SEDUCING MR SYKES OFFERS HUMOR AND ROMANCE

SEDUCING MR. SYKES

by Maggie Robinson

Genre: Historical Romance

Pub
Date: 6/20/17

GUEST POST BY MAGGIE ROBINSON:

Green fingers. That’s the British expression for “green thumb,” and it sounds so much more powerful when all your ten digits flex and help things grow. I have a modest cottage-style garden in front of our house which gives me pleasure far beyond its size, and I confess it has been the beneficiary of a few other people’s fingers other than my own.

The house was a new-build and half-heartedly landscaped before we bought it in May 2010. My middle daughter is a professional gardener, and she soon arrived with shrubs, perennials, and compost, ensuring a continuous wave of color as the seasons progressed. My husband dug deep holes for me every time I came back from the nursery with more enthusiasm than energy. Our lawn guy Mike even got in on the “fun,” and has helped me plant hundreds of daffodil, tulip, iris, and lily bulbs over the past seven years. He’s just as excited as I am to see that the chipmunks haven’t eaten everything each spring, and believe me, those chipmunks are determined little rascals, stealing birdseed from the feeders and chowing down plump, juicy strawberries in the raised bed the very second they are ripe.

During last summer’s drought, I watered every day without fail. It was very Zen, centering and relaxing as I held the hose and watched the iridescent hummingbirds dart among the drops. I spent an hour thinking—or not thinking—when I could have easily hooked up the sprinkler. But I was watching my garden grow, a great privilege. Stopping to smell the roses as it were, although I must say I’ve had rotten luck with the climbing roses we put in that just won’t climb.

Tristan, the hero of SEDUCING MR. SYKES, is an architect by trade but a gardener at heart. He’s created a memorial garden for his late brother, which has helped him heal from the loss. It’s in that garden that he discovers life can begin anew when he encounters his unwanted houseguest, Lady Sarah Marchmain. Brighter than any rose but prickly as its thorns, Sadie shows Tristan there’s more to her than he expects. Love can bloom from the smallest of seeds…as long as the chipmunks don’t get them first!

In Maggie Robinson’s sparkling new
series, the quaint village in Gloucestershire is where the wayward
sons and daughters of Great Britain’s finest families come for some
R&R—and good old-fashioned “rehab.” But sometimes they find
much more…

No one at Puddling-on-the-Wold ever
expected to see Sarah Marchmain enter through its doors. But after
the legendary Lady’s eleventh-hour rejection of the man she was
slated to marry, she was sent here to restore her reputation . . .
and change her mind. It amused Sadie that her father, a duke, would
use the last of his funds to lock her up in this fancy facility—she
couldn’t be happier to be away from her loathsome family and have
some time to herself. The last thing she needs is more romantic
distraction…

As a local baronet’s son, Tristan
Sykes is all too familiar with the spoiled, socialite residents of
the Puddling Rehabilitation Foundation—no matter how real their
problems may be. But all that changes when he encounters Sadie, a
brave and brazen beauty who wants nothing more than to escape the
life that’s been prescribed for her. If only Tristan could find a
way to convince the Puddling powers-that-be that Sadie is unfit for
release, he’d have a chance to explore the intense attraction that
simmers between them—and prove himself fit to make her his bride…

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SEDUCING MR. SYKES Excerpt:

Chapter 1

Puddling-on-the-Wold, September 1882

“It’s Lady Maribel all over again,” the grocer Frank Stanchfield

muttered to his wife, checking the lock to his back room. “How the girl

discovered the telegraph machine is a mystery.”

Except it wasn’t such a mystery, really. Lady Sarah Marchmain—

“Sadie” to her late mama and very few friends—had eyes, after all, and

there it was behind an open alley window, gleaming on a worn oak desk.

She had climbed in, her tartan trousers very convenient for hoisting

oneself into the building. After being caught trying to send a message to

who knows who, she was now unrepentantly inspecting the jars of candy

on the shop counter.

She might try to steal some of it, if only the shopkeepers would stop

hovering over her.

“Bite your tongue!” Mrs. Stanchfield whispered, looking over

nervously at Sadie. Apparently no one wanted another Lady Maribel de

Winter in Puddling. The first had been bad enough. Sadie had heard of

her in snatches from the villagers, and the woman’s portrait hung in the

parish hall. Her wicked reputation had outlived her, even if her decades

of good works once she married had mitigated some of it. She had been

a wild young thing who would have made Napoleon quake in his boots.

Or take her to bed. Lady Maribel had been, according to gossip,

irresistible to men. Fortunately her husband, a local baronet called Sir

Colin Sykes, had taken her in hand as best he could once they were married.

Sadie was determined never to be taken in hand.

Puddling was known as a famous reputation-restorer, a place to

rusticate and recalibrate. Prominent British families had sent their difficult

relatives here for almost eighty years. Lady Maribel was among the first

to be gently incarcerated within its limits in 1807, according to the elderly

vicar’s wife, who seemed to know everything about everyone dating back

to William the Conqueror.

Now it was Sadie’s turn to be gently incarcerated, and she didn’t

like it one bit.

The village had a spotless reputation. It was a last resort before a

harsher hospital, or worse, killing one’s own offspring. Or parent. Lady

Sarah Marchmain had angered her father so thoroughly that they’d come

to blows. When the Duke of Islesford dropped her off, he had been

sporting a significant black eye.

Well-deserved, in her opinion.

Sadie’s own eyes were unbruised and light green, the color of beryl,

or so her numerous suitors had said. Occasionally they threw in jade or

jasper—it was all so much nonsense. Right now she was examining the

penny candy in a glass jar, lots of shiny, jewel-like drops that looked so

very tempting. Sweet, edible rubies and citrine, emeralds and onyx. Frank

Stanchfield hustled over to the counter and screwed the lid on tighter.

She licked her lips. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a penny to her name.

She was entirely dependent on her housekeeper Mrs. Grace to dole out

a pitiful allowance every Friday, and Friday was millions of days away.

Sadie had spent the last of her money on a cinnamon bun earlier and had

reveled in every bite.

Her father’s draconian restrictions were designed to sting. Or so he

thought. Sadie didn’t really mind being impoverished and hungry in

Puddling-on-the-Wold. It meant she was not about to be auctioned off to

Lord Roderick Charlton, or any other idiot her idiot father owed money to.

The Duke of Islesford’s taste in men and luck at cards was, to put it

bluntly, execrable.

So far Sadie had overstayed her visit by one week. Originally consigned

to her cottage for twenty-eight days, she had somehow not managed to be

“cured” in that time.

Rehabilitated.

Restored.

Brought to reason.

Knuckle under was more like it. She was not getting married.

In fact, she’d like to stay in Puddling forever. It was very restful. Quiet.

The little lending library was surprisingly well stocked, and she’d gotten

a lot of reading done between lectures from the prosy ancient vicar who

instructed her daily. She also helped Mrs. Grace keep the cottage up to a

ducal daughter’s snuff.

Despite the fact that Sadie had no interest in becoming a wife, she

was remarkably domestic. It came of hanging about the kitchens of

Marchmain Castle, she supposed. The servants had been her only friends

when she was a little girl and she’d been eager to help them.

All that had changed after she was presented to the queen at seventeen,

wearing those ridiculous hoops and feathers that threatened to put out

someone’s eye. Suddenly, Sadie became a commodity, a bargaining chip to

improve her father’s ailing finances. A surprising number of gentlemen—

if you could call them that, since most men were absolute, avaricious,

thoughtless pigs—were interested in acquiring a tall, redheaded, blueblooded,

sharp-tongued and two-fisted duke’s daughter as wife. For the

past four years, she’d avoided them with alacrity, aplomb, and those

aforementioned fists.

Needless to say, her reputation was cemented in ruination.

It amused Sadie that her father was using the last of his funds to lock

her away here in this very expensive Puddling prison, hoping that she

would change her mind, acquiesce and marry the one man who remained

steadfastly interested.

Not bloody likely.

She touched the glass jar with longing.

“What may we help you with, Lady Sarah?”

The poor grocer sounded scared to death. His wife hid behind him.

Sadie batted her lashes. Sometimes this feminine trick worked, although

these Puddling people seemed remarkably impervious to charm.

They were hardened souls, harboring the odd, uncooperative, and

unwanted scions of society for a hefty fee, believing that being cruel to be

kind was the only way.

“Do forgive my transgression, Mr. Stanchfield. I so longed to

communicate with my old governess, Miss Mackenzie. Miss Mac, as I

so affectionately call her. I found a book on telegraphy in the library and

wondered if I had any aptitude for it,” she lied. Science in all its forms

confounded her. In truth, she’d read nothing but Gothic romances since

her arrival, very much enjoying the fraying sixty-year-old books written

by an anonymous baroness.

Moreover, Sadie’s old governess had been dead for six years and had

been an absolute Tartar in life. There had been little affection on her part,

Sadie thought ruefully. The woman was at this moment no doubt giving

the devil a lesson on evil and grading him harshly.

“You know that’s forbidden, miss. No telegrams, no letters. Perhaps

when you are r-r-released, you may visit with the lady. A r-reason for your

good behavior, what?”

Goodness, she was causing the poor fellow to stutter. She stilled her

lashes.

“Ah.” Sadie gave a dramatic sigh. “But I just can’t seem to get the hang

of it. Being Puddling-perfect, that is. Every time I get close, something

seems to happen.”

Like stealing Ham Ross’s wheelbarrow full of pumpkins. It had been

very difficult to push her loot uphill, and so many of the bloody orange

things chose to roll out and smash along the road.

Or turning up in church in her tartan trousers...her stolen tartan trousers.

Some poor Puddlingite was foolish enough to hang them on a clothesline

to tempt her. After some tailoring—Sadie was handy with a needle—they

fit her slender waist and long legs as if they were made for her.

Her father had always wanted a son. Instead her horrible cousin

George would be the next duke, and Sadie would lose the only home—

well, castle—she’d ever known.

It wasn’t fair. She sighed again.

“Here, now, Lady Sarah. I don’t suppose I’ll miss a few boiled

sweets.” Mr. Stanchfield relented and unscrewed the jar, his wife looking

disapproving behind him. He filled a paper twist with not nearly enough,

and passed them to her.

Sadie saw her opportunity for well-deserved drama. Any chance to

appear happily unhinged must be seized with two hands, so she might

stay here in Puddling just a little longer. Dropping to the floor on her

tartan-covered knees, she howled.

She had been practicing howling at night once her housekeeper Mrs.

Grace went home. Her neighbors were under the impression a stray dog

was in heat in the village, perhaps even a pack of them.

“Oh! You are too good to me! I shall remember this always!”

She snuffled and snorted, slipping a red candy into her mouth. Red

always tasted best.

“A polite thank you would do just as well.”

The voice was chilly. Sadie looked up from her self-inflicted chestpounding

and the candy fell from her open mouth.

Good heavens. She had never seen this man before in all the walking

she was made to do up and down the hills for her daily exercise. Where

had he been hiding? He was beautiful.

No, not beautiful exactly. His haughty expression was too harsh for

beauty. Compelling, perhaps. Arresting.

But, she reminded herself, he was a man, and therefore wanting.

Lacking. Probably annoying. Not probably—certainly. Lady Sarah

Jane Marchmain was twenty-one years old and had more than enough

experience with men in her short lifetime to know the truth.

The man reached a gloveless hand to her to help her up, but it didn’t

look quite clean. Something green was under his fingernails—paint? Plant

material? Sadie made a leap of faith and gripped it anyway, crunching her

candy underfoot when he lifted her to her full height.

He was still taller than she was.

Not lacking there. Not lacking physically anywhere that she could see.

His hair was brown, curly and unruly, his eyebrows darker and

formidable. His nose was strong and straight, his lips full, his face bronzed

from the sun. His eyes—oh, his eyes. Blue was an inadequate adjective.

Cerulean? Sapphire? Aquamarine? She’d have to consult a thesaurus.

But they weren’t kind.

She found herself curtseying, her hand still firmly in his.

“Thank you, sir, for coming to my rescue.” She fluttered her

eyelashes again.

“You were in no danger on the floor. Mrs. Stanchfield sweeps it thrice

a day. One could eat off it, it’s so immaculate.” He dropped Sadie’s hand

and kicked the crushed candy aside.

The grocer’s wife pinked. “Thank you, Mr. Sykes.”

Sykes. That was the name of the family the infamous Lady Maribel

married into. Interesting.

“I only speak the truth, madam.”

Sadie considered whether she should fall to the floor again. It would be

fun to gauge this Mr. Sykes’s strength if she pretended to swoon. Would

he pick her up and hold her to his manly chest? Whisper assurances in her

ear? Smooth loose tendrils of hair behind her pins?

But perhaps he’d just leave her there to rot. He wasn’t even looking

at her anymore.

Sadie was used to being looked at. For one thing, she was hard to miss.

At nearly six feet, she towered over most men. Her flaming hair was

another beacon, her skin pearlescent, her ample bosom startling on such

a slender frame.

She had been chased by men mercilessly, even after she had made it

crystal clear she had no interest. These past years had tested her wits and

firmed her resolve. She was mistress of her own heart, body, and mind,

and determined to remain so.

Mr. Sykes probably knew that—apparently everyone in Puddling had

received a dossier on her. She’d come across a grease-stained one at the

bakeshop under a tray of Bakewell tarts, and had tucked it into her pocket

for quiet perusal, along with one delicious raspberry pastry. Theft was

apparently in her blood.

It had been most informative. The dossier, not the tart. Sadie had been

gleeful reading an account of her past recalcitrance. She rather admired

the clever ways she’d gone about subverting her father’s plans for her—

she’d forgotten half of them.

It had meant, however, that she had to exercise creativity in Puddling

and not repeat her previous pranks. No sheep in the dining room. No

bladder filled with beet juice tossed out the window. No punching

fiancés or fathers.

There was only the one father, but Sadie had endured several fiancés.

The latest, Lord Roderick Charlton, was getting impatient. He’d given her

father quite a lot of money to secure her hand. To be fair, he’d tried to woo

Sadie with credible effort.

There wasn’t anything really wrong with Roderick, she supposed. But

there wasn’t anything right about him either.

If Sadie could just resist the pressure to marry, she’d come into a

substantial fortune when she turned twenty-five. She wouldn’t have to

turn it over to some man, and her father wouldn’t be able to touch it. She

could live her life just as she liked. She might even buy herself a small

castle, if one could be found. One that wouldn’t fall down around her

ears. One that had working fireplaces and no rats.

However—and this was a huge however—the Duke of Islesford was

threatening to have her declared incompetent, seize her funds, and lock

her away in a most unpleasant private hospital. Sadie did not think it was

an idle threat, and to some, it might look as if she deserved to be there.

She was much too old now for the tricks she’d played, and four

years was a very, very long time to stall. Sadie was beginning to realize

she hadn’t done herself any favors with the pumpkins or the trousers

or the howling.

But she couldn’t succumb—she just couldn’t. No matter how many

times Mr. Fitzmartin, the elderly vicar, reminded her of a proper woman’s

place—as helper to her husband, silent in church, subordinate, obedient—

she felt her fingers close into a fist.

Maggie Robinson didn’t know she
wanted to write until she woke up in the middle of the night once
really annoyed with her husband. Instead of smothering him with a
pillow, she decided to get up and write—to create the perfect
man—at least on a computer screen. Only to discover that fictional
males can be just as resistant to direction as her husband. The
upside is that she’s finally using her English degree and is still
married to her original, imperfect hero. Since she’s imperfect,
too, that makes them a perfect match. Until her midnight keyboarding,
she had been a teacher, librarian, newspaper reporter, administrative
assistant to two non-profits, community volunteer, and mother of four
in seven different states. Now Maggie can call herself a romance
writer in Maine. There’s nothing she likes better than writing
about people who make mistakes, but don’t let the mistakes make
them.

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