Stephanie Laurens
The Elusive Bride
The second book in the Black Cobra Quartet series, 2010
Dear Diary,
I have waited for so long and will admit that I had fallen into the habit of imagining it would never happen, that now that it might have, I find myself rather cautious. Is this what my sisters meant when they said I would simply know? Certainly, my stomach and my nerves proved to be singularly sensitive to Major Hamilton’s nearness, but how reliable is that indicator?
Until I know more about Major Hamilton, I cannot know if he is “the one”-my “one,” the gentleman for me-so my most urgent need is to learn more about him, but from whom?
And I need to spend more time with him, too-but how?
I must devote myself to finding ways-I have only a few days left.
And after all these years of waiting for him to appear and coming all this way before meet-ing him, sailing away and leaving my “one” behind just doesn’t bear thinking about.
E.
Prologue
September 2, 1822
Road from Poona to Bombay
Ul-ul-ul-ul-ul!”
The battle cries of their pursuers faded momentarily as Emily Ensworth and her escort thundered around the next bend. Gaze locked on the beaten surface of the dirt road, she concentrated on urging her mare even faster-on fleeing down the mountain road as if her life depended on it.
She suspected it did.
They were halfway down the hill road from Poona, the monsoon capital for the upper echelons of the British governing Bombay. Bombay itself was still hours of hard riding ahead. About them, the usually serene beauty of the hills, with their majestic firs and cool crisp air, was again fractured by the ululations of the riders pursuing them.