Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London, SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Copyright © Annie Darling 2016

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover illustration © Carrie May

Annie Darling asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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.

Source ISBN: 9780008173111

Ebook Edition © April 2016 ISBN: 9780008173128

Version 2016-04-26

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 7

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 10

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 14

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 15

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 16

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Ravished by the Rake

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

We Hope You Enjoyed Annie’s Book!

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

Prologue

From the London Gazette

OBITUARY

Lavinia Thorndyke OBE, April 1, 1930 to February 14, 2015

Bookseller, mentor and tireless champion of literature, Lavinia Thorndyke has died aged 84.

Lavinia Rosamund Melisande Thorndyke was born on 1 April 1930, the youngest child and only daughter of Sebastian Marjoribanks, the third Lord Drysdale and his wife Agatha, daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Cavanagh.

Lavinia’s eldest brother, Percy, was killed fighting for the Loyalists in Spain in 1937. Twins, Edgar and Tom, both served with the RAF and died within a week of each other during the Battle of Britain. Lord Drysdale died in 1947 and his title and family estate in North Yorkshire passed to a cousin.

Lavinia and her mother made a home for themselves in Bloomsbury, just around the corner from Bookends, the shop gifted to Agatha on her twenty-first birthday in 1912 by her parents in the hope that it would prove a distraction from her work with the Suffragette movement.

In a column she wrote for The Bookseller in 1963, Lavinia recalled: ‘My mother and I found solace among the shelves. To compensate for our lack of a family, we were happy to be adopted by the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice, the Mortmains in I Capture the Castle, the Marches in Little Women, the Pockets in Great Expectations. We found what we were searching for in the pages of our favourite books.’

Lavinia was educated at Camden School for Girls, then took up a degree in Philosophy at Oxford University where she met Peregrine Thorndyke, third and youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Maltby.

They were married at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden on 17 May 1952 and started wedded life in the flat above Bookends. On the death of Lavinia’s mother Agatha in 1963, the Thorndykes moved into her house in Bloomsbury Square and many a young writer was mentored, nurtured and nourished around their kitchen table.

Lavinia was awarded an OBE in 1982 for her services to bookselling.

Peregrine died in 2010 after a short battle with cancer.

Lavinia remained a familiar sight in Bloomsbury cycling from her home to Bookends. A week ago, after a recent collision with another cyclist resulting in nothing more than scrapes and bruises, Lavinia died suddenly at her home.

She is survived by her only daughter, Mariana, Contessa di Reggio d’Este, and her grandson, Sebastian Castillo Thorndyke, a digital entrepreneur.

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