her, as though he’d graciously forgotten that humiliating episode.

  “You cannot tell me,” Judith whispered, dragging Rose back to the present, “that you don’t find Mr. Martyn attractive.”

  Rose slanted Kit another covert look. Dressed in forest-toned velvet, he was tall and lean, his hair dark as jet, his eyes a startling mix of brown and green. She dredged up a wry smile. “I’d have to be blind to claim that.”r />
  “And he looks ever so nice. Do you think he’s nice?”

  “He’s nice enough.” Except for those unusual eyes, which were decidedly not nice. Wicked would be a better description.

  “And good Lord, he’s building things for the king! I’m certain he has money—”

  “Money,” Rose interrupted pointedly, “does not make up for lack of a title.”

  Her sister Violet walked up, sans children for once. “Who needs a title?”

  Judith crossed her arms. “Lady Rose apparently wishes to become Lady Something-Higher.”

  “Oh, well.” Violet sent Rose an indulgent smile. “That’s only because she has yet to fall in love.”

  Rose smiled in return. “And given that it’s as easy to fall in love with a titled man as one without, I’ve decided to concentrate on the former.”

  Violet and Judith exchanged a glance that set Rose’s teeth on edge, then left her, to return to their respective men.

  Since Lily had given their mother barely two weeks to plan the event, the wedding party was small. Still, there were more than enough guests to fill the drawing room and spill out onto the Palladian portico and into the exquisite gardens. Trentingham Manor was known for its gardens, thanks to Rose’s father and his passion for flowers and plants.

  But it was a warm, sunny day, and Rose feared for her creamy complexion, so she opted to stay indoors. She wandered the crowded drawing room, sipping from a goblet of the new and frightfully expensive champagne her parents favored for celebrations. Although she enjoyed sharing a word or two with various relatives and neighbors, she was generally feeling at loose ends, not quite sure what to do with herself.

  Until, that was, she heard her father’s voice and turned to see him addressing Kit Martyn.

  “…one of those newfangled greenhouses,” Father was saying. “On the east side of the house, I’m thinking, to catch the morning sun. Since autumn is nearly upon us, I’d be much obliged if you could start it immediately.”