Meet Elizabeth, Lady Beauchamp aka Mrs. Beth Eliott, the heroine
from my Regency romance, LADY BEAUCHAMP’S PROPOSAL, recently released with
Secret Cravings Publishing,
Eilean Tor Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, October 1815
Thank
you for stopping by to hear a little about me and my journey heretofore. My name
is Elizabeth, Lady Beauchamp, lately known as Mrs. Beth Eliott (although you
must promise not to tell anyone about my alias, my life may depend upon it).
You
see, I have recently left my husband, Hugh de Lancey Harcourt, the Earl of
Beauchamp, and have gone into hiding. It was not a decision I made lightly. We
have been married three years now, and it is hard for me to admit this, but my
husband has never loved me. We are long-estranged. I loved him once, but it is
hard to continue to care for a man who professes you to be pretty but dull—who
barely gives you the time of day. I know he takes mistresses, and worse—prostitutes
from the street—to his bed, rather than me. The shocking knowledge once tore at
my heart, but now…I just feel saddened. Strange how I have grown used to
feeling quite alone.
Indeed,
it is because of Hugh’s dissolute way of life that I have been compelled to
flee—I recently discovered he has syphilis, or ‘the pox’. One of his mistresses
wrote to me but a month ago, warning me to leave before Hugh passed on this
terrible, incurable and ultimately deadly malady. She professed that she had contracted
the pox from my husband and I am inclined to believe her. Now, you are probably
wondering why. Strangely, her letter held a ring of truth to it. She informed
me that Hugh sported an incriminating mark of the disease—an ulcer called a
chancre on his hand. I have seen it, but Hugh—arrogant and obstinate as
ever—refused to discuss it with me, or consult our physician. Even more
terrifying was the fact that shortly after I received the letter and had begun
to lay careful plans to leave, Hugh suddenly—and uncharacteristically—wanted to
bed me again; to beget an heir were his
words to me on the very last night I spent at Harcourt House, our London
residence. But I can never be intimate with my husband again. If I did share
his bed, I and any babe conceived, would be damned as much as Hugh. And I
cannot countenance such a diabolical act.
So
I left him. With no personal fortune—Hugh has always controlled the purse
strings—I have been compelled to take on a new persona, that of Mrs. Beth
Eliott, widowed governess. As a patroness of the Widows of Waterloo Trust—a
charity that finds paid, decent work for women who have lost their husbands at
Waterloo—I heard of a long vacant governess’s post within the Marquess of
Rothsburgh’s household in an isolated part of Aberdeenshire. Quite desperate, I
journeyed here with my self-penned letter of reference from ‘the astute Lady
Beauchamp’, only to discover that Lord Rothsburgh no longer requires a
governess. After the recent, accidental death of his wife, their young daughter
now resides in Edinburgh with his sister’s family. To make matters worse, on my
arrival, I succumbed to a terrible ague that was plaguing the district, and to
my mortification, Lord Rothsburgh himself took part in a good deal of my care.
My
friends in the Widows of Waterloo Trust had warned me that Lord Rothsburgh was
quite the misanthrope—a lone wolf—but I have not found him to be churlish or
unsociable at all. I have observed in the short time I have been here at Eilean
Tor, that he is quite mercurial and has a strange, perhaps even wicked sense of
humor. But beneath all that, he is quite charming—and devilishly handsome, even
dangerously so. Long ago, I gave up on the idea of ever having love in my life.
And I must certainly not entertain the notion now. I might be physically
attracted to Lord Rothsburgh but I cannot, must
not, give into wicked temptation and cultivate any tender feelings for the
man, despite his care and concern for my well-being. I have almost recovered
from the ague and hope to hear of another governess’s position very soon.
Indeed, Lord Rothsburgh is currently visiting his sister, Lady Maxwell, in
Edinburgh to make enquiries—on my behalf—about other vacant posts.
If
there are no other positions about, I really do not know what I shall do. All I
know is that I cannot go back to Hugh…
I
must go now, but thank you for listening. Please keep my secrets safe.
Warmest
regards,
Elizabeth
If
you would like to find out more about Elizabeth and her story—and who she finds
her happily-ever-after with—here are the buy links:
Secret Cravings Publishing Store: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=10&products_id=925
Amazon Australian store: http://www.amazon.com.au/Lady-Beauchamps-Proposal-Rose-Bennett-ebook/dp/B00MMVK13G/ref=zg_bs_2537591051_21
Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lady-beauchamps-proposal-amy-rose-bennett/1120113778?ean=2940150334076
All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ladybeauchamp039sproposal-1592868-340.html
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