The Reluctant Hero

THE INCOMPARABLE

Serena gave him hope. Being dubbed the Incomparable implied that a girl was not only beautiful and accomplished, but also that she was the epitome of all that a man of the ton could want in a bride. Every debutante would aspire to be like her; every gentleman would clamor after her. No one would ever expect that there might be a real person under that lovely exterior. Except that she had, in the few hours of their acquaintance, proved herself to be very much an individual, indeed.

Lady Serena, Charles corrected himself. It was not only the intensity of their situation that made him feel as if he’d known her longer than he had. In truth, he knew nothing about her, except that she kept a cool head when faced with danger. He doubted that many of society’s hothouse roses would have behaved as she had, eluding her captors and then fighting so valiantly in her own defense. He doubted that many people realized she had such depths. She might not even have known it herself.


THE

REELUCTANT

HERO

MARY KINGSLEY

 


To the Regency Tea New England, for the food, tea, conversation, and far too many books. Let us forever meet on quarter days.

Lady Mary of New Beige

 

 


A NOTE ON PORTUGUESE
PRONUNCIATION

Portuguese is unlike most of the other Romance languages. Due to the sometimes-nasal vowels and the aspirated consonants, it often has a harsher sound. Because I didn’t want my readers to have to pronounce the characters’ names each time they encountered them, I was very careful in selecting them. “Joaquim” is relatively easy; the “ei” in Texeira, the family name, is pronounced as a short “e,” and the “z” in the female name “Luz” is pronounced as in English.

I fell in love with “Luz” the first time I heard it, and knew that it was perfect for this book. Using “Joaquim” was a more difficult decision. Be glad I chose it. I could have named Luz’s brother “Joao.”

ONE

Charles Kirk, late of His Majesty’s army on the Iberian Peninsula, felt his tension ease as the soft summer breeze drifted across his face. The air was not particularly fresh, not in London, but it was English air, and the view was of the garden outside the drawing room of Sherbourne House. Lounging on the window seat, apart from the others who sat in the drawing room, he felt curiously detached from their casual talk of ton events, of discussions of marriages and betrothals and other on-dits. He hadn’t expected this, not any of it, to feel the hollowness on seeing the happiness of his brother Geoffrey, Viscount Sherbourne, with his wife, Ariel, and, more surprisingly, of Lord Adam Burnet. He had married his Elizabeth only a few weeks previously, though everyone considered him too lazy to do anything. “I never expected to return home to find all this,” Charles burst out, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “Everyone’s married. You, Geoffrey, Adam, even Lyndon. What has possessed everyone?”

Geoffrey and Ariel exchanged a look. “I’d wager you could guess,” he said, making Ariel give him another look.

“Lud, dear boy,” Adam said from his lounging position on a sofa. “Love, don’t you know.”

“Something you should consider, Charles,” Geoffrey remarked.

Charles glanced away, wishing he’d never brought up the topic. Marriage seemed to have tamed Geoffrey, who had been something of a rake before Charles had gone to war. Yet now he seemed content in a way he never had before. Charles well knew that feeling would never be for him. “I suppose you’d see me leg-shackled to this year’s Incomparable. Or the Diamond of the First Water, or some such.”

“Of course not.” Ariel looked up from her knitting and smiled.