Praise for USA TODAY bestselling author
KASEY MICHAELS
“Kasey Michaels aims for the heart and never misses.”
—New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts
“Michaels’s new Regency miniseries is a joy…You will laugh and even shed a tear over this touching romance.”
—RT Book Reviews on How to Tempt a Duke
“[Mischief Becomes Her] has loads of Michaels’s deft wit and fast plotting. Readers will be raring for the next book in this delightful series.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Known for developing likable characters and humorous situations, Michaels adds an element of danger and suspense to this sexy romp.”
—RT Book Reviews on Dial M for Mischief
“Michaels demonstrates her flair for creating likable protagonists who possess chemistry, charm and a penchant for getting into trouble. In addition, her dialogue and descriptions are full of humor.”
—Publishers Weekly on This Must Be Love
“Michaels has done it again…. Witty dialogue peppers a plot full of delectable details exposing the foibles and follies of the age.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on The Butler Did It
“Michaels can write everything from a lighthearted romp to a far more serious-themed romance. [She] has outdone herself.”
—RT Book Reviews on A Gentleman By Any Other Name (Top Pick)
“[A] hilarious spoof of society wedding rituals wrapped around a sensual romance filled with crackling dialogue reminiscent of The Philadelphia Story.”
—Publishers Weekly on Everything’s Coming Up Rosie
Kasey Michaels
How to Wed a Baron
Dear Reader,
Baron Justin Wilde presents himself to the world as witty, urbane and decidedly harmless. Yet for years during the war with Bonaparte, the baron served as the Crown’s most successful assassin. Outlawed for killing his man in a duel, Justin took on this soul-killing mission only in the hope of an eventual pardon and a return to his beloved England. But that royal pardon arrived with several strings attached to it—including an arranged marriage to one Lady Magdalèna Evinka Nadeja Valentin.
Lady Alina is no more thrilled with this arrangement than is the baron, but from the moment they meet their attraction is undeniable. But with secrets of both the past and present to overcome, will either of them live long enough to find the love that might be theirs?
How to Wed a Baron brings together the characters from my previous books, How to Tempt a Duke, How to Tame a Lady and How to Beguile a Beauty. It is the story of two people, yes, but it is also a tribute to friendship, trust and a belief in the power of love, forgiveness and new beginnings.
Please visit my website at kaseymichaels.com and let me know if you’ve enjoyed these four very special stories, and for information about all of my books.
Warmest regards,
Kasey Michaels
To Carol Carpenter and memories of a great day of brainstorming ideas for this book while seeing the sights in Williamsburg.
All vacations should be that much fun!
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
A QUARTER MILE FROM THE manor house located five miles outside the ancient city of Prague, and hidden amid mighty oak trees that swallowed up much of the September sunshine, a lone figure sat on the grassy bank of a meandering stream. Her knees were tucked up beneath her chin as she intently watched the progress of an early fallen leaf until it became caught up in a tangle of water lilies and disappeared below the surface.
The young woman’s sigh was audible as she turned her head and seemed to pick out another leaf floating downstream, ready to follow its progress toward capture and oblivion, powerless to change its fate.
So, the man watching her thought. She’s been told.
Luka Prochazka remained concealed behind a tree trunk as he cursed the Fates that had denied him any skill with the paintbrush, for surely this was a moment worthy of being captured on canvas for the ages. Her slim woman’s body clad in a worn gown, her marvelous tumble of thick dark curls that seemed almost too heavy to be supported by the fragile column of her throat, the downcast eyes, the complexion of purest ivory…
She sighed once more, her shoulders rising and falling in dramatic fashion. Dearest Lady Alina. At not quite her nineteenth birthday, she was so very accomplished at drama.
Yes, this would be how he would have titled his portrait: Lady Magdaléna Evinka Nadeja Valentin, In Despair. Lesser hearts than his would break to see her this way. Her aunt, Lady Mimi Valentin, would give ten years of her life, perhaps twenty, to be half so beautiful, which was probably why she’d been so eager to do as the king had requested. Indeed, knowing the woman, she had most certainly delighted in the prospect of attending court with Lady Alina no longer in her train, capturing the eye of any man between the ages of twelve and three-days-dead.
Poor, beautiful Lady Alina. How very hard she had tried to be who and what she was not. Wild, free, unfettered. But an English mother and a half-Romany father, both long dead, did not a Romany make. In the end, it was the English blood that counted to those in power. Those in control. And to those in control, a young woman of marriageable age was nothing more than a pawn.
She would make a beautiful bride once Luka delivered her to her fate. Her groom, this unknown Englishman she was being sent to in six weeks’ time, would be a lucky man, indeed.
He turned away to silently retrace his steps, give Alina some privacy until the worst of her sulk was over. As he did, he thought to himself, In the end, she’ll make the best of it. She’ll find a way, her own way. She is her father’s daughter, and there is no defeat in her….
CHAPTER ONE
JUSTIN WILDE MOUNTED the curving right-hand staircase of Carleton House with all the joy of a condemned man being marched to the scaffold, one of his royal majesty’s flunkies on either side of him. At least the execution would be formal, not slapdash in appearance.
As his well-polished Hessians confidently struck each marble stair, his alert green eyes saw everything, his exemplary brain cataloguing and recording each detail of his surroundings. One might say the baron lived his life in a state of the highest readiness, prepared to fight or flee, should either necessity present itself.
Not that the pair of ridiculous liveried footmen, matching in their height and build and coloring