www.millsandboon.co.uk

       Nicola Cornick’s novels have received acclaim the world over

      “Cornick is first-class, Queen of her game.”

       —Romance Junkies

      “A rising star of the Regency arena.”

       —Publishers Weekly

       Praise for THE SCANDALOUS WOMEN OF THE TON series

      “A riveting read.”

       —New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney on Whisper of Scandal

      “One of the finest voices in historical romance.”

       —SingleTitles.com

      “Ethan Ryder (is) a bad boy to die for! A memorable story

       of intense emotions, scandals, trust, betrayal and all- encompassing love. A fresh and engrossing tale.” —Romantic Times on One Wicked Sin

      “Historical Romance at its very best is

       written by Nicola Cornick.” —Mary Gramlich, The Reading Reviewer

       Acclaim for Nicola’s previous books

      “Witty banter, lively action, and sizzling passion.”

       —Library Journal on Undoing of a Lady

      “RITA^® Award-nominated Cornick deftly steeps her latest intriguingly complex Regency historical in a beguiling blend of danger and desire.” —Booklist on Unmasked

      Author Note

      Like the other books in this trilogy, Mistress by Midnight is inspired by real-life events. In this case, the London Beer Flood of 1814, when a vat on top of the brewery in Tottenham Court Road exploded, flooding the nearby streets with beer and claiming several lives. One of those was a man who died of alcohol poisoning from drinking too much of the flood.

      Mistress by Midnight tells Merryn’s story. The younger sister of celebrated society hostess Lady Joanna Grant, Merryn is a bluestocking whose scholarly activities hide a secret life working for the private investigator Tom Bradshaw. Merryn also has a vendetta to pursue against Garrick, the new Duke of Farne, the man responsible for her brother’s death. When the Beer Flood traps Merryn and Garrick together and they are in fear of their lives, a new sort of connection develops from their bond of hatred—this time a bond of wild passion. But will it outlive the terror of the flood?

      I have adored writing these three books in the Scandalous Women of the Ton series and there is much more background history and exciting detail to explore on my website at www.nicolacornick.co.uk. Look out for more in the Scandalous Women of the Ton series. Coming soon!

      “Ah Love! Could you and I with fate conspire

       To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire Would not we shatter it to bits—and then Re-mould it nearer to the heart’s desire!”

      The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, verse 108, translated by Edward Fitzgerald

      For my mother, Sylvia

       CHAPTER ONE

       London, November 1814

      “WE WERE NOT expecting you, your grace,” Pointer, the butler, said.

      Garrick Northesk, Duke of Farne, paused in the act of loosening his greatcoat. The raindrops on the shoulders glittered in the dim candlelight of the hall like dusty diamonds before sliding down to splash on the tiled floor.

      “Lovely to see you again, too, Pointer,” he said.

      The butler’s expression did not waver. Evidently, Garrick thought, his late father had not been given to jokes with the servants. Of course he had not. The eighteenth Duke had been famed for many things but a sense of humor was not one of them.

      “We have had no time to prepare your chamber, your grace,” Pointer continued, “nor is there any food in the house. I only received your message a few hours ago and there was no time to engage any staff.” He gestured at the shrouded furniture and grimy mirrors. “The house has been closed. We have not had the opportunity to clean.”

      That was manifestly obvious. Long cobwebs trailed from the chandelier in the center of the vast hall. The dust and grit of the London streets crunched beneath Garrick’s boots as he crossed the floor. The ghostly covers on all the statuaries and the veiled furnishings only added to the sense of Gothic mystery. A mere two candles burned in the sconces, throwing long shadows. And it was cold, very cold. Garrick wished he had kept his coat on.

      “I don’t require anything tonight, thank you,” he said. “Only a candle to light me to my bed and some hot water.”

      “You have no luggage, your grace?” Pointer’s long nose, so appropriate to his name, twitched with disapproval.

      “It follows,” Garrick said briefly. No carriage could have kept up with his hell-for-leather ride.

      “And your valet?”

      “Gage follows, too.”

      Garrick took a candle from the sconce, leaving Pointer fluttering around in the dark hall like a monstrous moth. He was tired, exhausted really, the fatigue bone-deep, his limbs aching from riding hard all day. He had buried his father only five days before in the family mausoleum at Farnecourt on the west coast of Ireland. Trust the old devil to choose to be buried on his Irish estates with all pomp and circumstance and maximum inconvenience to his family. The late Duke had never cared a fig for Farnecourt in his lifetime, deploring the beautiful Irish countryside as barbarous and the people as heathens. It was no wonder that few people other than his closest family had turned out for the funeral and those who did had probably only come so that they could be sure the old man really was dead. Well, the vault was sealed now and not even the eighteenth Duke could come back from beyond the grave.

      He was Duke of Farne now, with no son to follow him.

      Nor would there ever be one.

      His first marriage had been disaster enough. He had no inclination to try again.

      Garrick paused halfway up the shallow staircase that led to the first floor. The intricately inlaid parquet steps were dull with dirt. The elegant curls and swirls of the iron banisters were festooned with thick white cobwebs. The house was like a tomb. How appropriate.

      His father, the eighteenth Duke, had been furious to be dying in such an untimely fashion, with half his life’s ambitions still unfulfilled. He had railed against his mortal illness, a reaction that had in all probability carried him off all the quicker. So now Garrick was master of this mausoleum and twenty-six other houses in ten counties, plus an obscenely large fortune. It was more than one man had any right to possess.

      Out of habit rather than choice, Garrick pushed open the door of the sixth bedchamber on the left-hand side down an endless corridor that stretched away into darkness. On the rare occasions that he had stayed at his father’s house