Read The Country House Courtship Online
Authors: Linore Rose Burkard
The Country House Courtship
The reviews are in! Readers and critics
love
Linore Rose Burkard's
Before the Season Endsâ¦
“
The author's command of period detail is impressive,
evident in material details but also in dialogue. The theology is also period authentic. The novel even contains a glossary to help non-Regencyphiles get up to speed about the difference between ladies' pelisses and spencersâ¦on the whole it's a tasty confection.”
P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY
“
A really nice surprise!
This is definitely an original regency romance.”
A
NNE
W
OODLEY
,
Amazon.com
Top 500 Reviewer
patroness of the
Almack's List, Byron List
, Janeites, and the
Austen List
“
Beautifully written story,
fast-paced and exciting from cover to cover, (and) one of the best stories I have read!”
K
ELLI
G
LESIGE
book reviewer for
www.ReaderViews.com
“Well-written, interesting,
captivating, romantic, inspirational, and addictive,
I highly recommend this book.”
ArmchairInterviews.com
(Top 1000 Reviewer)
“
I laughed out loud
and was also brought to tears while reading this beautifully written book.”
A
LICE
T
JIONG
Amazon.com
Reader
“
A great, entertaining book!
It had me caught from the first few pages and continued to reel me in page after page.”
D
ONNA
C
RUGER
Business Owner/
Amazon.com
Reader
“
So good that I couldn't put it down!
It made me laugh out loud and it made me cry.”
L
AURA
L
O
F
ASO
Amazon.com
Reader
â¦and more raves for Linore's
The House in Grosvenor Squareâ¦
“
With a dose of charm and pinch of audacity,
Burkard narrates a tale that will make you feel as though you have been transported back to the nineteenth century.”
L
AURIE
A
LICE
E
AKES
Winner of the National Readers Choice Award for Best Regency Novel
“
I love this book!!!
I want some magical thing to happen so I can be one of the characters, even Mrs. Bentley, so I can be involved! Somehow, we've got to get it into the BBC's hands! Linore sure did, somehow, maintain the same feel as the last book but wove in so much more. It's like an amusement park ride with lots of twists and turns.”
T
INA
D
EE
Christian Romance author
“I just had to tell you that
I LOVED every minute of this story.
I adore Ariana and just couldn't read enough of Mr. Mornay and his struggles right up until the last minute!!â¦I love how you totally immersed me into that time period and culture that I know absolutely nothing about. TOTALLY LOVED IT!!”
N
ORA
S
T
. L
AURENT
Book Club Co-ordinator for Lifeway BookStore
“
Grosvenor Square
is a FANTASTIC read.
I'm in the middle of Regency England and loving every minute of it!”
A
SHLEY
L
UDWIG
Inspirational Romance author
THE
COUNTRY
HOUSE
COURTSHIP
LINORE ROSE BURKARD
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Cover by Dugan Design Group, Bloomington, Minnesota
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
THE COUNTRY HOUSE COURTSHIP
Copyright © 2010 by Linore Rose Burkard
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burkard, Linore Rose
The country house courtship / Linore Rose Burkard.
p. cm. â (Regency inspirational romance series)
ISBN 978-0-7369-2799-4 (pbk.)
1. England â Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.U754C68 2010
813'.6âdc22
2009025795
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansâelectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherâexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 / RDM-SK / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my husband, Michael John Burkard, without whom I could never have pursued the dream of writing the way I have.
Special thanks to: Dee Hendrickson, for reading the manuscript and giving me suggestions and encouragement; Nancy Mayer, whose outstanding knowledge of the Regency is always helpful and reassuring (she, too, read the manuscript and gave me pointers). Debbie Lynne Costello and Melanie Dickerson, my daily goal-sharing writer friends who read parts of the manuscript and helped keep me accountable for my daily word counts! And Nick Harrison, my editor, who is always kind. I also want to thank Harvest House Publishers for another great book cover and their support. It's a pleasure to be a Harvest House author.
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Linore's two previous novels about the Forsythes areâ¦
Other fine fiction from Harvest House Publishers⦠Lori Wick's English Garden Series
A Short Glossary for The Country House Courtship
London, England
1818
M
r. Peter O'Brien felt surely he had a devil plaguing him, and the devil's name was Mr. Phillip Mornay. The paper in his hand should have made him happy. Indeed, it ought to have elicited nothing but joy. For after two years of holding a curacy that didn't pay enough to feed a church-mouse Mr. O'Brien was being recommended to a wealthy landowner whose vicarage had gone vacant.
The recommendation had come from the curate's previous naval commander, Colonel Sotheby, and the appointment was to a parish in Glendoverâa prestigious position to be sure. In addition to having a decent curate's salary at last, Mr. O'Brien would have claim to a large glebe, a generous and well-built house, and, in short, would see himself by way of having enough to begin a family. (If he found a wife to marry, first, of course. O'Brien could just hear the Colonel's good-natured laugh ring out at that remark.)
But to the curate's consternation, the landowner's name was
Mr. Phillip Mornay
, none other than the Paragon himself. And Mornay, Mr. O'Brien knew, would never grant him the living. To do so would go against everything he knew to be true of him. After all, no man who had once overstepped his bounds with Mr. Mornay's betrothed, as Mr. O'Brien unfortunately had, would now be presented to the vicarage on the man's lands.
Of all the rotten, devilish luck!
To have such a letter of recommendation was like gold in the fiercely competitive world of the church, where there were more poor curates looking for a rise in their situations than there were church parishes who could supply them.
Therefore, instead of the boon from heaven this letter ought to have been, Mr. O'Brien was struck with a gloomy assurance that Mornay would sooner accept a popinjay in cleric's clothing than himself. Even worse, his mother agreed with his appraisal as she perused the letter while she sat at her breakfast.
“You do not wish to renew old grievances,” she said. “Mr. Mornay is not, to my knowledge, a forgiving man. Shall you be put to the expense and trouble of travelling all the way to Middlesex, only to be turned down in the end? What can you possibly gain in it?”
Mr. O'Brien nodded; he saw her point. But he said, “I may have to do just that. The Colonel will never recommend me for another parish if he learns that I failed to apply myself to this opportunity.”
“Write to him,” replied his mama. “See if you can politely decline this honour, with the understanding that any other offer should be most welcome and appreciated!”
He doubted that any letter, no matter how “politely” written, would be able to manage his desire to avoid this meeting with Mornay, as well as secure the hope of a future recommendation. But he thought about it, put quill to paper, and sent the Colonel a reply. He asked (in the humblest terms he could manage) if the man might commend him for a living to be presented by some other landowner; indeed,
any
other landowner, any other gentleman in England than Phillip Mornay.