The Lady and the Dragon

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To Angie and Crissy. Thank you for giving my first book a second chance.

You are wonderful to work with!

The Lady and the Dragon

Chapter One

1813

“What do you mean, blackmailing Manchester is out of the question? The old bastard doesn’t have a single vice?” Drexell Cain demanded, fists clenched as he leaned across the warped surface of the pub’s battered table.

Within the seedy inn’s common room, raucous laughter exploded and drunken singing abounded. The smell of old liquor lingered. His friend, Gregory Bryce, Viscount Monroe, dressed in a fine coat of Devonshire brown, looked as out of place rubbing elbows with the dockside scum as the Prince Regent would.

Greg shook his head. “Not one sin, my friend.”

“Damn!” Drex pounded a fist into the table. “I’d hoped he was following Melville’s lead and using the Admiralty’s money to speculate for his own profit.”

“Why should he? Manchester is nearly as wealthy as the Admiralty’s treasury.”

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