On the first night of their honeymoon, Thomas had given her the music box as a wedding gift, adding her name to the inscription, which he said had been his intention all along. They had dined with her only real friends in England so far, Jonathan and Natalie Drake, who had worked with her on a previous assignment in France. The talk had been wonderful between them all; Thomas had known Jonathan for many years. Natalie, expecting her own child—their first—one month after Madeleine’s was due to arrive, surprised Jonathan with the news that he was to become a father during a dessert of apple cobbler. Poor man. The look on his face at his wife’s casual confession had been matchless.
Life was indeed ironic. Her journey and experiences in Winter Garden had all happened so quickly and unexpectedly, and yet it seemed like a lifetime ago when she’d met Thomas. She had trouble remembering an existence before him.
Madeleine loved him so much, for all that he had done for her, for all that he was. He knew it, too, which was the most wonderful feeling of all. He had given her the dream of a lifetime, and the chance to be English—everything in the world that she had ever wanted.
Now she and her husband of two weeks stood together, embraced in each other’s arms, beside the hard wooden bench in front of the lake, watching the sun set across the water as they danced to the soft, melodic tune of Beethoven’s Sonata in C Minor.
About the Author
ADELE ASHWORTH
I’ve always loved to write, but after my first attempt at a novel (nine chapters of Plastic City, the story of underwater-dwelling orphans in the twenty-third century that I wrote in the sixth grade), I took some time to get my bachelor’s degree and to try my hand at other careers before I returned to my first passion: creative writing. After lots and lots of perseverance, hard work, and a bit of very good luck, My Darling Caroline went on to win the Romance Writers of America’s RITA® Award for Best First Book of 1998.
I live in Texas with my family, exploring history as I delve into the hearts of my characters. I love to hear from readers through my website at www.adeleashworth.com.
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Romances by Adele Ashworth
THE DUKE’S CAPTIVE
MY DARLING CAROLINE
A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION
THE DUKE’S INDISCRETION
DUKE OF SIN
WHEN IT’S PERFECT
SOMEONE IRRESISTIBLE
WINTER GARDEN
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
WINTER GARDEN. Copyright © 2000 by Adele Budnick. 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780062136404
Print Edition ISBN: 9780061905896
FIRST EDITION
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