Would the ton mourn him more or less than Lady Townsend’s rabbit? Hard to say. He allowed himself to imagine, as an amusement, his own funeral following hot on the trail of this one, perhaps in this same garden for convenience. Could he leave yet? He liked both Townsend and his wife Jane very much, but if he had to withstand another moment of their cloying affection for one another at this damned rabbit funeral, he might well scale the tree he stood beside and fling himself from its highest bough. He stifled a sigh and shifted his weight to his other foot. Reckless, dashing, you-mustn’t-marry-him Marlow was standing amongst all the others with his head bowed in respect. He was here mourning the rabbit too in this unforeseen new existence. He shook his head, then disguised the movement by jerking his long hair out of his eyes. What had come of the world? What had come of him and his friends’ raucous bachelorhoods? Why were all of them here in Townsend’s back garden paying tribute to a dead rabbit who, incidentally, had been consumed by Lady Townsend’s pet python? Lofty, cynical, stick-up-his-arse Townsend, now lovingly eulogizing Bouncer the rabbit before dozens of guests because his wife had cared for the creature as a pet. This was the same Townsend who used to spank the courtesans at Pearl’s for looking at him the wrong way. Lord Townsend, formerly rumored to be heartless. Lord Townsend, the driest of dry at sarcasm. A fully serious eulogy, spoken with great tenderness and not a hint of dry sarcasm. At the garden’s edge, beside a small, white memorial, his friend the Marquess of Townsend delivered a eulogy for his wife’s deceased pet rabbit.

George Bernard, most commonly known as The Honorable Viscount Marlow, leaned against a tree in his friend’s town house garden, surveying the crowd of mourners from his vantage point near the back. That should be the end of their provocative love affair, but instead, it’s the beginning of a journey fraught with deceit and danger, and passionate disciplinary sessions for a young woman Marlow fears he’ll never deserve… Whispered promises and a secret kiss lead to a marriage proposal, one her protective parents dismiss out of hand.

She’s kind, polite, obedient, and well-respected-in short, everything he’ll never be.

He’s earned the nickname “Mad Marlow” through years of determined vice, but now he’s in love with his friend’s sister, the glitteringly pure Lady Rosalind. The Viscount Marlow’s got a reputation for wildness and wicked behavior.

Burn for You by Annabel Joseph