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      “First off, you are an extremely desirable woman….”

      Lilly wanted to believe Deegan, wanted to very badly. Experience had convinced her otherwise. “I’m too tall.”

      “Just right.”

      “I’m not beautiful. In fact, only kind people would even term me a pretty woman.”

      “Then they are not merely kind, they are blind,” Deegan assured her. “You have a beauty that transcends time.”

      Lilly linked her arms around his neck. “I see you are one of the blind, then.”

      He chuckled. “Perhaps I am. Blinded by your loveliness.”

      “What is it they claim the Irish practice? Blarney?”

      “It isn’t a religion, it’s a gift,” he corrected, “and I haven’t uttered a bit of blarney to you, my lass. If things were different, I would court you in earnest.”

      If things were different. But they weren’t. She was still the strapping daughter of a city clerk and he was still a man in love with someone else….

      Praise for Beth Henderson’s earlier book

      RECKLESS

      “An elegantly told tale in a Gilded Age shower of mystery and romance. Enjoy.”

      —Mary Jo Putney

      “Packed with interesting characters and an intriguing plot, Reckless will give the readers hours of pure pleasure.”

      —Rendezvous

      “The romantic intrigue storyline wrapped inside a nineteenth-century historical brings a freshness to both sub-genres.”

      —Affaire de Coeur

      #595 CARPETBAGGER’S WIFE

      Deborah Hale

      #596 HIS LADY FAIR

      Margo Maguire

      #597 THE DOCTOR’S HOMECOMING

      Kate Bridges

      Wicked

      Beth Henderson

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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      Available from Harlequin Historicals and

       BETH HENDERSON

      Reckless #370

      Wicked #598

      Other Harlequin works include:

      Silhouette Special Edition

      New Year’s Eve #935

      Mr. Angel #1002

      Maternal Instincts #1338

      Yours Truly

      A Week til the Wedding

      Seducing Santa

      In Memory of the Olde Pages Mom Squad:

      Jean Kemper Kastner

      and

      Dorothy Lupp Murray

      We miss you, ladies.

      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

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

      Prologue

      San Francisco, January 1880

      The noise from the surrounding bars was muted from what it had been earlier in the evening. Outside, the fog had risen, inching its way up the streets from the bay, turning the byways into a netherworld where men disappeared easily, some with the help of a crimper, others out of natural orneriness or through the manipulations of a local devil’s minion.

      Wrapping a threadbare shawl around her shoulders, Belle Tauber leaned against the cool, clammy brickwork in the doorway of her crib, watching as her last john of the night stumbled away into the mist. It must be her lucky day, she thought ruefully. Not only had half the men Severn steered her way been quick to reach their pleasure and leave, but one had passed out before his trousers hit the floor, and another two had fallen into a stupor after a few halfhearted pokes, and been unceremoniously

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