Not Wicked Enough
Authors: Carolyn Jewel
Tags: #General, #Fiction, #Historical, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Historical romance
P
RAISE FOR
N
OT
W
ICKED
E
NOUGH
“Brilliant, poignant…and just plain fun. I loved it!”
—Courtney Milan,
New York Times
bestselling
author of
Unraveled
“Intense, sexy, and emotionally satisfying.”
—Jennifer Ashley,
USA Today
bestselling author of
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
A
DDITIONAL PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS
OF
C
AROLYN
J
EWEL
“For the reader who wants fresh settings, for the reader who likes traditional Regencies, for the reader who likes character-driven stories, and for the reader who likes adventure and a larger scope in Romance…A wonderfully satisfying read.”
—
Dear Author
“Very entertaining…Hard to put down.”
—
Night Owl Reviews
“A fastpaced, attentiongrabbing, actionpacked hell of a ride.”
—
Romance Reviews
Today
“Utterly radiant…and characters are so bloody brilliant!”
—Deborah MacGillivray, awardwinning
author of
One Snowy Knight
“Jewel keeps the plot fresh…The perfect holiday treat.”
—
Midwest Book Review
“A wonderfully emotional story…packed with adventure and danger…This is one of the best books I’ve read all year.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“A unique take on historical romance; it is an unusual and pleasurable tale.”
—
The Romance Readers Connection
Berkley Sensation Titles by Carolyn Jewel
SCANDAL
INDISCREET
NOT WICKED ENOUGH
Enough
AROLYN
J
EWEL
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or thirdparty websites or their content.
NOT WICKED ENOUGH
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation massmarket edition / February 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Carolyn Jewel.
Cover art by Jon Paul.
Cover design by George Long.
Cover hand lettering by Ron Zinn.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
EISBN: 9781101560778
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
To all the wonderful readers
who’ve let me know how much they enjoy my books.
Thank you.
To my amazing agent, Kristin Nelson: thank you, thank you, thank you. Similar thanks to my editor, Kate Seaver, and the entire Berkley team.
I’d also like to thank Allen Joslyn of the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America, who pointed me in fruitful directions, which included two of their newsletter issues that were directly on point regarding specifics about doorknob construction in the early nineteenth century. Thanks to Terry Herbert over there in England who uncovered the Staffordshire Hoard. I shamelessly stole your discovery and moved it across time and space. I must also acknowledge the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for putting all those astonishing pictures online.
More thanks go out to Nyree Belleville and Jacqueline Yau for the friendship and dinners. I am so glad you guys moved to my part of California. Special thanks to Julie McDermott and Robin Harcher for all the ESC and hours spent talking about academia, romance, books, writing, and reading. You guys keep me sane. Much love to my sister, Marguerite, and my son, Nathaniel, whose skill in the kitchen includes Nutella sandwiches—you’re the best! Love to my nephew, Dylan, and my nieces, Lexie and Hannah.
1:00
AM
, Bitterward, seat of the Dukes of Mountjoy,
near High Tearing, Sheffieldshire, England, 1816.
L
ILY
W
ELLSTONE WASN’T THE ONLY ONE TO HAVE
been caught in the downpour. She ignored the rain dripping off her bonnet and gazed at the other occupant of the entrance hall.
He was tall with dark hair and an ill-fitting and very wet greatcoat about his broad shoulders. Raindrops darkened his worn boots and glistened in his hair. His eyes were deep-set and private. This was a man who did not share his secrets, a man who could only be unraveled bit by tortuous-bit. Not for a moment did she mistake him for a fellow caller, though his clothes were hardly better than something a country squire might wear.
This most fascinating man stood at the opposite side of the room from the front door, near the magnificent arched doorway to the second floor. To the right, if she was correct about Bitterward’s architectural integrity, that same archway ended at the butler’s pantry. Two sets of crossed swords hung on the wall on either side of the doorway’s pointed top.
As the shape of the doorway proved, Bitterward was
Gothic. Legitimately several centuries old and therefore not a reconstitution of the medieval as was the fashion of the recent past. Such follies as the modern Gothic only demonstrated, in her opinion, a failure of imagination.