Waking Up With the Duke (31 page)

B
enjamin Franklin is credited with creating the first catheter, and its use had increased by the Victorian era. However, physicians still didn’t know about the importance of sterilization. So a device that gave Walfort more freedom would eventually lead to his demise, by introducing bacteria into his system. Today we would know his illness was septicemia, but his doctors would have only known he had a deadly fever.

I wish to acknowledge Suzanne Welsh, R.N., for helping me understand how Walfort might have died, the symptoms he would have exhibited, what the physicians might have deduced, and how quickly he would have declined. Any misrepresentations of the medical aspects of this story are mine. In addition, I suspect, in reality he would have been delirious with fever. I hope, dear reader, you will forgive me for keeping him lucid, but he had much to account for and strive to make right.

I have long been fascinated by stories of women discovering that their husbands have another family they knew nothing about, and that fascination served as the basis for this story. At his core, Walfort was not a bad man. He was simply terribly flawed. I hope you’re as happy as I am that Jayne and Ainsley found each other.

About the Author

LORRAINE HEATH
wrote her first story at seven, and it involved a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid. She has since moved on to writing about sexy cowboys and dashing English lords (and sometimes, cleverly, in the same book!).
Publishers Weekly
says she is a “master of her craft.” She is indeed, and along with being a
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestseller, she has won the RITA® Award,
Romantic Times
Reviewer’s Choice Award, and a Career Achievement Award. Please visit her website at www.lorraineheath.com.

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Romances by Lorraine Heath

Waking Up with the Duke

Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman

Passions of a Wicked Earl

Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel

Surrender to the Devil

Between the Devil and Desire

In Bed with the Devil

Just Wicked Enough

A Duke of Her Own

Promise Me Forever

A Matter of Temptation

As an Earl Desires

An Invitation to Seduction

Love with a Scandalous Lord

To Marry an Heiress

The Outlaw and the Lady

Never Marry a Cowboy

Never Love a Cowboy

A Rogue in Texas

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WAKING UP WITH THE DUKE
. Copyright © 2011 by Jan Nowasky. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 e-books.

EPub Edition JULY 2011 ISBN: 9780062094841

FIRST EDITION

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