Historical author Janice Preston visits the blog to talk about the fourth and final book in the Governess Tales series!
I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to introduce you to Nathaniel and Grace—my hero and heroine from my December release, The Governess’s Secret Baby. This is the fourth and final book in The Governess Tales, a series about four friends who train as governesses at Madame Dubois’ School for Young Ladies and then head out into the world to earn their living. The series began with Georgie Lee’s The Cinderella Governess in September but, although all four books are linked, each book can be read as a standalone story.
Beautiful and impulsive, Grace Bertram is the last of the four friends to leave the Governess School, the only place she has ever truly belonged. Before she seeks a post as a governess, however, Grace has a promise to fulfil: the promise she made two years ago to track down the baby daughter she had to give up at birth, and to make sure she is happy and, above all, loved. For orphaned Grace—raised reluctantly by her aunt and uncle—knows what it is to grow up feeling unloved and unwanted.
Grace’s enquiries lead her to isolated Shiverstone Hall, a gothic mansion on the edge of the fells in the north of England. Everything about this place and its occupants intimidates Grace—a town girl through and through—but she will do anything to get to know her young daughter, Clara, and to ensure her happiness, even if it means working for Clara’s brusque guardian, the reclusive and scarred Nathaniel, Marquess of Ravenwell.
After he was badly injured in a fire Nathaniel withdrew from society to live at Shiverstone Hall, driven away by the horrified and pitying looks of friend and stranger alike. He shuns everyone, encouraging his fearsome reputation in order to keep the local villagers away. He tells himself he is content with only his servants, animals and hawks for company. When his sister and her husband are killed, however, Nathaniel finds himself appointed guardian to their adopted daughter, Clara. Reluctantly, he must accept he needs help to raise the two-year-old, even though the thought of a stranger living in his house fills him with dread.
Before long Nathaniel’s quiet existence is turned upside down as Grace strives to make Shiverstone Hall into a happy home for Clara. Nathaniel battles his growing feelings for the beautiful governess, believing no woman could ever love a monster like him, until Grace seems to look past his scars to the man beneath. But when he discovers that Grace is Clara’s mother, Nathaniel questions his place in this torn-apart family.
Could there be a Christmas happy-ever-after for this beauty and the beast?
Read The Governess’s Secret Baby to find out!
