Seduced by the Baron (The Fairy Tales of New York Book 4)
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Authors: Amy Andrews
A Fairy Tales of New York Romance
Amy Andrews
Seduced by the Baron
©Copyright 2015 Amy Andrews
Kindle Edition
The Tule Publishing Group, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-942240-81-5
The Fairy Tales of New York series
Book 1:
Pursued by the Rogue
by Kelly Hunter
Book 2:
Tempting the Knight
by Heidi Rice
Book 3:
Taming the Beast
by Lucy King
Book 4:
Seduced by the Baron
by Amy Andrews
To Kelly, Heidi, and Lucy. It’s been a pleasure and an honour.
Excerpt from Pursued by the Rogue
The Fairy Tales of New York Series
Writing is an isolated business so when you get the opportunity to be involved in a team effort with writers you admire and adore then you grab that with both hands. Big hugs and kisses to Kelly Hunter, Heidi Rice and Lucy King who made this such a fun ride.
Many thanks to Tule who welcomed our books with open arms and gave us a platform to write them the way we wanted.
And extra special thanks to two writer peeps who helped this Aussie write a book set in America. To Tessa Bailey for all my Brooklyn information. She was a font of knowledge and shared it so freely and I owe her a Guinness. And to Wendy Marcus who read through the manuscript with the eyes of a New Yorker flagging where I’d gotten things wrong and correcting all my English/Aussie-isms. I owe her a vat of whatever she’s drinking. Both these women helped me ground the book in the New York setting and for that I will be forever in their debt.
‡
Ten years ago, St. John the Apostle Academy, Upstate New York.
T
o say Faith
Sullivan was shitting herself was putting it mildly. Her head ached, her hands were trembling and her gut was all hot and twisted.
Tyrone – Ty – wasn’t making it any better. Her brother’s frequent whispered assurances that everything was going to be okay made her want to throw up.
It
wasn’t
going to be okay.
Dawn, who was at St. J’s on a
scholarship,
had been suspended, Zelda had been
expelled,
and God alone knew what disciplinary measures were currently being meted out to Mercy by a Mother Superior who was wholly unacquainted with the concept of
mercy
.
Faith would have traded her precious annual membership to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to make it okay.
Because the truth was, her friends were all being punished because of something
she’d
done. They were being systematically broken down, broken
up,
and it was all
her
fault.
What on earth had possessed her to steal those two bottles of altar wine she had
no
idea. It wasn’t like booze was a mystery to her – she’d grown up in her parents’ pub in Brooklyn for crying out loud. But it’d been two years since her mom had died and she’d wanted to say thank you to her friends for being there for her at the most horrendous time in her life.
She’d only known them since her mother’s death, since her father had sent her to St. J’s away from their all-male household for some female compassion. She hadn’t found it with the nuns but she’d gotten lucky with her roomies.
Dawn and Mercedes had taken her under their wing. She’d been instantly drawn to super-smart Dawn who was gangly and awkward and self-conscious about her looks and she’d had so much in common with Mercy who’d grown up on a vineyard at the same time Faith had been growing up in a pub. And then a year later Zel had joined them and completed their circle. Zel with her long blonde hair and her Central Park address who had lost
both
parents and was hard and fearless and so very broken. So very
screw-you, -world.
Why was a…little
private
party such a big deal?
It wasn’t like she’d stolen the last two bottles for Pete’s sake – there were crates of the stuff sitting in the kitchen. It had just been a bit of harmless fun. A celebration of finally feeling whole again after two long, hard years. But Faith hadn’t counted on the stealth of Sister Ignatius.
Iggy had the nose of bloodhound. Able to sniff out all kinds of contraband, from Mercy’s latest Cosmo with the enticing sealed section, to Dawn’s racy romance novels to Zel’s hot pink nail polish and now, apparently, booze.
Faith should have known Iggy would be the one to find them giggling like loons, high on the sickly sweet liquid that Mercy had assured them no self-respecting vintner would ever call wine.
The ancient grandfather clock that sat under the majestic stained glass window at the end of the vaulted hallway chimed eleven. Alone with just Ty in the hallway now, Faith felt every bong like a bullet to her chest.
Nausea rolled through her gut and her hands trembled some more as she absently watched the play of light streaming from the stained glass window, bathing the hideous tartan of her uniform in splotches of red and blue.
Like…tears from heaven.
A bubble of hysteria rose in her throat and she swallowed it. Tears from heaven? She felt a fraud even thinking it. Faith didn’t know whether she believed in God anymore. Taking her mother two years ago had really messed with that. And then there was the accident that had killed Zel’s parents…
If there really was a God up there he was doing a lousy job.
She shut her eyes and waited for the bolt of lightning to come arcing down through the window for such sacrilegious thoughts from a first generation American of good Irish Catholic stock. If it got her out of having to face the music, it’d be worth it. She opened her eyes seconds later when it was clear that no inclement weather was going to come to her rescue.
And then the door to the Mother Superior’s office opened.
Faith stood as a crying Mercedes exited with her grim-faced parents.
Oh no.
What had they done to Mercy?
She sensed Ty standing too as her pulse thrummed through her ears. “Mercy?”
Her friend ran to her and hugged her hard and Faith buried her face in the fan of Mercedes long, gently wavy, dark hair. Hair she’d envied in the way only those inflicted with unruly curls could.
“They’re pulling me out,” Mercy sobbed.
Faith frowned.
They’re?
“That’s enough, Mercedes!” Mrs. Hernandez’s thick Spanish accent could have frosted grapes on the vine. Mercy’s parents had always been strict but this? “It’s time to come home.”
Mercy was pulled unceremoniously away. Faith turned to watch her friend being dragged from her life, Mercy’s sobs echoing down the hallway as she disappeared from sight.
Faith felt sick as guilt rode her hard. Three of her friends had been punished for something
she’d
done.
Sister Ignatius was standing there when Faith finally turned around. “Mr. Sullivan?” She addressed Ty in that irritatingly serene way of hers. “Faith.” She nodded at Faith with a little less serenity. “Mother Superior will see you now.”
Ty squeezed her hand as they followed the black clad figure. “It’s going to be all right,” he murmured. “Just tell the truth and it’ll be fine.”
Faith squeezed back. Her father sending Ty in his stead had been a wise decision. Ty, a third year law student, was level-headed and logical, exactly what was needed, and it felt good to have his support. But there was no way she could tell the truth and she knew Ty wouldn’t understand.
Her brother saw everything in black and white, it was in his makeup. Comprehending the loyalties of teenage girls not so much. Dawn, Zel and Mercy had been there for her when she’d most needed support. Even today they’d been there, covering for her despite God knew what pressure and resultant heinous punishments.
And they’d made a pact.
They’d
all
agreed. It didn’t matter who had taken the wine. They were all guilty of drinking it. So it was all for one and one for all.
Screw them.
That’s what Zelda had said after Sister Ignatius had left them to think over her announcement that unless the thief was found they’d all be punished. Gestapo tactics she’d railed in her typically dramatic fashion. Dawn and Mercy had agreed. Faith had tried to talk them out of it. Had been prepared to fall on her sword but the other three were having none of it.
All for one and one for all.
And she’d do anything for her three brave musketeers.
They entered the office and the door shut behind them with a clang.
Like a prison cell
. Weakness slammed into Faith’s legs but she refused to crumple.
Screw them.
The Mother Superior stood and offered her hand to Ty. Faith vaguely took in the introductions, her heart beating so loud in her ears it was roaring like a tornado, then she was sitting, facing down the Mother Superior who looked at her as emotionlessly today as she had the day Faith had first arrived – two weeks after her mother’s death.
It was darker, gloomier in the office than the hallway. The two small arched windows embedded into the thick stone behind the Mother Superior threw little light into the large room with its stone walls and stone floor.
And stone heart.
There should be candles, Faith thought absently. It was that kind of room.
“Who took the wine, Faith?”
Faith startled at the direct salvo. She lowered her gaze to her lap where her hands sat clasped together in a sweaty heap.
No comment
.
“Faith,” Ty prompted, clearly unhappy with her sudden muteness. She could hear the frown in his voice.
No comment
.
“Faith,” the Mother Superior tried again. “Look at me.”
Faith found herself following orders despite her resentment. “Altar wine is the blood of Christ. It is sacrosanct. What you were a party to last night is a grave sin.”