Lucy in Disguise (Regency Romance) - Softcover

Kerstan, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449001849 ISBN 13: 9780449001844

Publisher: Ivy Books, 1998

Synopsis

SHE RELUCTANTLY RESCUED THE ROGUE--
NOW HE'S DETERMINED TO RESCUE HER!

Miss Lucy Preston pulls a wounded smuggler from the quicksand of the Lancashire beaches, and she soon rues the day. For the rascal immediately sees through her disguise and that of her heavily veiled companion--who, indeed, is not a mute, elderly woman but a frightened young lady running from danger and seeking refuge at this remote seaside cottage.

Happily acknowledging he has just landed in a truly fascinating melodrama, Christopher Valliant is determined to aid the fair damsels. For this reformed rake is motivated by the most noble reason of all: love--pure and glorious--for the lovely, temperamental, and ever-so-delightful Lucy!

About this title

From the Publisher

Working in the Subsidiary Rights Department requires me to read books from every genre that Ballantine publishes, including Romances. Having never read a Regency Romance before, I was curious as to what attracts such a large and devoted readership. For me, reading LUCY IN DISGUISE proved a wonderful introductory lesson to Regencies. This story of adventure, disguise, drama, and secrets (only some of which are well-kept) has a little bit of everything for everyone; fans of mystery, romance, historical fiction, and adventure books will all be satisfied by LUCY IN DISGUISE.

-- Brooke Sperry, Subsidiary Rights Assistant

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Late on a moonless night, a luminous figure walked the high cliff
overlooking Morecambe Bay.

Below, the tide was out. Starlight glittered on the rivulets of water left
on the beach, silver ribbons across dark sand, soon obscured as clouds
scudded overhead.

In the far distance, Lucy Jennet Preston saw faint golden lights.

Cocklers, perhaps, or mussel diggers. But she doubted it.

She dropped to her belly and slithered to the edge of the cliff. The
lights, four of them, moved steadily inland, and she guessed them to be
half-shuttered lanterns. For a time she thought they were headed directly
toward her, and then she decided they were angled slightly south. It was
impossible to be sure.

Ought she to stand again and hope to frighten them away? That was, after
all, the whole point of being an apparition. But she held in place,
watching the dim lights come ever closer, debating her next move. If they
had some other destination in mind, the last thing she wanted to do was
call attention to this one.

Suddenly there were more lights, six or seven brighter ones, surrounding
the four she had been tracking. Lanterns snapped open--at a signal, most
likely--to reveal the silhouettes of a horse and wagon, two more animals
laden with wide panniers, and nearly a dozen men.

What in blazes was going on? She could see only shadowy figures
illuminated by flickering red-gold light. For a minute or two no one
moved. Then the donkeys were led away in a northerly direction.

Three men stood near the horse and wagon, which was piled high with what
she supposed to be boxes. One man reached out, and for a moment he seemed
to be struggling with the horse. She heard a sharp sound, like a crack of
distant thunder, and three men broke into a run. All were carrying the
shuttered lanterns, and they aimed themselves south toward Jenny Brown's
Point.

Meanwhile the bright lanterns went quickly in the direction in which the
donkeys had been taken. One lantern lay abandoned on the sand near the
wagon.

Whatever had transpired down there appeared to be over. The men were soon
out of sight, but she waited and watched for a long time in case they
returned for the horse and cargo they had left behind.

The horse!

By now the wagon wheels were probably sinking into the muddy sand. The few
times she had wandered any distance from the shore, Lucy had found that it
didn't do to stand in one place for very long. Should the stranded animal
fail to pull the wagon free very soon, it was surely doomed.

Lucy scrambled to her feet, sighing. However diligently one planned,
something always came along to throw a spanner in the works. She didn't
even like horses.

Grumbling, she stripped off her costume and rolled it into a tight bundle.
If she had to go out on the sands, she would do better wearing only her
shirt and trousers.

How she would unhook the horse from the wagon she had no idea. With any
luck, not that she ever had much of it, there would be only a few buckles
to unloose. Otherwise she could only hope that the wagon had settled on a
patch of hard sand, making it possible to lead the horse and wagon to
safety.

She ran the short distance to Cow's Mouth Inlet, where a steep path wound
down from the cliff to the beach. A flat rock jutting from the limestone
headland marked the place to start. Stashing her costume on a ledge
beneath the rock, Lucy began the precipitous descent.

In the dark she had to go by feel alone, but she'd made the trip any
number of times in the past few days. She always told herself it was like
climbing a tree and tried not to notice when pebbles dislodged by her
boots clattered down the cliffside and landed with a hollow thud.

Grasping for handholds, she lowered herself bit by bit until her feet
touched the ground of the inlet. From there, the sands were invisible. She
followed the narrow break in the cliff around a curve to the shoreline and
aimed herself toward the lantern. At ground level, she could barely make
it out.

The air was charged with electricity. It caused the hair at her nape to
spring out, as it always did just before a storm. Overhead, the clouds
were rolling in, sometimes releasing fat drops of rain. Only now and again
could she glimpse a few stars winking in the black night, and soon they
disappeared altogether.

Once her boot sank ankle-deep in a gully of soft sand, and for several
terrifying moments she was not at all sure she would be able to wrench it
out. But it finally popped free and from then on she moved more slowly,
taking care to avoid any spot where water had pooled.

Robbie had warned her that the sands were treacherous. When the tide
turned, a high wave would sweep into the bay with the speed of a galloping
horse. Perhaps she ought to have paid more attention to the schedule he
provided her, but until now there was no reason to venture onto the bay.
Already she was much farther out than she had ever been.

As she drew closer to the fallen lantern she saw more clearly the outlines
of the horse, which wore a saddle, and of the flatbed wagon. It was indeed
piled with wooden boxes. An exceptionally large box had apparently fallen
off and lay on the sand directly behind it.

The horse nickered and tossed its head restively. No docile wagon puller,
it was an enormous beast, eyes glowing like fiery coals in the lantern
light. She approached it gingerly.

"Please stay still," she said in the most soothing tone she could produce
from a constricted throat. "Truly, I won't hurt you."

"I am relieved to hear it."

Lucy stopped dead in her tracks, her heart pounding. Surely not! Horses
couldn't talk.

"Hullo," said the voice. "I'm back here."

She could see nothing beyond the wagon except the outline of the fallen
box. "Come out then. Slowly. And hold up your hands. I have a pistol."

"You, too? Is everyone but me carrying a weapon tonight?" There was a
rumble of male laughter. "I would oblige you, to be sure, but at the
moment I'm unable to move. M'foot is trapped under a box."

"So you say." She advanced one cautious step in his direction. "How can I
be sure?"

"I suppose you could take my word for it. Or you could come and see for
yourself. Do hurry, though. Time and tide wait for no man, or so I am
told, and we will both be underwater fairly soon. I certainly will, if you
cannot help me to extricate myself. You, of course, are free to leave
whenever you like."

He sounded harmless. Even amused. And he could have jumped on her long
before now if he'd a mind to, or if he were able to. She picked up the
lantern and moved alongside the wagon, stopping when she reached the
oversize back wheel. Sure enough, a black-clad figure was stretched out
behind the box. As she looked at him he sat forward, propping himself up
on one elbow. His right leg was buried under the sand from the knee down,
and the box was planted where his foot would likely be.

She raised the lantern for a better look at him. There wasn't much to see.
His hair was covered by a knit cap and his face had been blackened. White
teeth flashed at her, though, when he smiled.

"Well? Do you mean to help me or not?"

Gazing at him, she sensed disaster. Alarm prickled at her spine. He was a
large man, and powerful, if one was to judge by a set of wide shoulders
and a broad chest. "Can you not kick away the box with your other foot?"

"Believe me, I've been trying. Thing is, my buried foot hit a patch of wet
sand and sank in. Then the box fell off the wagon and landed right atop
it. Not to mention that someone shot me along the way. My left arm is
fairly useless at the moment, and I can't seem to get the leverage for a
good hard push."

"Oh." She moved from behind the dubious protection of the wagon. "Who are
you?"

"A smuggler, retired as of a few minutes ago. And a few minutes from now
the bore tide will be upon us. Much as I hate to say this, m'dear, you
really ought to head back to shore while you can."

She wanted to do exactly that, but of course she could not. After placing
the lantern on the back of the wagon, she went behind the fallen box,
knelt, and gave a mighty pull. It moved a fraction of an inch and dropped
back again. Three more tries were equally futile. The box was heavy and it
had sunk very deep.

"Try putting your foot against the top," she directed. "Shove as best you
can when I give the sign." Curling her fingers around the edge of the box
near the corner, she planted herself firmly and took a deep breath. "Now!"

He pushed, she pulled, and except for a sucking noise, nothing happened.
They gave it several more attempts, but if anything, the box sank lower
still into the quagmire.

Still kneeling, Lucy wiped sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.

"There's a knife in the scabbard on my belt," the man said quietly. "Use
it to cut the horse loose and lead him to shore. His name is Jason. Take
care of him, and I'll put in a good word for you at the Pearly Gates."

"Don't be stupid." She jumped onto the wagon, looking for something to
stuff underneath the box. There were only more heavy boxes, nailed shut,
and a battered umbrella. Taking it with her, she dropped back to the
ground, opened the umbrella, and proceeded to stomp on it until all the
spines had broken and it lay flat. Then she knelt and used her hands like
a pair of trowels to scoop sand from the base of the wo...

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivy Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0449001849
• ISBN 13: 9780449001844
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 213