Too Wilde to Wed by Eloisa James
“I still wonder if we should have chosen diaphanous silk, so the sunlight would filter through,” Diana said. “I suppose we still might, if the curtains seem heavy.”
She remembered why she’d come out to the garden. “Where’s Godfrey?” she asked. “We’ve had a letter from Aunt Knowe, and Artie included an excellent watercolor depicting a fight between Fitzy and Floyd watched by the new finch family. Apparently the pair nested in the ivy outside the Prussian Dining Room again, and there are three baby finches this time.”
North tipped his head back and called, “Godfrey!”
A pair of dirty legs descended through the thick foliage of a nearby plum tree, followed by the rest of their owner, and Godfrey dropped lightly to the ground.
“Artie sent you a painting,” Diana told him.
He put a sun-warmed plum in her hand in exchange for the watercolor, then trotted away down one of the paths that wove through their garden.
“When he becomes the laird,” North muttered, “he’ll be a welcome change from all the chattering ninnyhammers leading the English government.”
Their honeymoon trip to Italy had never ended. Now the family—larger by Rose and her three-year-old brother—lived in a graceful mansion near Florence’s Piazza Strozzi that North had designed and built. Assorted Wildes were always presenting themselves; the duke and duchess had fallen into the habit of scooping up Artie and any other available offspring, and sailing to Italy every August. Naturally, North had foreseen this, and designed their home to be airy, beautiful, and large enough for any number of guests.
“Ophelia sent along three new prints,” Diana said, leaning sideways to kiss her husband. “Poor Betsy! The gossipmongers simply will not leave her alone. I’m sure she doesn’t do half the reckless things they claim.”
“She probably does twice as many,” North said, and returned her kiss.
Much later that night, Diana lay in the pergola, on a daybed covered with fine linen, a bottle of champagne within reach. A single lantern provided just enough light, and heavy silk curtains swayed in the midsummer breeze.
She now understood why the diaphanous curtains would have been inadvisable.
North still slept best outdoors, or at the least, with the windows wide open.
But this chamber was not designed for sleep.
A Note about Battles and Books
Too Wilde to Wed is my twenty-seventh novel. As that number has climbed, I’ve often been asked if I’m growing tired of writing historical novels. I’m happy to report that my answer is invariably no, because each novel brings so many firsts along with it, and because research is so engrossing. In the case of Too Wilde to Wed, I knew nothing of the Revolutionary War (having forgotten everything I’d learned about it in high school) until I decided that North would call up a regiment and embark for America, or the colonies, as a duke might refer to America at the time. The Battle of Stony Point proved a fascinating history lesson. I benefited from an illuminating e-mail exchange with Jim Piecuch, a scholar of the war, who explained how the prisoner exchange that took place after Stony Point would have been managed.
The young man who dove into the Hudson River and swam all the way to HMS Vulture in an attempt to save the British garrison was one Lieutenant Roberts; I gave his valor to North, but I want to celebrate him here. I also took inspiration from the commander whom General George Washington had chosen to lead the American attack, Major General Anthony Wayne, who sent a dispatch to Washington announcing that he’d taken the fort and garrison: “Our officers and men behaved like men who are determined to be free.”
As well as being my twenty-seventh novel, Too Wilde to Wed is my first in which the heroine works as a governess. (Seven Minutes in Heaven doesn’t count, as its heroine owns a governess agency.) I’ve had a weakness for this sub-genre ever since reading Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting, first published in 1958. Diana and North’s midnight feast was inspired by a similar one in Ms. Stewart’s novel, as those of you familiar with it might have suspected.
Last but not least, I must credit another mid-century novel for inspiring certain details of Lindow Castle and its grounds—although my homage was unconscious: T. H. White’s delightful Mistress Masham’s Repose. While writing the first book in this series, Wilde in Love, I invented Lindow’s ornamental lake, and island rotunda folly. At some point I decided that the rowboat I was describing should become a punt. During the revising of Too Wilde to Wed, my brilliant line editor, Anne Connell, sent me a description of White’s “artificial emerald” island and its “plastered temple in the shape of a cupola, or rather, to give its proper name, of a monopteron.” The island was accessed by a punt, not a rowboat. I realized that the many, many times I read that book during my childhood had sunk into the recesses of my imagination. I promptly reread it with my daughter Anna, and I urge you to seek it out. You’re in for a treat!
Acknowledgments
My books are like small children; they take a whole village to get them to a literate state. I want to offer my deep gratitude to my village: my editor, Carrie Feron; my agent, Kim Witherspoon; my Web site designers, Wax Creative; and my personal team: Kim Castillo, Anne Connell, Franzeca Drouin, and Sharlene Moore. While writing about North’s experiences in America, I exchanged many e-mails with the Revolutionary War expert Jim Piecuch; my great thanks for his kind attention to my questions.
Lord Hon, Baron of Houston, Renfrewshire (Scotland), dances three times with Diana during a ball, incurring North’s jealousy, because Dr. Johnny Hon was kind enough to bid energetically in a charity auction benefiting my daughter’s public high school in New York City. When I offered a “character” to the auction, I never imagined I might be given a real lord to depict in Too Wilde to Wed. Thank you, Dr. Hon!
People in many departments of HarperCollins, from Art to Marketing to PR, have done a wonderful job of getting this book into readers’ hands: my heartfelt thanks goes to each of you.
Finally, a group of dear friends (and one teenage daughter) have read parts of this book, improving it immeasurably: my fervent thanks to Rachel Crafts, Lisa Kleypas, Linda Francis Lee, Cecile Rousseau, Meg Tilly, and Anna Vettori.
About the Author
ELOISA JAMES is a New York Times bestselling author and professor of English literature who lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. She is the mother of two and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight. Visit her at www.eloisajames.com.
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By Eloisa James
Too Wilde to Wed
Wilde in Love
Seven Minutes in Heaven
A Gentleman Never Tells (a novella)
My American Duchess
Four Nights with the Duke
Three Weeks with Lady X
Once Upon a Tower
As You Wish
With This Kiss (a novella in three parts)
Seduced by a Pirate (a novella)
The Ugly Duchess
The Duke Is Mine
Winning the Wallflower (a novella)
A Fool Again (a novella)
When Beauty Tamed the Beast
Storming the Castle (a novella)
A Kiss at Midnight
A Duke of Her Own
This Duchess of Mine
When the Duke Returns
Duchess by Night
An Affair Before Christmas
Desperate Duchesses
Pleasure for Pleasure
The Taming of the Duke
Kiss Me, Annabel
Much Ado About You
Your Wicked Ways
A Wild Pursuit
Fool for Love
Duchess in Love
Coming Soon
Wilde for You
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names,
too wilde to wed. Copyright © 2018 by Eloisa James, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
first edition
Digital Edition JUNE 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-269240-5
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-269246-7
Cover illustration by Anna Kmet
Cover photography by Michael Frost Photography
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Eloisa James, Too Wilde to Wed